32 ON THE VEGETATION OP MALAYSIA, 



The upper surface of the leaves is covered with hard asperities, 

 so rough that the leaves are used (like many kinds of Fig-trees) as 

 a substitute for sand-paper. 



The character of the river vegetation will be best understood 

 from the following entry in my diary : — " Got the elephants loaded 

 in good time and sent them away. Walked two miles on a good 

 road to a village on the banks of the Kinta. Crossed the river on 

 elephants, and then succeeded a tedious journey through swamps, 

 the elephants being mostly up to their bellies in mud. After this 

 we went through an open jungle supporting a thick weedy growth 

 of Lantana camera, with a small Eugenia and Melastoma mala- 

 hathrica, the fruits of both of which our Malays ate freely, though 

 the berries were small and unpalatable. The country soon became 

 thick forest, both boggy and broken under foot, on a track which 

 none but an elephant could travel. Emerging from this we came 

 upon a deserted plantation of which there are, alas, a good many 

 in Malay countries. It was on a rising ground, covered with 

 Lantana but intermingled with Solarium i:>entadaGtylum, rendered 

 conspicuous by yellow fruits with protuberances something like 

 fingers. This is a native of Trinidad about Saint Anne's and the 

 port of Spain. It is a shrub two or three feet high, with an erect 

 stem, and leaves sinuated, with acute segments shining above. It 

 looks as if it had been cultivated, but the Malays do not eat the 

 fruits and said they were poisonous. This is one of many instances 

 in Malaysia, of small patches of an introduced plant flourishing 

 as a weed, but very local ; more common amongst the Solanace^ 

 than any other order. 



"The view from this abandoned farm was across a wide plain to 

 the eastward, bounded by an abrupt and broken range. The forest 

 was open, and looked like moorland in Europe. When we got off 

 the cultivated area we plunged into a dense growth of Costus, a 

 shrub of ornamental character belonging to the Zingiberace.e. 

 Thickets of this kind are common, 12 or 14 feet high. The only 

 method of making one's way through them is by the aid of the 

 jungle-knife or parong, which has to be slashed right and left with 



