BOTANIZING EXCURSIONS IN BORNEO 197 



A number of interesting liverworts were collected at Kuching, but, 

 as is usual in the tropics, these are more abundant at higher elevations. 



Every season in Sarawak is a "rainy season/' but the official rainy 

 season includes the months of November to March, and I can testify 

 from experience that this is a rainy season. During the months of De- 

 cember, January and February (1912-13), over one hundred inches of 

 rain fell in Kuching. 



As might be expected, this great rainfall contributes to an extremely 

 rich and varied native flora, and Sarawak offers an especially inviting 

 field to the botanist. 



Not the least serious problem that confronts the traveler is that of 

 transportation. Except in the town and in the immediate vicinity of 

 Kuching, almost the only means of transport are the streams or else 

 forest trails which are not feasible for either saddle or pack animals, 

 and especially in the low lands are often largely under water. This 

 makes expeditions into the magnificent forests anything but a pastime, 

 and involves not only great fatigue, but also incidentally the discom- 

 forts of swarms of mosquitoes and leeches, the latter being especially 

 numerous and voracious in the Bornean forests. 



The various native tribes. Land and Sea Dayaks, etc., are of great 

 interest to the ethnologist, but as my interests were chiefly botanical, 

 and my time very limited, I was obliged to leave Sarawak with only the 

 most cursory observation of these interesting savages. 



One of my principal objects in visiting Sarawak was to secure speci- 

 mens of two rare ferns, Matonia sarmentosa and Macroglossum alidce, 

 as yet known only from this country, and the first collecting trip under- 

 taken was in search of these. 



Through the kindness of Mr. J. C. Moulton, director of the Sarawak 

 Museum, who accompanied me on this trip, I succeeded in accomplish- 

 ing my object in a highly satisfactory manner. 



"We left Kuching before daylight in one of the launches of the 

 Borneo Company, and watched the dawn come up behind the dense 

 jungle reflected in the glassy surface of the broad river. In the delicious 

 coolness of the early morning our launch plowed its way up stream, 

 breaking the mirror-like surface of the river, in which were reflected the 

 brilliant tints of the eastern sky. A dense wall of verdure, spangled 

 here and there with white, yellow and purple flowers, bounded the 

 stream on either side. 



By eight o'clock we reached our landing place, and after a good 

 breakfast, proceeded by " trolley " for about half an hour to the govern- 

 ment bungalow, where we had arranged to camp for a few days while 

 making our collecting trips. 



The Bornean trolley is rather a different affair from what one as- 

 sociates with the word in America. The track is an extremely narrow 



