262 CURIOUS PLANT. 



a Cayman's back, is not quite so great as many people 

 imagine. Pliny relates that the Tentyrita were in the 

 habit of jumping into the river Nile, and riding on the 

 backs of the Crocodiles, and when, moreover, these savage 

 Saurian* turned their heads for the purpose of biting their 

 unwelcome burden, the ingenious riders placed a stick in 

 the mouth and held the ends with their hands, thus 

 bringing the vanquished reptile to the shore, as if with 

 bit and bridle. 



In the course of an excursion up the Sarawak river, in 

 company with Sir Edward Belcher and Mr. Brooke, I 

 found a large and very singular flower, growing in a dark 

 damp forest, on the side of a hill, not far from the moun- 

 tain of Serambo, in Borneo. It sprung from the exposed 

 root of a tall tree with large light green leaves, in the 

 manner of some gigantic epiphyte or rhizanth. The 

 flower was about sixteen inches in length, of a hard, 

 dense consistence, and of a light reddish-brown colour, 

 deepening towards the summit. The buds were like the 

 full-blown flower in appearance, of the same dirty red 

 colour, but closed at the upper extremity. Travelling 

 through the forest on foot, and requiring to undergo con- 

 siderable fatigue, I was enabled to preserve or more mi- 

 nutely examine this vegetable wonder. I carried it to 

 the village, where it did not appear to excite much inte- 

 rest, and after making a rough sketch of it, I abandoned 

 it to its fate ; I simply allude to the fact here in the hope 

 that another botanist, more fortunate, may fall in with 

 the plant again, and make it better known. 



My opportunities of observing the habits of the mam- 

 miferous animals of Borneo, were neither very numerous 



