FROM SINGAPORE TO BANJERMASSING. 267 
ing some letters to Singapore. The fire-flies tonight are most mag- 
nificent, the whole jungle was lighted up by them: the light is not 
steady, but is brighter at intervals of about two seconds; and I have 
often remarked, that all the individuals on the same tree or branch are 
subject to this augmentation of light at the same moment. It has just 
the effect of some electrical toy, showing the intended word of outline 
at the moment the spark passes. 
29th. We pulled last night some distance in the dark. The jungle 
has very much changed its appearance ; it has a much more inferior look. 
Patches of grass come down here and there to the bank; the trees are 
larger and more varied in appearance, and there are many Scitaminee 
to be seen in the shade. There are also many Rotans; one species, in 
particular, is most elegant, it is called Rotan Tikus, ** Mouse Rattan ;" it 
has a glaucous pinnate leaf, with wedge-shaped premorse leaflets and 
inflated thorny sheaths. At half-past six A.M. passed a river on the left ; 
it is named Chenaku. At this spot the river makes a sudden turn to 
the north-east ; its general direction has hitherto been west. The calm 
clear beauty of this morning, as the sun rose, was indescribable. We 
have now quite lost the Rangas and Padada; the banks are chiefly 
fringed with Paritium tiliaceum, covered with its magnificent yellow 
blossoms, which, however, are beautiful only in the morning; a few 
hours’ sun changes them to a dirty brick-red. Mixed with this were a 
slender Saccharum, and two species of Phyllanthus, ete. etc.; and 
all was matted together by a ternate-leaved Cissus, with large black 
fruit like grapes, and a beautiful purple Zpomea. But the pride of all 
the vegetation here is the happily named Zagerstremia regina : it is a 
magnificent tree, growing to a large size, and was now completely 
covered with lilac blossoms in spikes ten to eighteen inches long, and in 
such abundance, that the woods were quite illuminated by it. Imagine 
Lythrum Salicaria multiplied in size ten times, and grown to a large d 
tree, it will give you some idea of this plant. Its wood is very valuable, - = 
being hard, tough, and almost indestructible; it is called here Kamnu- — — 
ching, but elsewhere Boongoor. We passed an enormous Reed-bed ; it 
seemed to be composed of two species of Saccharum and one Arundo ; it 
was matted together by several Convolvulacee and a Cucurbitaceous plant 
like a Luffa. The long floating runners of the Grasses, all fringed with 
trailing Conferve, shot far into the stream ; and between the stems of the 
grass, in still places, where the current could not reach them, were little 
