Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/44

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40
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
Podocarpus Tree and Tree Fern beset with Epiphytic Bromeliads and Ferns.

Mabess Valley, we find a region of much higher temperature and of still more constant rainfall. Here the vegetation becomes even more luxuriant, and, though made up of similar vegetational types, it includes many new species of ferns, like Rhipidopteris peltata and Lygodium volubile. There are high-perched tufts of brilliant Pitcairnias on the ledges. Carina and its relative Heliconia, with the thatch palm, Geonoma, grow along the stream, while clumps of the beautiful Rubiaceous shrub, Cephaelis punicea, are scattered on the slopes higher up.

On climbing the high peaks near Cinchona, such as John Crow, on the west, or Sir John and Blue Mountain Peak, on the east, one finds still other interesting and novel vegetational features to enlist the attention. The trees on the ridges are bent and twisted. The more or less