The bush and woods of small trees which are found surrounding the upper belt of forest do not show many flowers during the cold season of the year. Yet even during these cooler months—May to August—innumerable objects of interest present themselves to those who will use their eyes as they walk along the woodland paths. Among the few flowers that are to be seen, besides the ever-present orange spikes of the Sèva (Buddleia madagascariensis), and the purple flowers of the Sèvabé (Solanum auriculatum) are the bell-like reddish flowers of a species of Kitchingia, which are rather plentiful; and towards the end of August a number of small trees and bushes are showing clusters of handsome crimson flowers; while a purple trumpet-shaped flower is to be seen here and there. Not uncommon is a shrub with small red flowers, like honeysuckle, growing at the axils of the leaves and all along the stems. More rare is a good-sized bush, with large light green and glossy leaves, and with clusters of yellow fruits, much like large white currants. This shrub would be a handsome addition to a garden. Berries of various hues—black, red, orange and yellow—are fairly plentiful; and in many bushes and trees the lack of flowers is almost made up for by the brilliant scarlet, or crimson, or orange colours of the new leaves, and in others again by the bright orange or red of the fading leaves.
PALMS
There are few trees of any size left in the woods in the immediate vicinity of the sanatorium, or near the paths through them; they have all been cut down for the timber market in the capital, or for house-building in the nearer villages. But in the deep valleys not a mile distant there is still much virgin forest, and many trees of considerable height; and on the roadside in the Mandràka valley, along which the automobile road and then the railway have been constructed within the last ten or twelve years, both cut through dense forest, there are many lofty and isolated trees still left standing, as well as numbers of them in the adjoining woods. Like most tropical trees, these show the generally vertical habit of the branches; in the crowd of competitors there is no room for lateral expansion by wide-spreading branches; every tree presses upwards to get the light and heat of the sun. In many parts of the forest, the small palm, commonly called the “bamboo-palm” (Mal. Fàri-hàzo—i.e. “woody sugar-cane”), is very plentiful, giving a thoroughly tropical appearance to the vegetation. Few trees are more beautiful than this palm, with its ringed stem, three to four inches in diameter, and its graceful crown of light green pinnate leaves, through which the sunlight shines. Its usual height is twelve or fourteen feet, but it occasionally attains double that height, or more, in certain situations. A much larger, but far less common, palm is the anìvona, but this is because of its being cut down for the sake of its tough wiry bark, of which the people make the flooring of their houses, and also use in the construction of the old-fashioned timber-framed Hova dwellings. The bamboo-palm seems of much less practical use, and is therefore much more plentiful. Here and there a still smaller species of palm may be found, with a stem not exceeding an inch in diameter.
CLIMBERS
A very noticeable feature of these woods, as indeed of all tropical forests, is the profusion of climbing plants. Even the smaller trees and bushes have their twining and creeping parasites, tightly wound round their stems. And from the tallest trees there hang and intertwine all manner of lianas, some as big as a ship’s cable, and others of all intermediate sizes—ropes of every dimension, down to the finest cord, and often forming an almost impassable barrier, an inextricable tangle of dense vegetation. Frequently these climbing plants seem to strangle and squeeze out the life of their unfortunate hosts; and it is often difficult to distinguish the foliage of the original tree, and that of the parvenu, which has used its more robust neighbour to climb up to the light and heat above the surrounding mass of leafage. Some of these climbers have prominent and beautiful flowers, which mark their presence very distinctly; one of these, first sent home by a lady, proved to be a new species. This liana is about as thick as a one-inch rope, and its spikes of creamy-yellow flowers are set from one to two feet apart on the main stem. These spikes are from ten to sixteen inches in length, each containing from forty to sixty large flowers growing closely together, so that they are very conspicuous in the forest, forming immense festoons of flowers, mounting to the tops of lofty trees, crossing from one tree to another, and shining almost golden in colour in the brilliant sunshine. These lianas are very plentiful and may be recognised at a considerable distance, so that they form in November one of the noticeable features of the upper line of forest. In the cold season, during which many of these observations were made, of course this liana is indistinguishable from the tangled mass of vegetation.
Although during the winter months flowers, as already mentioned, are scarce in the upper forest, there is very much to interest one in the cryptogamic vegetation which is so abundant everywhere around us. The mosses are seen in great profusion, and of many species. Frequently they occur in dense masses, carpeting the ground and the bases of the trees with a thick cushion-like covering. And of what beautiful and varied colours are these humble plants! light green and all shades of darker green, star-like mosses of pale pink, browns and greys, some bright crimson in colour, and some with waxy-looking fructification stalks; and of all kinds of growth; hair-like filaments, delicate branching forms, some thick like grass, others like seaweeds, others silvery-white on one side and chocolate-brown on the other; but words fail to give any adequate idea of their variety and beauty. During a short ramble a score of well-marked species may soon be gathered.
And the lichens are hardly less numerous or beautiful than the mosses: indeed it is sometimes difficult to tell to which order of plants some of these organisms belong. In many drier places the ground is covered with masses of a pale grey species, delicately branched. And almost everywhere the bushes and trees are festooned with the hanging filaments of another pale greyish-white lichen (Usnea sp.), which give them quite a venerable appearance. Another common species is a branching coral-like one, pale green above, with beautiful shades of brown underneath. The rocks seen all over Imèrina are sometimes perfectly white with minute forms of lichen, but more frequently present a mosaic of differently coloured species: black, white, orange, russet and red.
FUNGI
And the fungi again are quite as noticeable as the other cryptogams, and their colours make them even more conspicuous. On decaying timber, their circular and collar-like forms and bright tints constantly strike one’s attention. From one inch to three or four inches in diameter these plants present a great variety of colour; pure white, pale buff edged with brown, brilliant scarlet, orange, yellow, dark brown, etc.; all these are very common. Some fungi are hard and woody in substance; others are leathery and flexible, others soft and gelatinous; and occasionally one sees specimens a foot in diameter, with delicate shades of browns and greys on their upper surface.
It may be easily imagined that with this wealth and variety of cryptogamic forms many of the tree trunks are a perfect flora of the humbler kinds of vegetable growths; for we have not mentioned the delicate hymenophyllum ferns which also cover them in damp situations; or the great hart’s-tongue ferns, which often occupy the forks of the branches; or the innumerable small bulbs of the orchids, which cling, by their long aerial roots, to the trunks and boughs of the trees.