ch. xiv. j Collecting Plants. 279 



bushes. A great many small-flowered orchids of various 

 genera were seen, but few were in bloom. Dacrydium, 

 phyllocladus, and a peculiar casuarina of drooping habit 

 were seen, and several herbaceous plants, among which I 

 noted a drosera and a species of dianella, much resembling 

 those of Australia. Among ferns were at least two species 

 of trichomanes, two or three gleichenias, a peculiar form 

 of dipteris resembling D. Horsfieldii, but dwarfer and 

 quite glaucous, nearly white indeed below, and a strong- 

 growing blechnum. Several mosses in fruit were gathered, 

 and most of them were either absolutely new, or had not 

 been discovered in Borneo before. Here and there I came 

 across patches of an acre or two in extent of rocky 

 mountain side without any tree-growth. These rocky 

 patches were carpeted with coarse sedges, among which 

 the great Nepenthes Rajah grew luxuriantly, an enormous 

 crimson-tinted pitcher depending from each of its large 

 lower leaves. These gigantic urns were for the most 

 part filled with rain-water, among which were the remains 

 of ants, beetles, and other insect-life. Nearly all the 

 pitchers were found resting on the surface of the earth, 

 and in most cases they were hidden by the overhanging 

 leaves, sedges, and debris among which the plants grow. 

 It was, in the case of the younger specimens — plants a 

 foot high or so — that the pitchers were most evident and 

 luxuriant. Seedlings of this size were even more orna- 

 mental than their big jug-bearing brethren. Here and 

 there were specimens of N. Rajah, great clumps having 

 stems five or six feet in height, with very broad massive 

 leaves, and pitchers capable of holding two or three pints 

 of water. It is these large plants which flower most 

 freely, some of the stems bearing three or four spikes of 

 their rich maroon-tinted blossoms, around which two or 

 three kinds of flies or gnats were playing in the sunshine. 



