twisted living rattan, is therefore a sign that at some former
period a large tree has fallen there, though there may he not
the slightest vestige of it left. The rattan seems to have
unlimited powers of growth, and a single plant may mount
up several trees in succession, and thus reach the enormous
length they are said sometimes to attain. They much
improve the appearance of a forest as seen from the
coast; for they vary the otherwise monotonous tree-tops
with feathery crowns of leaves rising clear above them,
and each terminated by an erect leafy spike like a lightning
conductor.
The other most interesting object in the forest was a
beautiful palm, whose perfectly smooth and cylindrical
stem rises erect to more than a hundred feet high, with
a thickness of only eight or ten inches; while the fanshaped
leaves which compose its crown, are almost complete
circles of six or eight feet diameter, borne aloft on
long and slender petioles, and beautifully toothed round
the edge by the extremities of the leaflets, which are
separated only for a few inches from the circumference. It
is probably the Livistona rotundifolia of botanists, and is
the most complete and beautiful fan-leaf I have ever seen,
serving admirably for folding into water-buckets and
impromptu baskets, as well as for thatching and other
purposes.
A few days afterwards I returned to Menado on horseback,
sending my baggage round by sea; and had just
time to pack up all my collections to go by the next
mail steamer to Amboyna. I will now devote a few
pages to an account of the chief peculiarities of the
Zoology of Celebes, and its relation to that of the surrounding
countries.