those of Java and the Malay peninsula. Among the more
characteristic forms of this flora are the rattans—climbino-
palms of the genus Calamus, and a great variety of tall,
as well as stemless palms. Orchids, Araceae, Zingiberace®
GRAMMATOPHYLLUM, A GIGANTIC ORCHID.
and ferns, are especially abundant, and the genus Gramma-
tophyllum—a gigantic epiphytal orchid, whose clusters of
leaves and flower-stems are ten or twelve feet long—is
peculiar to it. Here, too, is the domain of the wonderful
pitcher plants (Nepenthacese), which are only represented
elsewhere by solitary species in Ceylon, Madagascar, the
Seychelles, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Those celebrated
fruits, the Mangosteen and the Durian, are natives of this
region and will hardly grow out O * of the Archipelago. The
mountain plants of Java have already been alluded to as
showing a former connexion with the continent of Asia;
and a still more extraordinary and more ancient connexion
with Australia has been indicated by Mr. Low’s collections
from the summit of Kini-balou, the loftiest, mountain in
Borneo.
Plants have much greater facilities for passing across
arms of the sea than animals. The lighter seeds are easily
carried by the winds, and many of them are specially
adapted to be so carried. Others can float a long time
unhurt in the water, and are drifted by winds and currents
to distant shores. Pigeons, and other fruit-eating birds, are
also the means of distributing plants, since the seeds
readily germinate after passing through their bodies. It
thus happens that plants which grow on shores and lowlands
have a wide distribution, and it requires an extensive
knowledge of the species of each island to determine the
relations of their floras with any approach to accuracy. At
present we have no such complete knowledge of the botany
of the several islands of the Archipelago; and it is only by
such striking phenomena as the occurrence of northern and