IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



Around the bungalow, but farther off, where the ground was left 

 uncultivated, other kinds of grasses grew. Of these the most per 

 nicious was the " Lalang " or " Alang-alang," the Imperata 

 arundinacea of botanists, which destroys every other plant where it 

 grows. I need not speak of it at present, but on more than one 

 occasion I shall have to mention this pest in the following pages. 

 More interesting were the bushes of the " Onkodok " of the Malays 

 (Melastoma obvolutum, Jack.), with big, rosy flowers of great beauty, 

 and, where the soil was damper, clumps of Dillenia (Wormia), 

 suffruticosa, Griff.), the " Simpor " of the Malays, were most con- 

 spicuous on account of its large leaves and huge golden flowers, 

 often five and a half inches in diameter. 



A little stream, issuing from the jungle and running into the 

 river just below our house, was crossed by a wooden bridge. Fol- 

 lowing it a pathway led to a hill on which once stood the Raj ah's 

 residence, burnt to the ground in 1857, during the historic mutiny 

 of the Chinese, which very nearly overthrew the young kingdom, 

 and in which the Rajah, Sir James Brooke, narrowly escaped with his 

 life. Our bungalow was one of the few European residences which 

 were not destroyed during the revolt. 



Some of the land lying between our house and the forest was 

 partially cultivated with plantations of sweet-potatoes, bananas, 

 yam, pineapples, etc., which were evidently recent. These orchards 

 were cared for by the " Orang Boyan," 1 or more correctly 

 " Bawean " — Javanese who come from a small island north of 

 Madura and are considered in Borneo the best field-labourers. In 

 the midst of these plantations a few trees of the old forest 

 were still remaining, some yet living — giants with their first 

 branches springing from the trunks a hundred feet or more from 

 the ground — but most of them dead, and their bare limbs battered 

 and broken by the winds. On some of these large epiphytes were 

 still growing, such as figs, Pandani and ferns. Amongst the latter 

 the great elk's-horn (Platycerium grande), on account of its singular 

 conformation and the diversity in shape of its fronds, was by 

 far the most notable. 



The trees which go to form the great forests of Borneo are not 

 adapted to remain isolated, although in most cases provided at 

 their bases with broad expansions in the shape of buttresses which 

 widen considerably below and contribute greatly to the stability of 

 the trunk. If each tree could grow without having others near it 

 its trunk would branch sooner and not grow to so great a height 



1 Orang in Malay means " man." The " Orang Boyan " are thus the 

 natives of the island of Boyan, as " Orang Ingris " are the English, " Orang 

 Blanda " the Dutch, " Orang putili " or " white men," all Europeans, " Orang 

 Dayak " the Dyaks, " Orang Malayn " the Malays, etc. 



