176 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



the beat at the foot of the mountains was very great in the 



afternoon. 



27. — During- the night it was just as cold as it had been 

 hot in the afternoon. There was mist and heavy dew towards 

 morning, which revivified the plants. I should have liked to go 

 out earl}" in the morning, but there were many hindrances, until 

 at last I got hold of a woman, who could speak Portuguese a 

 little ; she brought with her a boy who could climb the trees. I 

 went out at about nine o'clock and passed a temple, which stood 

 some fathoms above the sea on a little hill ; broad stone steps led 

 up to it. I saw here upon a high tree a parasitic plant ; its sim- 

 ple racemes were ear-shaped and as long as a hand is wide; its 

 stalks and blossoms were^of the most beautiful carmine colour ; 

 the fruit was whitish ; some projecting anthers stood out against 

 this beautiful colour. The tree however stood at the side of 

 the steep precipice, and the parasitic plant grew on the outmost 

 branches, and so nobody would undertake to get me some of it. 

 I continued on my excursion and found on the pedestals of the 

 ordinary columns of the temple several ferns. On a stem of 

 more than two men's height I found a peculiar kind of pepper 

 with oblong leaves. I hastened to penetrate deeper inland and 

 found many things unknown to me. A peculiar kind of Nyctan- 

 thes was in blossom, and a Panicum with a long panicle, which 

 however was so rough that the branches intertwined. I also saw a 

 peculiar kind of Ruellia, with large blue blossoms, climbing among 

 the shrubs. My real wish was to find the Cambogia gutta tree, 

 which grows here frequently and also the L. A. both of which 

 my guide promised to show me. AVe hurried to a temple, which 

 she said was the nearest place where both the much desired plants 

 grew, but when we arrived there everything was wrong, and the 

 people said that they grew half a day's journey further, near an- 

 other temple situated near Eben. This news disappointed me 

 very much, because it was by this time already midday, and my 

 departure had been fixed for the morrow ; so I went to a big 

 forest lying- near, though they all dissuaded me on account of 

 the wild animals living there, as tigers and rhinoceros, but I 

 ventured to advance about 500 steps ; first there was very dense 

 and thorny underwood, but a narrow footpath helped me on. 

 Most of the trees were unknown to me ; a plant which I recog- 

 nised as belonging to the Monandria, grew very often in these 



