112 VOYAGE FKOM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA, 



narrow that we could not use our cars on either side. The 

 plants which had the longest roots underneath the water were 

 the kaldeer with the brilliant red, prickly fruits, the points of 

 which fall off like an aperculum. Their roots went down as deep 

 as two fathoms, and to them stuck some kinds of grass, as Oryza 

 ((viinii, Tizania, etc. We passed the place where the beautiful 

 white clay is found; the water was very high, and so the shore 

 formed by the clay was only half a foot high. The Chinese 

 export this clay to Java and China, and pay the proprietor, 

 who is a Malay, a certain amount for each pikul. 



In Batavia this clay is said to be used for forming fac§ 

 masks, but I could not learn in what way they use it in China. 



After we had passed many narrow places, we had at last a 

 wider stretch of water though it was overgrown with a high 

 kind of grass wdiich was a Scirpus. The Involucre was two 

 leaved spreading with a three-angled point and the flowers crow^d- 

 ed in panciles, and further in the stream everything was covered 

 with Melahnca Leucadendron which is here used as agricultural 

 wood, the transplanting of which is managed in the following 

 manner. 



In the dry months, which according to the opinion prevail- 

 ing here are from January to the end of March (though it rains 

 at least once a week), they hew down the full-grown trees and 

 cut off the branches bearing the seed ; they let these dry, to- 

 gether with other shrubs and grasses, and then set fire to them 

 and let them all burn down ; it is said, that this burning makes 

 the Melalenc;! grow more luxuriantly. One could distinctly see 

 the trace of fire on some half-grown trees by the black bark. It 

 is certain that the seeds, roots, trees, etc., can stand fire in India. 

 I have had a proof thereof in the Palliattie mountains, where a 

 special kind of Euphorbia, with a bulby root, a beautiful Ba'eria, 

 the trees of the Jl/jrobaicti/ns Citvinus and the Sautalum rubraiu, 

 had been exposed to the same treatment, as the bark showed 

 still traces of burned coal. 



At last, at ten o'clock, we arrived and I went immediatly 

 hito the jungle, where I found many new kinds and species, 

 which it will take me some time to classify. 



Specially I found a kind of palm v/ith simple feathered-leaves; , 

 it had no stem, and the stalks of the leaves were very prickly. 

 To my annoyance, 1 could not detect any male blossoms. The 



