Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of these, Papilio blumei, of which I obtained a few specimens only, is among the most mag-
nificent I have ever seen. It is a green and gold swallow-tail, with azure-blue spoon-shaped
tails, and was often seen flying about the village when the sun shone, but in a very shattered
condition. The great amount of wet and cloudy weather, was a great drawback all the time I
was at Rurúkan.
Even in the vegetation there is very little to indicate elevation. The trees are more covered
with lichens and mosses, and the ferns and tree-ferns are finer and more luxuriant than I had
been accustomed to see them on the low grounds, both probably attributable to the almost
perpetual moisture that here prevails. Abundance of a tasteless raspberry, with blue and yel-
low Compositæ, have somewhat of a temperate aspect; and minute ferns and Orchideæ, with
dwarf Begonias on the rocks, make some approach to a sub-alpine vegetation. The forest
however is most luxuriant. Noble palms, Pandani, and tree-ferns are abundant in it, while
the forest trees are completely festooned with Orchideæ, Bromeliæ, Araceæ, Lycopodiums,
and mosses. The ordinary stemless ferns abound; some with gigantic fronds ten or twelve
feet long, others barely an inch high; some with entire and massive leaves, others elegantly
waving their finely-cut foliage, and adding endless variety and interest to the forest paths.
The cocoa-nut palm still produces fruit abundantly, but is said to be deficient in oil. Oranges
thrive better than below, producing abundance of delicious fruit; but the shaddock or
pumplemous (Citrus decumana) requires the full force of a tropical sun, for it will not thrive
even at Tondano a thousand feet lower. On the hilly slopes rice is cultivated largely, and
ripens well, although the temperature rarely or never rises to 80°, so that one would think it
might be grown even in England in fine summers, especially if the young plants were raised
under glass.
The mountains have an unusual quantity of earth or vegetable mould spread over them.
Even on the steepest slopes there is everywhere a covering of clays and sands, and generally
a good thickness of vegetable soil. It is this which perhaps contributes to the uniform luxuri-
ance of the forest, and delays the appearance of that sub-alpine vegetation which depends al-
most as much on the abundance of rocky and exposed surfaces as on difference of climate.
At a much lower elevation on Mount Ophir in Malacca, Dacrydiums and Rhododendrons
with abundance of Nepenthes, ferns, and terrestrial orchids suddenly took the place of the
lofty forest; but this was plainly due to the occurrence of an extensive slope of bare granitic
rock at an elevation of less than 3,000 feet. The quantity of vegetable soil, and also of loose
sands and clays, resting on steep slopes, hill-tops and the sides of ravines, is a curious and
important phenomenon. It may be due in part to constant slight earthquake shocks, facilitat-
ing the disintegration of rock; but would also seem to indicate that the country has been long
