122 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



transformed into a swamp, and saw some small trees of the 

 Gambier, which had been planted on a hill. Some of these trees, 

 the oldest were about a span thick above the root, but soon after 

 divided into branches, which grew slantingly upwards, and to- 

 wards the end they bent down again. 



They require a stony grassy soil with mountain mould, like 

 that of the hill were they grew in this instance. The stones 

 were nothing else but porous tufa in small pieces, at least 1 

 thought them to be, so as far as I could judge from their 

 appearance. The mountain mould and the stones were much 

 intermixed with a fine sort of yellow mica. 



Wild Cardamoms grew among the shrubs, also the Nutans 

 alpinea with the bending stalk, but I could not find one single 

 blossom. Deeper in the jungle I found many Amomum Scyphiferum 

 and Amomuin Leonurum. The latter has a beautiful smell and 

 the edges of the leaves are of a beautiful gold yellow, but the 

 leaves of the Scupldforum are slightly wavy. There was another 

 Monandrist which had leaves half as long again as a man. The 

 Malays whom I had taken with me, said that the blossoms grow at 

 the end of their stem or leaves ; the plant was unknown to me. 

 The Chinese bamboo grew wild, but it had neither leaves nor blos- 

 soms. I saw many kinds of wild Mangas ; they were just beginning 

 to have new leaves and were developing the buds of the blossoms. 

 There were also many climbing plants; they held firmly on to 

 the trees ; and seemed to be several kinds of Pothos and of the 

 beautiful fig. A shower of rain put a stop to my zeal in 

 botanizing. Afterwards I made a little excursion to the sea- 

 shore, which however one could not reach, on account of the 

 deep mud. On a fig tree, which had beautiful orange-coloured 

 fruit, not larger than a small cherry, I saw a Buceros ; my 

 presence did not seem desirable to him and he flew away into 

 the wood. There was a small kind of the so-called kaldeer, it 

 had fruits, but I was not so lucky as to get a male blossom. The 

 whole tree was not as high as a man, and the stem hardly as 

 thick as a hand. I tried to find some peculiarities in the leaves, 

 but could see none^ and so 1 had to stick to the fruits, which are 

 almost as round as a ball. Many of these fruits grow on a com- 

 mon, stalk; at one end they have a horny style, with bent ends, 

 which when the fruit is ripe drops off like a (7«////>^o«. These 

 Kacemes were yet young and had therefore not the beautiful 



