28 THE FLORA OF SINGAPORE. 
was felled, partly for the value of the timber and partly for cul- 
tivation. Later avery large proportion of the cleared ground 
was abandoned, and became covered with secondary growth, or 
lalang, and every year still sees the disappearance of some 
woodland, so that in several of the localities quoted for certain 
plants in this list, such as Ang Mo Kio, few traces of any native 
plants can now be found. The names of many villages and dis- 
tricts are taken from trees which doubtless plentiful fifty years 
ago are now either very scarce or quite extinct. Such are 
Kranji (Dialim,) Changi (Balanocarpus), Tampenis (Sloetia side- 
rorylon), Tanjong Ru, the Cape of Casuarinas, Kampong Gelam, 
the village of Melalenca. Extensively as the indigenous flora has 
been destroyed in this way, I have succeeded in finding most of 
the plants collected here by Wallich in 1822; and of those men- 
tioned in his Catalogue which I have not recovered, some at least 
were evidently wrongly localised, having been probably collected 
in Penang. Many of the trees, however, which were probably 
formerly more abundant, are represented now by single specimens, 
A few fairly large and representative tracts of jungle remain, 
and though in most cases much of the more valuable timber has 
been removed, these contain the most varied and interesting 
portions of the flora. Among the biggest trees therein are the 
Dipterocarpee, Dyera, Dichopsis, Irvingia, Kumpassia, species of 
Mangifera, Artocarpus and Tarrietia. Mixed with these are 
numerous smaller trees and shrubs of all orders, with rattans, 
and other palms, and especially in rocky spots and damp water- 
courses, are ground orchids, Scitaminex, aroids, ferns, Ebermaiera, 
Pentaphragma, Cyrtandrw and many other smaller plants. Here 
too grow the curious little saprophytes Thismia, Sciaphila, A phyl- 
lorchis, Burmannia, etc. Many climbing plants such as Unearia, 
Willughbeia, Bauhinia, Strychnos and Gnetum form huge lianes 
climbing to the tops of the trees and covering them with a mat 
of foliage. On the branches of the loftiest trees grow many 
epiphytes not met with elsewhere, orchids, ferns, such as the 
rare Davallia triphylla, Rhododendron, Vaccinium and Dischidia, 
and it is interesting to note that many of these plants, which in 
the low country grow only on this elevated position, are to be 
met with as terrestrial or rock plants at greater elevations in the 
peninsula, The banks of the larger streams and rivers and a 
