158 COLLECTING EXPEDITION TO BATANG. PADANG: 
orange. Each pale blue-green stripe having three spots of a 
deeper shade of the same colour on it. 
During the night the rain came down in torrents, and as 
the roof leaked badly we had a very disturbed and uncom- 
fortable night. 
On the 16th we ascended a ridge near the camp, and after 
many hours of climbing, through a singularly dense and 
thorny undergrowth, we came to a sort of saddle where there 
were some small pools of water, at a height of 5,890 feet, 
where all decided to camp. 
While the huts were building we went on up the hill and 
reached the lower of the three points of the mountain, as seen 
from Tapa, but everything was wrapped in thick drifting fog, 
so we could see nothing of the view. 
Again we had a miserable night, as the hut leaked worse 
than that at the last night’s camp, and there was nothing for it 
but to roll up our bedding, place it so as to escape the worst 
leaks, and sit on it, while the rain lasted, which, unfortunately, 
was a good many hours. Next morning, the 17th, we again 
ascended the hill, and reached the highest point, and left a 
bottle there with a record of the ascent. We had our bedding 
and other things brought up, and laid out to dry, but it soon 
began raining and after waiting till between 11 and 12 o'clock 
and seeing no indication of the clouds either lifting or drifting 
away, we reluctantly returned to the camp and packed up, 
and started down to the permanent camp on Ulu Batang 
Padang, which we reached at a little before 6 p.m. 
On making this ascent I fully expected to see a great change 
in the flora as the summit was reached, and was much disap- 
pointed to find it nearly the same as that on Gunong Batu 
Puteh. 
There was one very handsome Rhododendron, with large 
white flowers delicately tinged with apple-blossom pink, 
growing freely and plentifully on the extreme bush covered 
summits. Another member of the same family had tiny 
bright yellow, bell-shaped flowers and small roundish, shiny, 
dark green leaves. One very marked difference between the 
flora of Batu Puteh and Brumbun is the total absence of fir 
trees on the latter mountain. The small bamboo called by 
