The true jungle veddahs are almost a dwarfish race.
It is believed that there are traces of an aboriginal people (the Vazimba), who occupied portions of the interior before the advent of the present inhabitants, and these appear to have been a somewhat dwarfish race, and lighter-coloured than the Malagasy generally.
All the species are arborescent or shrubby, varying in size from the most stately of forest trees to the dwarfish bush.
Splendid dwarfish bulbs, thriving in deep, sandy, wellenriched garden soil, and increased by offsets.
In 1814 Sir Walter Scott met a dwarfish traveller in the Orkneys, whom the natives regarded as a " Pecht " or Pict.