107 



lExtmcted from the " Linncan Sucietn't: Juurnal'' — Boianu, vul. xxxviii., \>i). 301-33G, 

 June, 1908.'] 



ON A COLLECTION OF PLANTS MADE BY H. C. ROBIN- 

 SON AND L. WRAY FROM GUNONG TAHAN, PAHANG. 



By H. N. RIDLEY, m.a., f.k.s., 1'.i..s., assisted isy utiiiok Butamsts. 



[Read 5th December, 1907.] 



r FN 1905 the Trustees of the British Museum made a grant towards 

 L the expenses of Mr. H. C. Robinson's expedition to Gunong 

 Tahan in the Malay Peninsula, on condition that the whole collection 

 made by the expedition should be sent to the Natural History Museum 

 and that the first set should become the property of the Trustees. An 

 account of the expedition will shortly be published in the " Journal of 

 the Federated Malay States Museums." * 



The plants, numbering about 250 specimens, were collected from 

 May to July, 1905, by Mr. Robinson and Mr. L. Wray, Director uf 

 Museums, Federated Malay States. As Mr. H. N. Ridley, who is 

 specially interested in the botany of the Peninsula, Mas home on leave 

 during last year, I asked him to prepare an account of the collection. 

 He agreed, but having to return to Singapore early in January, left his 

 paper in an unfinished state ; with Mr. E. G. Baker's assistance I have 

 compared it with the specimens in the study set at the British Museum, 

 annotated, and prepared it for the press. The account of the Fenis 

 and Mosses is largely the work of Mr. A. Gepp, and that of the Fungi 

 and Lichens has been prepared by Miss A. Lorrain Smith. 



(A. B. Rendle.)] 



The mountain Gunoug Tahan lies in the north of Pahang, on the 

 east coast of the Malay Peninsula, and was formerly believed to be by 

 far the highest mountain in the Peninsula. It proves, however, to be 

 by no means so lofty as was at first supposed, being only 7,100 feet in 

 altitude. 



Several attempts were made to explore this mountain on previous 

 occasions. The first of these was undertaken by the author of this 

 paper, accompanied by Mr. W. Davison, Curator of the Raffles Museum, 

 Singapore, and Lieut. Kelsall, r.e., in 1891. The position of the 

 mountain was then unknown, and owing to the limited time allowed, 

 the failure of the commissariat, the extremely unhealthy character of 

 the Tahan Valley, and the imsettled state of Pahang, then on the eve 

 of the rebellion which broke out the following year, the expedition 

 failed to reach its goal. A good collection of plants, however, was 

 made, an account of which was published in the " Transactions of this 

 Society," ser. 2, iii. p. 267, and an itinerary of the trip in the " Journal 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society," Straits Branch, vol. xxv. p. 33. This 

 expedition attempted to reach the mountain by travelling up the Pahang 



* Vol. III. (Feb., 1908). 



