Colli /ig7cioo(fs Rambles in the China Seas 377 



consists of a number of large shallow round wooden bowls. Filling 

 a bowl with gravel from the river bed, they (standing in the 

 water) hold the bowl, just skimming the surface, and give the con- 

 tents a rotatory motion, cautiously and skilfully allowing the 

 muddy and lighter sandy particles to flow over with the water, 

 until nothing is left at the bottom of the dish but the larger and 

 heavier sandy and gravelly substances, which are then carefully 

 examined for the diamonds. 



We have left ourselves scarcely any space to speak of Dr Col- 

 lingwood's observations on the vegetable products of the countries 



Fig. 4. — Water Spout in Cliina Seas. 



he visited. The most important part of these is perhaps his 

 notices of what is doing commercially in the cultivation of the 

 different useful plants, such as coffee, cotton, cocoa-nut, sago palm, 

 pepper, sugar, nutmeg, gamboge, gambir, &c. He has noted the 

 advance making in the cultivation of these with an observant eye — 

 and those interested in them will find some useful incidental infor- 

 mation. Of purely botanical information there is not a great 

 deal. The follomng observation on the behaviour of the sensitive 

 plant, although not new any way, may interest the general reader: 



"One of the commonest roadside plants of Singapore is the sensitive plant 

 (Mimosa sensitiva), which grows in profusion in waste places, and on banks by 

 the wayside. It is a very low spreading plant, of sufifruticose habit, seldom 

 TRAVEL, C C 



