FROM SINGAPORE TO BANJERMASSING. 295 
have repeatedly searched the only locality I have been able to get 
pointed out to me without success. J am not sure of its nidus, for in 
that spot there are three or four large species of Cissus or Cissampelos 
growing mixed together. I feel however no doubt of its existence, 
for it was found by Dr. Greiner, a very intelligent man, the surgeon 
to the Government coal-mines, and he is at least botanist enough 
to know a Raflesia. I hope to get a specimen some day; it may be 
a new species, for it is described as much larger than the R. Patma ; 
and the R. Arnoldi has hitherto been found only in Sumatra. I wish 
I could get at my Mosses for a week or two, to put them in order to 
send home, but it is impossible just yet. My Glumacee are ready, 
or nearly so; they will be about 140 species, and will make 20 to 25 
very full and good sets. I am now making a set of Ferns, and as this 
is nearly virgin ground, I hope they will be interesting. I am also 
preparing your set of 500 (which includes the Glamacee and Ferns, so 
far as I have gone). I retain a set with corresponding numbers, and 
I hope, as you kindly offer to take so much trouble in naming them 
for me, that you will oblige me by accepting the set sent. You will 
find plenty of small things among them, for I have rather a microscopic 
eye. Ishall obtain a few more Cryptogams here, though not so many as I 
Supposed from the dampness of the climate, and I have not now the 
pleasure in seeking them that I had, for I possess no microscope. It 
was the present of a very good set of British Mosses from Mr. Bicheno, xd 
When I was quite a boy, which first turned my attention towards that 
beautiful tribe, but I think I am now nearly as much in love with the —— 
Ferns. It will be very difficult to send living plants from hence, as all 
the vessels loading here go to Batavia, and they would then have to be 
shipped again to Singapore. I speak now of Orchidee and such plants : 
a few weeks’ delay for a Ward's case is of less importance, and they 
. could be shipped at Batavia direct for England. I have one disad- 
vantage here, to which however I got pretty well accustomed at Labuan, — 
that is, that I must work quite alone; there is not one who has the —— 
smallest sympathy with anything scientific except Dr. Greiner, whom e 
I rarely see. I do not get on very fast with the language; the reading Ee 
is not difficult, and the writing I shall manage, because I ean learn it — 
out of books, but the pronunciation is a terrible difficulty, almost an 
impossibility, for me; still, as every one speaks Malay and nearly all - 
French, I manage pretty well, but it will be a great advantage when T 
