THE PALAEOTROPICS 213 



The pitcher plants (Nepenthes), are extraordinarily abundant 

 in Borneo, and may be found at all elevations from sea-level to 

 an altitude of 8,000 feet. Sonic are low-growing terrestrial species, 

 but more commonly they are climbers or epiphytes. In most 

 species, the pitchers are developed at the end of the tendril formed 

 by a prolongation of the midrib of the leaf; but in the young 

 plants, and also in some terrestrial species, the pitcher seems to 

 represent the whole leaf, and the plant may consist of a rosette 

 of these urn-shaped organs. There seems to be little doubt that 

 the fluid in the pitcher contains definite enzymes similar in their 

 action to pepsin, and capable of a true digestion of the insects and 

 other small animals that may be captured. YVh ether or not, as has 

 been stated, the Malays use this fluid as a corrective for indigestion, 

 the writer will not venture an opinion. Young plants with pitchers 

 no bigger than a thimble are common along the sides of ditches 

 and on wet banks, while it is said the great N. Rajah, from Mt. 

 Kinabalu, has pitchers, perhaps one might say jugs, holding two 

 quarts. The Malay Peninsula, next to Borneo, probably has the 

 greatest number of species, but they are found also throughout the 

 whole Malay Archipelago, from northeastern Australia and New 

 Guinea, to the Philippines, a single species also occurring in 

 Ceylon. 



Travelling in Sarawak depends very largely upon water-ways, 

 as there are practically no roads, except in the immediate vicinity 

 of the towns. If one leaves the streams, one must proceed on foot 

 through the swamp and jungle, not always a pleasant operation, 

 as the low ground is almost always more or less under water. 

 Such excursions into the magnificent forests are not only fatiguing 

 but include, incidentally, the discomfort of swarms of mosquito 

 and myriads of land-leeches, which are especially numerous and 

 voracious in the Bornean forest. 



Among the rare plants of Sarawak are several ferns. One of 

 these, Matonia sarmentosa, is known only from one locality, the 

 Bidi Caves, limestone caverns where it hangs down in long festoons 

 only to be reached by long ladders used by the natives for collect- 

 ing the edible birds' nests which are found in these same caves. 

 Another fine species, the principal object of the writer's visil 

 to Sarawak, is Macroglossum Alidae, one of the small order Marat- 

 tiales. This, or a similar species has since been collected in Su- 



