380 VISIT TO THE 



barred with bands of rich cinnamon brown : the small 

 labellum is purple in the centre, and spotted with 

 brown towards the edges. The flowers as they get 

 old, do not fall off, but gradually lose the rich brown 

 colour, until blotches of it only remain, and finally, 

 these also being lost, the flower retains a deep 

 golden yellow, which colour it gradually acquires as 

 the brown fades, apparently for some weeks before 

 it finally drops off. (I have since ascertained that it 

 remains many weeks in perfection.) The peduncle of 

 the flower is protected by a sheath over its upper 

 surface; and this, with the footstalk and the flower- 

 stem, are all densely covered with a beautiful mossy 

 substance, like that which gives its name to the 

 favourite of the rose tribe. 



Having been delayed half an hour to secure this prize, 

 we pushed on to Battu Bidi, at which place we arrived 

 at half past ten A.M. Here are two or three Malayan 

 houses, the occupants of which are employed in getting 

 antimony ore from a rich vein in a limestone hill, half 

 a mile inland. In another hour we passed the mouth 

 of the Sunghie Jagusi, on a hill of the same name, 

 near the sources of which is a large village of the Sow 

 Dyaks. Near this place, I saw two fine horned owls of 

 a very large size, but could not get a shot at them, 

 though I had procured several specimens of other birds 

 during the morning. We had also passed, above Bidi, 

 many specimens of small fossils in the limestone on 

 the sides of the river, but did not observe any of 

 the very large ones, so abundant below the Rheum 



