i] OUR HOUSE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS 



many of the less known islands of Malaysia and New Guinea ; but 

 nowhere did I meet with primeval forests so rich, so varied, and so 

 peculiar in their flora as in the vicinity of Kuching. 



The reason why so primeval a forest is to be found so near a 

 populous centre may very naturally be asked. It is more simple 

 than at first sight appears. To begin with, the capital of Sarawak 

 was formerly much lower down the river, where Santubong now 

 lies. Again, it must be remembered that, until lately, the Malay 

 population of the Bornean coast-land lived entirely by piracy, and 

 hardly thought of or attempted anything in the way of agriculture ; 

 while even those Malays who had settled along the rivers of the 

 interior were more often engaged in trying to cheat the Land- 

 Dyaks than in cultivating the soil. With the country in a con- 

 stant state of war and anarchy, the refuge of pirates from all parts 

 of the Indian archipelago, now siding with the Malays now with 

 the Sea-Dyaks, agriculture was, in fact, impossible. Yet this was 

 the condition of Sarawak before Sir James Brooke came to the 

 rescue. It is therefore not surprising that the forest around Kuching 

 should be still unmodified over an area of many miles towards the 

 interior, and that the Land-Dyaks, more peaceful in their habits 

 than the Sea-Dyaks, found it safer to establish themselves in 

 less accessible localities, far from the sea and from the Malay 

 settlements. 



But I must lay aside the past history of Sarawak to complete 

 the description of the neighbourhood of our bungalow, the scene 

 of our first scientific explorations. I have already remarked that 

 the primeval forest was on one side close to our house. Xo kind of 

 pathway, however, led to it, and in order to reach it a dense scrub 

 had to be crossed which had grown where the old trees of the 

 forest had been destroyed. The flora of this scrub was very 

 uninteresting, and after the first day got none of my attention. 

 Westwards, however, in the direction of Mattang, only a short 

 stretch of bare ground intervened, and a good path led at once 

 into the great forest. Our bungalow was in the midst of park-like 

 ground, the meadow patches being formed by a small grass (Andro- 

 fiogon aciculatus, Retz.), the well-known "love grass" of Anglo- 

 Indians, so called because its prickly glumes or ears are easily 

 detached and fasten themselves on the dress of the passer-by in 

 the most tenacious and inconvenient manner. Round the Rajah's 

 palace the gardeners are continually cutting it, and have succeeded 

 in converting it into fine, green, soft and close-cropped lawns. In 

 Sarawak this " love grass " is the only plant with which lawns can 

 be made, and when well kept the inconvenience caused by the 

 seeds and their involucra is much diminished. The. plant, which is 

 a stranger to Borneo, as are nearly all the grasses found there, 

 owes its wide diffusion to its tenacious and too affectionate ears. 



