oe: 
XV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MWEDAH PEAK. 
By H. C. Rosinson, C.M.Z.S., M.B.O.U., and 
Ca BODEN IKLOSS, F.ZeSea ee Osi. 
ie tN TRO DUCTION: 
Kedah Peak, or Gunong Jerai, to use its Malay name, is a 
familiar landmark to all voyagers through the Straits of 
Malacca, dominating as it does the roadstead of Penang. 
It is situated about 22 miles NNE of Penang with its 
summit about 6 miles from the sea and according to the latest 
computations attains a height of 3,976 feet being, if we except 
the Bintang Range on the Perak border, considerably the 
highest mountain in the State of Kedah. It is quite isolated, 
standing on a base that does not exceed 50 square miles, and is 
separated by low land not exceeding 50 feet in elevation from 
all other hills. Its slopes to the north and west are much 
steeper than those to the south and east and vertical rock faces, 
many hundreds of feet in height, exist. Geologically the 
mountain appears to consist of sandstones and quartzites 
of varying degrees of hardness, traversed by veins of quartz, 
while in one or two places deposits of haematite are found. 
It is well watered, being cut into by three great valleys which 
have been utilized for a water supply to the neighbouring dis- 
tricts and the cliffs are ornamented in several places by 
cascades which are very conspicuous after wet weather of any 
duration. 
On the lower slopes the forest is now poor, timber cutting 
having been, until the last few years quite unrestricted, but a 
good deal of Meranti (Shorea and Hopea spp) is found up to 
about 2,000 ft., while Medang (Lauraceae) is also abundant. 
There is but little hard wood except in the first two or three 
hundred feet where it has almost all been cut out, and but little 
jelotong. Wesaw no taban of any kind. The stemless palms 
are by no means numerous and the forest generally is dry and 
with but little undergrowth. 
On the Eastern side above about 1,800 feet where timber 
cutting ceases, the character of the forest changes and on the 
ridges great numbers of orchids begin to appear. Conifers, 
Agathis, Dacrydium (spp.) and Podocarpus are abundant and 
large shrubby Rhododendrons with salmon, lemon-yellow and 
white flowers begin to show themselves. In the damper hol- 
lows and among rocks near the streams a scarlet Balanophora 
was very abundant. Many of the ridges and flatter areas from 
2,500 feet to the summit were clothed with a zerophitic vegeta- 
tion, amongst which Boeckia frutescens, Tristania, Leptosperimum 
and Vaccimum were the commonest shrubs, while in damp 
hollows amongst the rocks and amongst the coarse grasses and 
sedges that covered the more open spaces Burymaniia longfolia, 
