46 LETTERS FROM JAMES MOTLEY, ESQ. 
times, though the only risk was of a bath in the bright cold water, 
bubbling over a bed of white quartz pebbles, the very beau idéal of a 
trout-stream, and swarming with fish. Wherever the rocks came down 
to the water, they were covered with Ferns, many of them very beau- 
tiful, and I saw some majestic Tree Ferns here and there, but I had no 
means of drying them. Nothing is more remarkable than the wonder- 
ful quantity of fruit up this river, especially the celebrated Durian ; 
my boat’s crew almost lived upon them; they were so abundant as 
to be of no value, and we went ashore and helped ourselves, before the 
people’s eyes, to the produce of their gardens, which was literally rotting 
in heaps. The Rambutan, aud six or seven other species of Nephelium, 
were in equal profusion, as were also near a dozen Meliacee. A very 
abundant creeper was the India-rubber-producing Urceola ; its fruit is 
about the size of an orange, and colour of an apricot, the thick outer skin 
full of milky juice, while within are about eight or ten seeds, enveloped 
in a tawny pulp, tasting like well-bletted Medlars; the natives use the 
juice only for bird-lime. I came across two curious Scitaminea, one 
with small yellow flowers, which were generally abortive, their place 
being supplied by a small tuber, which drops and grows; the other, a 
dazzling little plant, only a few inches high, with a large bunch of 
scarlet and yellow flowers and bracts. Another curious plant of this 
tribe has large tufts of barren leafy stems seven or eight feet high, 
while the small red flowers hardly peep out of the ground, at several 
eet distance. The people here are probably aborigines, but have be- 
come Mahommedans, and call themselves Malays; they are very indus- 
trious cultivators and gutta-percha collectors, but though I was just in 
the district, I could not get them to show me the trees; they also pro- 
Gum Benjamin; this I saw, and procured some seeds, which I 
ha e sent to Kew. They cultivate Coffee, but do not use the berry; 
iey make an infusion of the parched leaf, which is very pleasant and 
reshing ; of this prepared leaf I also sent home a specimen. I sup- 
e there is no such country in the world for sporting as Sumatra ; 
orb ad about in large herds, and deer, bears, tigers, pigs, and 
thinoceros are quite common. Should I go there to work this coal, 
hich is very possible, I shall, I suppose, become quite a Nimrod. 
The coal I saw was very good, and very easily to be worked, but 
ortunately a long way from the sea. 
Do you think a collection of Grasses’ and Cyperacee would interest 
