Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to the level of the sea, and are generally slender and graceful plants from eight to fifteen feet
high. Without devoting much time to the search I collected fifty species of Ferns in Borneo,
and I have no doubt a good botanist would have obtained twice the number. The interesting
group of Orchids is very abundant, but, as is generally the case, nine-tenths of the species
have small and inconspicuous flowers. Among the exceptions are the fine Cœlogynes,
whose large clusters of yellow flowers ornament the gloomiest forests, and that most ex-
traordinary plant, Vanda Lowii, which last is particularly abundant near some hot springs at
the foot of the Peninjauh Mountain. It grows on the lower branches of trees, and its strange
pendant flower-spikes often hang down so as almost to reach the ground. These are gener-
ally six or eight feet long, bearing large and handsome flowers three inches across, and
varying in colour from orange to red, with deep purple-red spots. I measured one spike,
which reached the extraordinary length of nine feet eight inches, and bore thirty-six flowers,
spirally arranged upon a slender thread-like stalk. Specimens grown in our English hot-
houses have produced flower-spikes of equal length, and with a much larger number of
blossoms.
Flowers were scarce, as is usual in equatorial forests, and it was only at rare intervals that
I met with anything striking. A few fine climbers were sometimes seen, especially a hand-
some crimson and yellow Æschynanthus, and a fine leguminous plant with clusters of large
Cassia-like flowers of a rich purple colour. Once I found a number of small Anonaceous
trees of the genus Polyalthea, producing a most striking effect in the gloomy forest shades.
They were about thirty feet high, and their slender trunks were covered with large star-like
crimson flowers, which clustered over them like garlands, and resembled some artificial
decoration more than a natural product. (See illustration, next page.)
