22 ON THE DISPERSAL OF SEEDS BY MAMMALS. 



Marlea nohilis and Eiigenias which have a firm texture and 

 are not very hard. 



Ungidata. — The Ungulates of the Malay Peninsula include 

 the elephant ; rhinoceros, one or two species ; tapir, wild 

 OK {Bos gaums) \ deer, one or two species; mouse deer, 

 two or more species ; and the wild pig. To which must 

 be added as a seed disperser the buffalo {Babahis arnee). 

 These animals act more as scatterers of seed attached to 

 their hair or hides, but probably also, to a certain extent, 

 by swallowing grass-seeds in the herbage. The first four 

 are inhabitants of the densest jungles, especially of the hill 

 regions, and feed chiefly on the bushes and leaves of trees. 

 They make long tracks through the dense forests, and wander 

 often togreat distances. I have seen many seedlings, apparently 

 of some small herb, springing up in dung of elephants dropped 

 in their tracks. The wild ox lives, to a small extent, on fruit. 

 One brought down to Singapore ate greedily the fruits of the 

 Sentol {Sandoricinn indiciivi). 



Scoparia dulcis L., is a small herb introduced accidentally 

 from South America which has been widely scattered b> the water 

 buffalo. In Pahang, I traced it up the Pahangand Tembeling 

 Riversasfar as the buffalo went. On sandbanks in the river where 

 for some reason buffaloes had not gone this plant was absent, 

 and I saw it and also Cleoine viscosa springing from masses of 

 buffalo-dung, in several places. Many of the smaller herbs 

 and especially grasses and sedges must be distributed by this 

 animal in this way, and Fiinbristylis miliacea, a sedge very abund- 

 ant in marshes where these animals go is called by the Malays 

 Rumpiit TaJd Kerbau (buffalo's dung grass) for this reason. 



Rodentia. — The important seed distributors in the family 

 are the rats and the squirrels. 



The rats and mice of the Malay Peninsula are as yet very 

 little known. I have seen at the foot of Mount Ophir, in dense 

 jungle by a stream, a large reddish rat eating the fallen fruit 

 of a wild species of mango, of which it might easily have 

 borne off fruits to its holes under the boulders to some distance 

 from the tree. 



There are a great number of herbaceous plants, the fruits 



