28 ON THE VEGETATION OP MALAYSIA., 



in Australia as far south at least as Moreton Bay. The structure 

 is well worthy of attention. The stamens, ten in number, are 

 dissimilar in size, shape and colour, five being large, violet, and 

 having two long spurs, and five small and yellow with no projection. 

 It may possibly be mistaken for Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, a shrub 

 four or five feet high with large pink flowers, but they are axillary. 

 The species is widely spread over Southern India, Penang, Malaysia 

 and northwards to China and Japan, and the Philippines. The 

 natural order of Melastomace^e is largely represented in the flora 

 of Malaysia. 



Besides the grassy plains in places the forest is rendered almost 

 continuous by a better or drier soil. Around Singapore the flora is 

 modified thus. The place of the grass is taken by large bushes of 

 Gleichenia dichotoma and G. flagellaris which, with a few other 

 ferns ( Blechnutn orientate, a species of Lomaria, Poly podium, 

 Vittaria, &c., &c.), entirely occupy the ground. There is an 

 undergrowth, however, in places of the Melastoma and Rhodo- 

 rtiyrtus, Cassia alata, C. sepiaria, C. tor a, Solanu^n verba scifolium, 

 iS. ferox, S. sanctum, and Lantana camera. There are few palms, 

 but I have noticed occasionally that extremely handsome palm-tree 

 Cyrtostachys rendah, though much more common in Labuan than 

 it is at Singapore. 



The alluvial plains are varied by occasional swamps which are 

 always thickly covered with Nelumhium speciosum, L. This 

 solitary species demands a passing notice. It lives with its 

 rhizomes buried in the mud. Its large orbicular leaves on the upper 

 surface, which, determined to breathe air, break up the water into 

 crystal dew-drops ; the large, deep rose-coloured flowers and the nuts 

 or seeds nearly buried in a receptacle like the rose of a watering- 

 pot, all make it a most interesting, as well as beautiful, ornament 

 to still waters. The Nelurnhium is indigenous in the waters of 

 the Nile, and is found in the rivers of Persia and India ; in Cash- 

 mere up to a height of 5,000 feet ; in the Volga up to the 46th 

 degree of north latitude ; in China ; in Japan ; and then in 

 tropical Australia. Probably some of this wide-spread area is 



