74 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



sends stout and tall fronds eight and ten feet into the air.. 

 The large species moreover of tree-ferns, and such giants as 

 Angiopteris evecta, vie with the Palm-trees in the spread of their 

 graceful fronds, while the epiphytes of the smaller kind make 

 hoar J tufts and clothing for almost every tree. The little 

 Drymoglossum piluselloides is seen on every tree, outside the forest as 

 well as in it, and many other minute forms, particularly Polypodium, 

 Niphoholus and Vittaria. 



I do not propose to enter into any detail about the genera and 

 species which is obviously beyond the scope of this essay, but I 

 give a list from the " Journal of Botany "* of the ferns found in 

 Perak by Father Scortechini and myself and described by Colonel 

 Beddome, which I may say includes nearly all that is known up to 

 the present time of the cryptogamic flora, f 



* Jouru. of Botany, Nov. 1887, XXV. p. 321, pi. 278. 



I I take this opportunity of explaining a circumstance under which the 

 ferns described by Colonel Beddome were collected. I arrived in Perak in 

 November, 1883, having previously travelled through Java, part of 

 Sumatra and much of the Malay Peninsula. In all these journeys I had 

 made extensive collections of plants, some of which I exchanged with Mr. 

 Nicholas Cantley, the Government Botanist, Singapore. Father Scortechini 

 arrived in Perak on March 1st, 1884, and we explored and collected 

 together for about six months, under the auspices of the Perak Govern- 

 ment and at its expense. The Rev. Mr. Scortechini devoted himself 

 exclusively to botany, and so on his arrival I handed ov^er to him all my 

 collections of plants from the Straits Settlements and elsewhere, with the 

 understanding that I was to get a complete set of the ferns from his 

 collections before he went to Kew. The melancholy and unexpected death 

 of the rev. gentleman at Calcutta prevented this arrangement being carried 

 out, and I mention it only for the purpose of stating that I am the 

 authority for many of the habitats given in the ensuing list. They may 

 have been found subsequently in other places by Father Scortechini, but 

 I give the habitats that I know. Perhaps it may be permitted to me here 

 to add the inestimable loss science has sustained by the premature death 

 of so learned, painstaking, and experienced a botanist. Personally 

 amiable, generous, and self-sacrificing, he was an invaluable companion 

 to me in my explorations. He was indeed an instance of the avdpconou 

 travra KaXcos ttoulv, whose loss was equally great to friendship and to 

 fame. 



