with a curious creeping fern, Dipteris , and here I found a very beautiful large-flowered white rose with very tough and prickly stems, the seed of which I raised. In 1932 this rose flowered on a wall at Colesborne and proved to be the well-known Rosa lævigata.
At the bottom of the hill we came to the village of Heirimbi, where we lodged in a fair inn, and had a warmer temperature, 68° or 70° at night. Next morning we went along the Tamsui valley by a pretty path through wooded hills, until we reached some virgin forest, where I was told that a few trees of the Keteleeria still remained near the police station of Kinkaryo, which is on the border of the country inhabited by the savages where the Japanese would not let me venture. Most of the large old trees have been cut and the timber is highly valued. The police station at Heirimbi was built with its wood, which, on the ceilings and walls has turned to a rich dark colour. I was not able to climb up far enough through the steep dense forest to see the largest trees, the best that I found being only 3 or 4 feet in girth, but I got specimens with male flowers and cones, and a few badly rooted seedlings, which died before they got home. This forest was mainly composed of evergreen trees, among them oaks, Machilus, Meliosma, Eugenia , and a few small trees of Podocarpus Nageia , also found in Southern Japan. At the camphor store I found a splendid burr of camphor wood, which the owner would not sell, but Kanehira told me that sixty yen (£6) has been paid for a slice off this burr by a Japanese.
On March 28th we returned by chair, jinriksha and push-car by the same road to the edge of the plain near Taihoku, where we turned off to the south to Kisan, crossing a large river three times. At the second crossing is the power station which generates electric light for Taihoku, and is run by four large turbines fed by water from a tunnel leaving the river a mile higher up. At the third crossing of the river we got into what is called the savage territory, where no one is allowed to go without a pass, and near this found a large station belonging to the Mitsui Company, whose manager lodged us well, and gave us an excellent Japanese dinner. Round here are large plantations of Cryptomeria trees, made ten years ago by a Mr. Dogura, who sold them to the Mitsui Company. The appearance of the hills, backed by higher mountains which have been cleared of forest, is very like that of a Scotch glen. Rut the vegetation is very different, and the butterflies and plants showed that the climate is rather tropical than temperate. After crossing a long wire suspension bridge, I got into virgin forest with a few clearings made by the savage tribes, on which millet, tobacco and caladium were grown. Their houses are small and dirty; the women are heavily tattooed with blue, and the men have blue patches tattooed on forehead and chin. At one of these native huts I saw some plants in flower of a Dendrobium like nobile } and as the native boys were willing to climb trees I made quite a collection of orchids, including species of Calanthe, Cymbidium and one other new to me. But our best find was a new species of vanilla, which grew in great quantities on the trunks and branches of Libocedrus , of which a few trees were found in the forest at about 2,500 feet. The flowers of this, though not showy, were growing in twos and threes on a stout pedicel
