One of these, Papilio blumei, of which I obtained a few specimens only, is among the most magnificent I have ever seen.

It is a green and gold swallow-tail, with azure-blue and spoon-shaped tails, and was often seen flying about the village when the sun shone, but in a very shattered condition.

The great amount of wet and cloudy weather was a great drawback all the time I was at Rurukan.
Even in the vegetation there is very little to indicate elevation.
The trees are more covered with lichens and mosses, and the ferns and tree-ferns are finer and more luxuriant than I had been accustomed to seeing on the low grounds, both probably attributable to the almost perpetual moisture that here prevails.

Abundance of a tasteless raspberry, with blue and yellow compositae, have somewhat of a temperate aspect; and minute ferns and Orchideae, with dwarf Begonias on the rocks, make some approach to a sub-alpine vegetation.

The forest, however, is most luxuriant.