VOYAGE FROM IXDIA TO SIAM AXD AIALACCA. 127 



remains on the fruit with the expanded six to eight lobes of the 

 calyx, while all other parts of the blossom do not outlast a day, 

 and drop off. The flower opens at nine o'clock, and if one only 

 touched the filaments at midday they would fall off. The people 

 told me that the fruit is eaten by the natives, but that it had very 

 little flesh and a sour taste, but the trees were filled with monkeys 

 searchmg for these fruits. The complete description is among the 

 descriptions of other Siamese plants, under the name of Lampu.* 



"We only saw an old man and a woman in a small boat, who 

 picked the fruits which hung near the water, and which therefore 

 the monkeys could not reach. One of these fruits, which was 

 ripe, fell into the water close to my boat. I wanted to get it but 

 it sank sti^aight down to the bottom, and as the water here was 

 several men's depth. I could not fish it out again. Further on I 

 found a great quantity of a kind of Acanthus, very much like 

 ilicifolius. The stalks, leaves and blossoms are only in so far 

 different that one could not mix up the two kinds, I shall des- 

 cribe it. The blossoms are much smaller and white. t 



At a place which was not so much overgrown with trees, and 

 wliich seemed to lie somewhat higher, though it was also covered 

 with water. I went on shore alone. The leaves of the grasses were 

 mostly growing as high as 1 was tall, but there were no fruits. 

 Scirpus Irigifnus and Agrostis cruciata were rarely to be seen: 

 they grew about two and half feet high. A Verhesina with lancet 

 shaped leaves, was the only new thhig I came across. Some sort 

 of paths had been made between the grasses, which I intended 

 to follow, but they led to deep holes, which circumstance made 

 me more prudent. At last I came to a deep ditch, where the 

 ti-ack seemed to be beaten most, but I was not able to discover any 

 trace of a path on the opposite side : this made me suspect that 

 those paths might have been made by big crocodiles. I had 

 already advanced about one hundred feet, but I now hastily tried 

 to regain the boat. After this I found some new kinds of grass, 

 which I intend to examine more closely. A -violent shower of 

 rain made me long very much for our arrival at Bankok. and we 

 reached the town towards evening, after having been obhged to 

 fight against the wind and the current for three German miles. 



10. — Early this mornmg I surveyed the neighbourhood, but 

 it was impossible to go out. The house where I stayed was 

 * A Barringtoma. f Acanthus elracteatus, Tahl. 



