IN SUMATRA. 



357 



of the Qiiiidramana to be met witli in this region, the Orang- 

 utan not being found so far in the south, 



Continumg my jcmrney, sktrtinj^ round an elbow of Mt- 

 Tengamus, I descended on thf^ villngc of Terratas, looking 

 domi on the Bay of Semangka with its mountainous shores, 

 and on the peaked summit of the island of Tabnang standing 

 out of the motionless water. In one of the littJe ravines I 

 gathered specimens of a singular climbing shrub {La^enarta) 

 with inimeuse semi-globular fruits over two feet seven inches 

 in circumleronce. Though in Bvze so large they are quite 

 light, their seeds being small and winged with a broad 

 glancing raembnaiCj thinner than the finest white tissue paper, 

 which wrves as a lloat to disseminate them. 



Two days later I made the ascent of the mountain, which, 

 owing to its fissured and chasmed character, was tedious 

 and difficult. Passing tli rough a dense belt of wild bananas 

 and Zingiberiaceous plants, then a zone of disagreeable rathm- 

 palms, we broke into the deep, dark virgin forest, beneath 

 \vho8e shade little or nothing was to be found growing, save 

 here and there an arum with a curious serp^nt-head-like 

 spathe, or in bright scarlet fnnt j but at 3000 feet I was 

 gladdened by entering a belt of Isora trees in one mass 

 of scarlet flowers, which, as the mountain rose abruptly, 

 had a fine effect viewed from above. In the damper regions 

 a little higher, tlie tree-truuks began to be more densely 

 clothed with orchids and ferns and climbers of aU kinds; 

 and here and there, high in the angles of the branches, 

 searlet Azaleas, which had crept down the mountain out of 

 the temperate heights as far as they might diwe. At 5000 

 feet I gathered Horsfiekrs Dipteris fern, which seems too 

 delicate to thrive well at home though it is a denizen of the 

 higher mountains of the tropics, accompanied by great fields 

 of a handsome species of bracken (Gleiclienia (jlauca). At 

 54^J0 feet 1 halted for the night in a small hut that I had a 

 day or two previously had erected for our accommodation on 

 the verge of the more tempemte region of the mountain, where 

 the trees became smaller and more stunted and were loaded 

 with lichens, mosses and feathery lycopods, and which turned 

 out to be the lowest limit of the pitcher-plants. 



Few signs of animal life were observed, except the spoor of 



