i8 9 3. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 411 



orchids in magnificent flower. A long, narrow-pointed leaf was very 

 characteristic of the plants growing close to the water's edge, and 

 belonging to very different orders. The author suggests that this may 

 be a protective adaptation against the rapid rises to which the river is 

 subject, from sudden falls in the mountain districts, thus exposing the 

 plants to submersion by a rush of water. Broad foliage would be 

 torn oft" or mutilated, but narrower leaves, offering less resistance, 

 would be less liable to injury. 



In the ravines, down which run the numerous smaller streams to 

 join the river, were Begonias, Aroids, many Scitamineae, and others. 

 The soil of the woods is in many parts very sandy, and Mr. Ridley 

 thinks that to this is due the paucity of Termites, as they are unable to 

 make their subterranean nests in sand which would fall in, the stiffer 

 clay being needed for the dome-shaped chambers and passages. 

 Owing to their absence, the leaves and sticks on the ground decayed 

 slowly and formed a richer soil, while in the clayey woods where white 

 ants abound, the vegetable fragments are rapidly eaten as they fall 

 and rendered useless for soil-fertilisation. In the upper woods of the 

 Tahan River, the ground was permanently sodden with the heavy 

 rains, and at night glowed brilliantly from the luminosity of the 

 decaying leaves. The dense jungles of the Tahan River yield a good 

 quantity of Rattans of many species, but in the more accessible 

 country along the banks of the Tembeling and Pahang rivers, the 

 best have been exterminated. Gutta-trees are plentiful in the Tahan 

 districts, and Pahang gutta-percha fetches a good price. 



There was very little cultivation in Pahang, although the soil in 

 many parts is exceptionally good, much better than that to the south 

 of the Peninsula. In the villages along the main river, maize, 

 tapioca, sago, hill paddy, and fruit are chiefly cultivated. The 

 Rajah of Tembeling had some very healthy young Arabian coffee 

 trees in his garden, from the leaves of which he made a kind of tea, 

 being quite ignorant of the use of the berries. 



Mr. Ridley's list includes descriptions of three new genera, in 

 Rubiaceae, Asclepiadeas, and Scitamineae respectively, and there is 

 alsoa goodly number of newspecies. Thus of eighteen Cyrtandreae, nine 

 are new, seven of which belong to the genus Didymocarpus, many of 

 the Scitamineae are new, and no less than twenty-one orchids, 

 including three Dendvobiums, four species of Savcochilus, and two of 

 Phalanopsis. What seems to be the wild original form of the 

 Patchouli was found a long way up the Tahan River, far away from 

 cultivation; it is quite distinct from the other plants which have been 

 supposed to be the wild parent. 



The Seedlings of Conifers. 



The last two numbers of Le Botaniste consist largely of an account 

 of some anatomical researches on the seedlings of Conifers by the 



