Ch. X.] JTJNaLE-TEEES OF LABUAN. 155 



Where the ground is most moist two species of Nepenthes 

 (pitcher plants) occur in abundance — one having a large 

 mottled cup and lid, and the other a slender pitcher, of a 

 green colour. In aU the drier parts a species of grass 

 abounds, which becomes a perfect nuisance to the pedestrian, 

 from the fact that its barbed seeds detach themselves at the 

 slightest touch and stick into the clothes, particularly if they 

 be of wooUeh or flannel, in such profusion as to be very 

 iiritating to the skin. After a walk the feet and legs bristle 

 like a hedgehog from the innumerable little spears, which, 

 from some textures, can be best removed by scraping with 

 the back of a knife ; while from other materials they require 

 to be laboriously extracted one by one, at a great exercise 

 of patience. The English ladies call it love grass, from its 

 sticking qualities. 



No portion of the island is very elevated ; and the coun- 

 try has a desolate appearance, the soil being sandy and 

 very loose, and the vegetation heath-like. In other parts, 

 where the jungle has been cleared, a thick tangled under- 

 growth flourishes; but the few trees left here and there, 

 having lost the shelter of the jungle, have died, and rear 

 their naked and giant arms into the air, only adding to the 

 dreary efiiect of the scene. In this part of the island the 

 most agreeable features are the cocoa-nut plantations, and 

 the Casuarinas which grow by the roadside ; but the real 

 untouched portions of the jungle have a peculiar charm of 

 their own. The trees in these situations attain truly mag- 

 nificent proportions ; and no more splendid sight of the 

 kind ever met my eyes than in the midst of the clearance at 

 the coal workings on the north end of the island. Standing 

 upon a shght eminence, whichever way we turned our eyes 

 they were met by .an almost impenetrable wall of lofty and 



