CHAPTER III 



The Fruits of Sarawak — -The Mangosteen and its Habitat — Origin of 

 Cultivated Fruits — The Pinang — Our Menagerie — Monkeys — The 

 Nasalis and the Shape of the Nose in Man — Birds in Captivity — 

 Snakes — Fascinated Frogs — The Flying Lizard — -Flying Animals 

 — The Mammals of Borneo — Big Game in Sarawak. 



ON the hill where the former residence of Rajah Brooke used to 

 stand, and in the park around his present residence, are 

 grown most of the cultivated fruit-trees of Malaysia. The Rajah 

 had also endeavoured to introduce various kinds of plants which 

 might, if acclimatised, have proved a source of wealth to the 

 country ; amongst these were the nutmeg, the cinnamon, and the 

 cacao. Most of the characteristic fruit-trees were not then in 

 blossom ; such, for example, as the durian, rambutan, lansat and 

 mango. We were, however, still able to get some mangosteens, 

 the fruit of Garcinia mangostana (Fig. 8), and one of the most 

 delicious within the tropics. It is rarely to be found beyond the 

 limits of the Malayan Islands. Even in Borneo its cultivation is 

 limited. The Malays call it " Manggis," and the Land-Dyaks, 

 " Sekup.' 1 The true native land of the mangosteen is unknown. 

 It is true that in Borneo several wild species of Garcinia are found, 

 not unlike the mangosteen, and some with edible fruits, but they are 

 always sour. The mangosteen is beyond doubt a native of the 

 Malayan region, but nowhere yet has it been found growing wild. 

 It has been asserted, but without proof, that its native land, like 

 that of the durian, is the Malay Peninsula. The latter tree also 

 is only known as a cultivated species. 



Has the sea overwhelmed the land where these originated, or are 

 they still to be found growing wild in some remote forest ? Or, on 

 the other hand, may they not have been produced by cultivation ? 

 But, if the latter hypothesis be true, what is the parental stock 

 from which they have been obtained ? It seems to me probable 

 that certain cultivated plants — wheat, amongst others — have been so 

 long cared for by man that they cannot exist or multiply without 

 his protection. Such plants, I consider, are united to man by a 

 kind of symbiosis, so that they can only be found where he is and 

 can ensure their existence. In the wild state now they cannot, in 



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