vn] RIVERSIDE PLANTS ON THE SARAWAK 



Lumnitzera coccinea, Exccpcaria agallocha, Mgiceras major, and 

 Sonneratia alba ; all shrubs, which grow in the foremost ranks. 

 True mangroves, or Rhizophorce, are represented by three species : 

 Brughiera gymnorhiza, B. cylindrica, and Randelia Rheedei, and 

 mixed with these, two trees are always found — Carapa moluccensis 

 and Avicennia officinalis. 



Two of the most characteristic plants on the banks of the 

 Sarawak river, near the sea, are the nibong, already mentioned, 

 and the nipa. The first is an invaluable palm to the natives, who 

 generally use its straight and tough stems in house building, es- 

 pecially as piles. Splitting the stems longitudinally, they obtain 

 long, slender slips, which, tied neatly together side by side with 

 rotang, form " lante," a light, strong flooring which is excellent for 

 houses and boats. 



The nipa palm (Nipa fruticans) forms usually a dense hedge in 

 front of the masses of arboreal vegetation as far as salt water extends. 

 It evidently requires a swampy ground, on which it spreads its big 

 stems, which resemble both in aspect and dimensions those of a 

 coconut palm lying on the ground, while like the latter they show 

 the big cicatrices left by detached leaves. But the nipa stems are 

 flattened, and from their lower side, in contact with the ground, a 

 number of rootlets grow. The head of the palm, too, is never 

 raised any height from the soil. The fronds of the nipa, which may 

 exceed thirty feet or more in length, resemble those of the coco 

 (Fig. 19). 



The uses of the nipa are innumerable, and from it are produced 

 sugar, wine, vinegar, and salt. The fruits grow close together, 

 forming a great ball a foot across, and each fruit, when immature, 

 contains, like the coconut, a watery liquid and the soft edible albu- 

 men of the seed. Of the young white leaves bags are made, and 

 mats called " kajang," very serviceable for covering boats or 

 making partitions in houses. From the same leaves, taking away 

 the harder part and leaving the epidermis, cigarette papers are 

 obtained, and the " rokos," or cigarettes, which Malays continually 

 smoke with great zest, are all thus rolled. The nipa serves many 

 other purposes, and the natives, practised in the art and craft of 

 backwoodsmanship, know how to avail themselves of it under a 

 variety of circumstances. 



Boating along the Sarawak river at low tide below Kuching, 

 an infinite number of living creatures can be observed on the 

 exposed mud-banks. Small amphibious fish with prominent eyes, 

 which look as if they were being forced out of their orbits (Perioph- 

 thalmus Kolreuteri), flop about with extraordinary agility ; whilst 

 quaint blue crabs move backwards and sideways in all directions. 

 Here and there singular straight elongated bodies resembling horns, 

 conical in shape, and from one to two feet in length, may be seen 



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