IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



Nephelium, similar to the common rambutan {Nephelium lappaceum), 

 but yet distinct. At the time of my visit they were as yet unknown 

 to science, but they have since been described by Professor Radlkofer, 

 of Munich, from the specimens then obtained by me. 



These fruits differ slightly in external appearance, but are similar 

 in the flavour of the pulp which envelops the seeds. Are they forest 

 species, brought and planted round the houses, or are they hybrids 

 between wild species and the cultivated Nephelium lappaceum ? 

 I am unable to answer these queries, which naturally arise in the 

 mind of a botanist. It is certainly an unusual thing to find cultivated 

 in one village five congeneric species of excellent fruits as yet un- 

 known to science. 



From Tappo Kakas various roads, or rather pathways, lead 

 into Dutch territory, and as it was my intention later to cross the 

 border, I collected all available information about them. Descend- 

 ing Gunong Wa on the side opposite to that which I had gone up, 

 one comes to the upper part of the course of the Sambas river, 

 and from here a track leads south, which is probably the easiest 

 way from Upper Sarawak into the Dutch possessions. Slightly to 

 the eastward, between Gunong Wa and Gunong Sikkom, is a 

 pathway which leads to the headwaters of the Landak river. A 

 third route, still farther east, passes between Gunong Badji and 

 Gunong Pennerrissen, leading to the village of Sango, near which 

 flows the Sikayan or Karangan, an affluent of the Kapuas. ■ 



From Senna, also, one can get into the basin of the Kapuas. 

 The road leaves Mount Pennerrissen to the west, crosses the Sodos 

 hill, from which the Sadong takes its source, and reaches Senankan, 

 near the sources of the river of this name. The first part, from 

 Senna, can be got over in a day and a half. From Senankan, five 

 or six hours' march, without any notable hill climbs, takes one 

 to Sempio, and thence to Mrao and Sintas, all villages on the 

 Karangan river. 



The Pennerrissen group is an isolated elevation which is not 

 connected with any extensive mountain range, and lies between 

 the territory of Sarawak and that of Sambas and Pontianak. From 

 its northern slopes flow the waters of the eastern arm of the 

 Sarawak river, and those of the Sadong ; while from the southern 

 slopes rise the Sambas, Landak, and Sikayan rivers, the latter, as 

 I have said before, an affluent of the Kapuas. 



On November 21st I was back at Pankalan Ampat, where 

 I remained the following day to collect the many interesting plants 

 I had noticed passing through. Amongst them was a wild man- 

 gosteen — known to the natives as bua kandon — (Garcinia Beccarii, 

 Pierre), which I had noticed elsewhere on the banks of this branch 

 of the Sarawak river. It is a small tree producing fruits similar 

 in size and in shape to small wild apples, with a rosy yellowish rind. 



130 



