206 PITCHER PLANTS. 



those at the extremity of the leaf, with dark-red 

 spots. 1 collected numerous specimens of this 

 curious and interesting plant. 



The country had generally an undulating 

 character, and our peregrinations extended into 

 dense forests, in which, among the larger 

 productions of the vegetable kingdom, small, 

 delicate ferns were often abundantly seen, enjoy- 

 ing the luxury of shade and moisture. Upon 

 extensive cleared tracts, covered by Gambir, 

 Pepper, and other plantations, the neat habita- 

 tions of the planters, surrounded by fruit-trees 

 and flowering shrubs, formed a pleasing variety, 

 from the grand and magnificent wildness of 

 nature, to the more cultivated improvements of 

 art — beautiful in contrast. 



Although the weather had been remarkably 

 fine during the first part of the day, we expe- 

 rienced a heavy shower of rain, which the 

 Malays accounted for by my having gathered 

 and carried in my hand a large quantity of the 

 Nepenthes, or Pitcher plants, which, they said 

 had occasioned the rain to fall.* 



* Rumphius says that the natives of Amboyna were un- 

 wilUng to bring him specimens of the plants from the moun- 

 tains, from the full persuasion, that if the appendages were 

 gathered and emptied of water, heavy rain would overtake 

 them before their return. In conformity with the same be- 



