90 



TAHAN EXPEDITION. 



Vegetation. — As soon as we reached the higher slopes the 

 bamboos grew rapidly scarcer until they were only to be found in 

 sheltered hollows and eventually ceased altogether. Rattans continued 

 to trouble us considerably longer, but on the highest part of the range, 

 as we began to approach the " Barrier Mountain," they, too, ceased to 

 appear, except in the deep saddles between lofty peaks. The trees here 

 and for at least a day and a half's journey further down were covered 

 with a thick layer of moss which was always saturated with moisture 

 and in some places the ground was covered with an equally thick 

 mossy carpet. 



The trees, too, on almost every j>eak and on the ridge, were grown 

 upon by what the Malays called " Rambut hantu " (lit. Devil's hair) 

 as well as by an extraordinary number of lichens, orchids and " monkey 

 cups" (Priok kra)*; the latter varying greatly in colour and size, the 

 cups of the smallest variety, measuring less than a quarter of an inch 

 across. Besides these, upon the higher peaks, there were the firs f 

 and tamerisks, a quantity of what the Malays called " resam *J great 

 whorl-like leaves growing upon stems often six or eight feet long, and 

 none too easy to force one's way through and low bushes of the 

 arbutus type. 



* Pitcher plants (Xepenthe*. spp.), very abundant at similar elevations 

 throughout the Peninsula. — H. C. E. 



f Tfacrydium and Dammara, spp. — H. C. E. 



J Lrirp-e ferns, Dipieris horsjieldii and Gleichen ia pectinata. — II. C. E. 



F.M.S. GOVERNMENT PRE SS. 



