IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



air, holding on by their roots to the bark of the veterans of the 

 forest. 



For a few hundred yards the path was fairly good and dry, but 

 if one wandered from it one was often brought up short by the 

 sharp hooked thorns of the rotangs {Calamus), the climbing palms 

 so characteristic of the forests of Malaysia. The ground was 

 undulating, and gradually rose on the right, but on the left it sloped 

 towards the river and soon became marshy. Farther on was a 

 streamlet with sluggish waters, clear, but of the colour of strong 

 tea. In such hollows, where one sinks up to the knees in the black 

 mire formed by the decomposition of the fallen leaves, the types 

 of vegetation were very varied. Numerous lianas with singular 

 stems tightly twisted together ran along the ground, then climbed 

 rampant over the trees, to shoot up far beyond their tops. From 

 the bare trunks of these lianas bunches of flowers and masses of 

 fruit often project, without the least trace of leaves, looking as if 

 they were attached to the ropes of a ship. Here also grew various 

 small trees and singular shrubs, some with stems supported by high 

 roots, as if wishing to be lifted from the miry soil. One amongst 

 them, a new species of Archytcea, had a tall but slender stem which 

 appeared as if raised on high stilts, and its head was entirely covered 

 with beautiful blossoms of a camellia-like red. This plant (one of 

 the Ternstrcemiacese, P.B., Xo. 319), not having yet received a 

 name, may be known as Archytcea {Ploj avium) pulchevvima ; it is 

 easily distinguished from the well-known species A. elegans by its 

 much larger flowers. This was one of the few small trees which, 

 under the shade of the big ones, bore flowers of a bright colour. 

 Another very curious small tree not scarce in that locality belonged 

 to the Anonacese (Polyalthia, P.B., No. 2,277), with the stem 

 clothed from the base to the bigger branches with stellate flowers 

 of a salmon red. The number of plants new to science which I 

 subsequently found in this small tract of forest was truly wonderful. 



Continuing to advance, the path grew worse. Hardly a foot of 

 dry ground was met with, but the pathway was traced out, and 

 was an example of many such in Borneo. It had been made by 

 order of the Tuan Muda not long before, and led to Siul, the small 

 conical hill which could be seen from our house. Where the ground 

 was rising and dry, the forest could be easily crossed ; but in the 

 hollows the water accumulates, and the vegetation is so dense as 

 to be quite impenetrable. In order, therefore, to make a pathway, 

 big trees are cut by the natives so as to fall in the direction required ; 

 the branches are then lopped off and the trunks adjusted in a con- 

 tinuous line. Thus a path is laid down over a line of prostrate 

 tree trunks, or " batang," as the Malays call them, even for many 

 miles ; but, naturally, it is hardly a level and smooth one, although 

 much can be done in this way by filling the gaps with smaller trunks 



8 



