62 BATCHIAN. [chap. xxiv. 



bank, where the water was fresh and clear, and the owner, 

 a respectable Batchian Malay, offered me sleeping room 

 and the rise of the verandah if I liked to stay. Seeing 

 forest all round within a short distance, I accepted his 

 offer, and the next morning before breakfast walked out to 

 explore, and on the skirts of the forest captured a few 

 interesting insects. 



Afterwards, I found a path which led for a mile or 

 more through a very fine forest, richer in palms than 

 any I had seen in the Moluccas. One of these especially 

 attracted my attention from its elegance. Tlie stem was 

 not thicker than my wrist, yet it was very lofty, and 

 Ijore clusters of bright red fruit. It was apparently a 

 species of Areca. Another of immense height closely 

 resembled in appearance the Euterpes of South America. 

 Here also grew the fan-leafed palm, whose small, nearly 

 entire leaves are used to make the dammar torches, and to 

 form the water-buckets in universal use. During this 

 walk I saw near a dozen species of palms, as well as two 

 or three Pandani different from those of Langundi. There 

 were also some very fine climbing ferns and true wild 

 Plantains (Musa), bearing an edible fruit not so large as 

 one's thumb, and consisting of a mass of seeds just covered 

 M'ith pulp and skin. The people assured me they had 

 tried the experiment of sowing and cultivating this 

 species, but could not improve it. They probably did not 



