JN SUMATRA. 251 



The ascent of the Karang-nata, as the principal peak is 

 called, was by no means easy, as its white cliffs — which from 

 below glinted prettily through the vegetation — were almost 

 perpendicular, and had to be scrambled up by digging one's 

 finsrers and toes well into the crevices. It has several caves full 

 of stalactites, one especially being of great dimensions, whose 

 numerous chambers were tenanted by thousands of bats, whose- 

 stifling guano-like odour met me half-way down. The hill is 

 composed of a broad band of crystalline limestone bedded' 

 between Devonian slates tilted up on edge, which at the base 

 of the hill run under the diluvium of the Palembang Plain. 

 The larger cave is in its interior quite protected from the severe 

 effects of the weather, but it bears evident traces of what must, 

 I think, be attributed to sea erosion. The summit is a vast 

 rockery of disjointed blocks, with trees growing in the crevices, 

 their stems, as well as the crannies and faces of the rocks, 

 loaded with ferns and orchids {Cmlogyne, spp.) bearing trosses 

 of flowers more than a yard in length ; with various species of 

 Me'astoma exhibiting bright flowers or pink fruits, but princi- 

 pally with a shrubby species, in great profusion, of Cyrtandrese, 

 having a flower of a rich purple-blue colour, which to my great 

 satisfaction I perceived to belong to a new species, which T 

 have named Boea Trevhii* and probably to a new genus of 

 that beautiful family. During the ten days — to my regret all 

 the time I could spare — of my stay in this region I made 

 large additions — some 200 species — to my herbarium among 

 the specimens of trees, one being a species of nutmeg with 

 fruit as large as the largest orange. 



Here, too, I noticed a singular case of ants milking a winged 

 Hemipteron, which of course could not be kept in captivity, 

 as they do many species of the wingless aphides. The 

 Hemipteron sat quietly, evidently enjoying the operation, and 

 at frequent intervals discharged a drop of matter, which was 

 eagerly sipped up by the ants. 



I have already spoken of the great beauty of the riverside 

 vegetation coming down the Rupit which ran through a 

 less great forest than that between Napal Litjin and Muara 



* So named in honour of Dr. Melchior Treuh, the esteemed Director of the 

 Botanical Gardens in Buitonzorg, t» whose kind aid and influeixe I owed 

 much during jiy stay in the Arctiipelago. 



