CHAPTER IX 



At Mattang Again — Wild Bees — An Uninhabited Mountain — Anti- 

 quity of the Forest — The Name Mattang — An Abundance of 

 Beautiful Plants — The Age of Trees — Rare Saprophytes and 

 Fungi in the Tropics — Adventitious Plants Around the China- 

 men's Houses — The Valley of Rotangs- — Spinous Plants — 

 The Mormolyce — Pityriasis gymnocephala — Hornbills — Argus 

 Pheasant and Nocturnal Lepidoptera — Alone at " Vallombrosa " 

 — A Storm in the Forest — Shooting at Buntal. 



ON my return from Mount Poe I went back to Mattang, where 

 I remained all September and a portion of October. The 

 collections I formed during this period were very important, for the 

 trees then in blossom were numberless. The honey-bees had also 

 taken advantage of the season, and flew in countless myriads from 

 flower to flower amongst the higher branches in search of nectar. 

 The flowers of the Dipterocarpeas appeared to be their especial 

 favourites. 



In Borneo there are two species of honey-bee ; one fairly large, 

 the other small. The first, Apis dorsata, is the lanyeh of the natives, 

 and is found in Central and Southern India, and throughout the entire 

 Malay Archipelago. 1 The small species, Apis nigrocincta, is known 

 in Sarawak by the name of miang. It occurs in Celebes, and even 

 in China. 



The nuang produces a small amount of wax and a large 

 quantity of honey, not of the best, perhaps, but nevertheless highly 

 relished by the Dyaks, who, in order to be able to indulge their 

 taste for it, rear these bees near their houses, just as we do our com- 

 mon species. The large Bornean bee, on the other hand, produces a 

 small quantity of excellent honey, and immense combs of wax, 

 which can often be seen hanging from the larger branches of giant 

 trees known as " tapang," which tower above the other denizens 

 of the forest, offering a safe and isolated refuge to the bees, who have 

 many enemies. Amongst these the most dangerous is the little 

 Malayan bear (Helarctos malayanus), who is a very glutton for honey 

 aud cares nothing for stings. 



1 In the Sarawak Gazette, May 2, 1881, it is stated that at Singapore 

 a swarm of bees settled on the mast of a steamer starting for Kuching and 

 returned with the same vessel to Singapore, leaving it afterwards for a tree 

 near the docks. 



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