28 
coast of Borneo, was capable of producing 1,500 tons of this 
spice. 
2 Coffee has been tried in the gardens of Europeans with great 
success: the berry is fine and well flavoured. The hills on the 
mainland, opposite Labuhan, are well adapted for its culture; 
for there, as in Ceylon, the grower would be spared the trouble 
and cost of raising trees among the plantations, to shade the 
Coffee bushes from the sun, a precaution which is found requisite 
in Java. In Ceylon, an altitude of between 3,000 and 4,000 
feet is the best locality for the Coffee estates ; the fruit produced 
at that height is particularly well tasted and abundant. : os 
Gambier (Uncaria) is not cultivated in Borneo, though it 18 
occasionally seen wild: that used by the Malays for chewing 
with their Siri, is imported from Singapore, where its growth 
is said to exhaust the soil to a degree which it takes many years 
to recover, 
Tobacco is reared in small quantities ; but the people are un- 
skilful in preparing it. Ifa good sort were procured, and the 
proper mode of manufacturing it were known, “ the Virgiman 
weed” might become as profitable to the Borneans as it 1s to 
their neighbours of the Philippines and Java; and the Dyaks 
would be found very willing to rear a plant with whose use they 
are acquainted. 
Besides the above imperfectly enumerated vegetable produc- 
tions, many others promise to be valuable. Spices of several 
kinds would probably thrive ; Vanil/a, for instance, which fetches 
a high price and is of easy culture. The Cocoa Tree of Manilla 
(Theobroma Cacao) has been tested and found to yield fruit of - 
admirable quality. We have already spoken of Cotton. ‘The 
Musa teetilis, which affords the fine Manilla cordage (a kind of 
Plantain), would also ‘thrive. Ginger grows well in all the 
native gardens, and Zwrmeric abounds in a wild state. 
Many kinds of oil might be produced in perfection : in short, 
there is every reason to believe that most of the precious Indian 
and ‘Tropical products would well repay the Bornean grower. 
And now that the British settlers in this island will be acknow- 
ledged and protected by our Government at home, the spirit of 
national enterprise will shortly bring to light the immense vege- 
table resources of this privileged country. 
Many and valuable kinds of timber are produced by the 
magnificent forests of Borneo. Their botanical characters are 
little known, and it would therefore be useless to enumerate the 
native names, such as Balean, Bintangur, Mungris, &c., by 
which they are designated, and which would convey no single 
