SUMATRA 
179 
caulaceae are better represented here than in Java, and in 
the highlands of the north Finns MerJcusii occurs—the 
only other locality for it in the archipelago being the 
island of Luzon in the Philippines. The island is speci¬ 
ally rich in its forest trees, which Mr. Forbes mentions 
as being larger than any he had ever seen; and that the 
species are very numerous is evident from the fact that 
the Central Sumatran Expedition collected specimens of 
some 400 kinds of timber. 
It has often been remarked that, from a variety of 
circumstances, the flowers of. tropical regions are less 
conspicuous, or at least form less showy masses of colour, 
than those of the temperate zones, but exceptions to this 
rule are not infrequent in Sumatra, as may be realised 
from Mr. Forbes’s descriptions of the descent of the upper 
reaches of the Palembang Eiver:—“ Very many trees 
were in flower and fruit — tall Melettias hung with 
immense pods, and wild nutmeg trees with their pretty, 
drop-like fruits. The oaks were one mass of white 
inflorescence, and formed a characteristic feature of the 
vegetation of the banks ; while bushy Sterculiaceous trees 
made a greater show of colour in the rich pink of their 
young foliage and the bright scarlet of their fruits than 
in their inconspicuous flowers. Between these more 
outstanding trees dark-foliaged figs and slender bamboos 
gracefully bending over the bank filled up the ranks 
shoulder to shoulder. Tall Sialang trees, with lightning- 
conductor-like stairs up their white stems, by which the 
wild bees’ nests are reached, and Pangiums, bearing six to 
seven hundred brown velvety fruits, each several pounds 
in weight, so that one marvels that the branches are able 
to sustain the load, marked the vicinity of villages. . . . 
Every lifeless stem, to the very tips of its withered arms, 
was festooned with, dark foliaged climbers, yellow and 
