IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



and his own into the bargain. I took with me, also, several of my 

 Malay boys. 



We left Marop at 7 a.m., and towards half -past eight reached the 

 Dyak village of Ruma N'gon ; 1 where I was obliged to stop a few 

 minutes in order not to disoblige the good villagers whose acquaint- 

 ance I had already made and who called out lustily, " Dudok-dudok ! " 

 (" Please, come in "). We then began the ascent of the hill to the 

 right of the path I had followed on my way to Tiang Laju. I had 

 decided to hurry on without stopping to look for plants ; but I should 

 indeed have been a poor botanist had I not made an exception of 

 two vegetable curiosities which I met on the way. One was a 

 Cordyceps, an extraordinary small clavate fungus, of a vivid red, 

 which grew on the head of a big black ant lying dead. The other 

 was that strange fungus-like parasite, Balanophora reflexa, which 

 I had already found on Gunong Wa, on the Upper Sarawak river. 

 But here it showed itself under a new aspect, for not only was it 

 parasitically growing on the roots of the shrub it had attacked, but 

 it had invaded the base of the trunk all round for about four inches 

 above the level of the ground, projecting from beneath the bark. 

 The species is deciduous, producing the flowers of each sex on separate 

 individuals ; but all those I found on this spot belonged to one sex. 

 It was this very circumstance that led me to suspect the existence 

 of an internal organic connection between separate individuals, so 

 that one of these parasites, having taken root on a host, could 

 produce others around it on the same plant, not by seeds or shoots, 

 but by special ramifications within the tissues of its host. 2 



Leaving Tiang Laju on our left, we got on the ridge formed by a 

 series of hills from which flow the waters which join to form the 

 Undup. We had now been several hours on the road, and had 

 reached the district where, according to my guides, Mayas were 

 to be met with. But although I kept a good look-out none could I 

 see. It was near eleven o'clock when Atzon directed my attention 

 to something moving on a big tree. Looking intently, I at last made 

 out something like red hair amidst the dense foliage. There could 

 be no longer any doubt — it was an orang recumbent on its nest. 

 The creature was evidently aware that it had been discovered, and 

 yet it showed no fear, nor did it attempt to fly. On the contrary, 

 it got up and looked down at us, and then descended lower amidst 

 the branches, as if it wished to get a better view of us, holding on to 

 the ropes of a creeper which hung from the branch on which it was 

 at first squatting. When I moved to take aim with my gun, it 

 hauled itself up again, and got back into its nest, pushing forward its 



1 " Ruma " means " house " in Malay ; " N'gon " was the name of the 

 chief who lived there. 



2 Cf. my memoir on the subject in Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, 

 vol. i. (1869), p. 65, tav. hi. iv. Firenze. 



164 



