28 THE FLOKA OF SIXG AFORE. 



was felled, partly for the value of the timber and partly for cul- 

 tivation. Later a very large proportion of the cleared ground 

 was abandoned, and became covered with secondary growth, or 

 lalang, and every year still sees the disappearance of some 

 woodland, so that in several of the localities quoted for certain 

 plants in this list, such as Ang Mo Kio, few traces of any native 

 plants can now be found. The names of many villages and dis- 

 tricts are taken from trees which doubtless plentiful fifty years 

 ago are now either very scarce or quite extinct. Such are 

 Kranji (Diahum,) Changi (Balanocarpus), Tampenis (Sloefia side- 

 roxylon), Tanjong Ru, the Cape of Casuarinas, Kampong Gelam, 

 the village of Melaleuca. Extensively as the indigenous flora has 

 been destroyed in this wav, I have succeeded in rinding most of 

 the plants collected here by Wallich in 1822 ; and of those men- 

 tioned in his Catalogue which I have not recovered, some at least 

 were evidently wrongly localised, having been probably collected 

 in Penang. Many of the trees, however, which were probably 

 formerly more abundant, are represented now by single specimens. 

 A few fairly large and representative tracts of jungle remain, 

 and though in most cases much of the more valuable timber has 

 been removed, these contain the most varied and interesting 

 portions of the flora. Among the biggest trees therein are the 

 IHpterocarpea 7 , Dyera, Dichopsis, Irvingia, Kvmpassia, species of 

 Mangifera, Artocarpus and Tarrietia. Mixed with these are 

 numerous smaller trees and shrubs of all orders, with rattans, 

 and other palms, and especially in rocky spots and damp water- 

 courses, are ground orchids, Scitaminece, aroids, ferns, Ebermaiera, 

 Pentaphrayma, CyrtandrcB and many other smaller plants. Here 

 too grow the curious little saprophytes Thismia, Sciapkila, Aphyl- 

 lorchis, Burmannia, etc. Many climbing plants such as Cncaria, 

 Willughbeia, Bauhinia, Strychnos and Gnetum form huge lianes 

 climbing to the tops of the trees and covering them with a mat 

 of foliage. On the branches of the loftiest trees grow many 

 epiphytes not met with elsewhere, orchids, ferns, such as the 

 rare Davallia triphylla, Rhododendron, Vaccinium and Dischidia, 

 and it is interesting to note that many of these plants, which in 

 the low country grow only on this elevated position, are to be 

 met with as terrestrial or rock plants at greater elevations in the 

 peninsula. The banks of the larger streams and rivers and a 



