xvi] IN SEARCH OF ROTAXG JERNANG 



Having passed the night in one of the Dyak houses at Singhi, I 

 started at 8 a.m. on July 5, guided by several Dyaks and accompanied 

 by two of my Malays, for the locality where the rotang jernang 

 grows. I had brought with me supplies for several days, and every- 

 thing necessary for camping in the forest, besides a good quantity 

 of paper for drying botanical specimens. 



The road at first led up the Singhi hill, where, from time to time, 

 we came upon Dyak houses, passing through perfect woods of fruit 

 trees, mostly durians, and great clumps of bamboos. We descended 

 on the opposite side by a steep and slippery pathway, and, on getting 

 to the plain, found the road even worse, having to cross swampy 

 ground in which we sank up to the knees. Here grew many sago 

 and baroch palms ; the latter naturally sown by animals ; the sago 

 originally planted. When a stem of sago palm is cut down, new 

 shoots grow out from its stump, which at first run along the ground, 

 and then rise vertically up, producing new stems, without any kind 

 of cultivation. 



Having left the swampy tract behind us, we crossed undulating 

 ground covered with secondary forest vegetation, which farther on 

 merges into primeval forest, much easier to get through. We next 

 ascended a spur of Gunong Mattang, about 1,000 feet high, along 

 whose crest we continued for a long while on a sort of plateau. It is 

 a locality where liran (Pholidocarpus majadum, Becc), jattao 

 (Eugeissonia insignis, Becc). nisang (Licuala), and other smaller 

 palms abound, together with a great variety of rotangs. We next 

 climbed several hills and crossed small valleys, where the vegetation 

 was of a very wild and primitive character. Amongst the more im- 

 portant plants I met with here was a fine Anonacea (Goniothalamus 

 lateritius, sp. n. (P.B. No., 3610), a small tree which was remarkable, 

 even at a distance, on account of its large flowers of a brick-red colour 

 which cluster in great numbers low down, near the ground, around 

 the warty stem. 1 I also found a small but very graceful species 

 of PhalcBnopsis, with the perianth yellowish-green blotched with 

 blood-red, and the labellum reddish. 



After a continuous and rapid march of seven hours, we got to 

 the banks of the Raju torrent, the main branch of the Burung- 

 bungan, a small stream I have already mentioned which reaches 

 the sea opposite Pulo Satang, and whose mouth I crossed on my 

 way back from Tanjong Datu. We found there a lanko in fairly 

 good condition, which saved us the trouble of constructing one. 



1 This Goniothalamus appears to be allied to G. Riedleyi, King, which 

 has also large flowers clustered at the base of the stem ; but it apparently 

 differs by its glabrous leaves, which are 10 to 12 inches long, with numerous 

 lateral nervures. The flowers of G. lateritius are some 2\ to 3 inches across, 

 and are pedunculate, these peduncles being at least as long again as the 

 flower. 



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