BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO GUNONG JERAT. 2 7 



gation, as there seemed to be very many plants of interest, but 

 time did not permit of a careful search. The path was strewn 

 with fruits and seeds of various kinds fallen from the trees. At 

 one place were innumerable fruits of the ellow flowered Wormia 

 meliosmaefolia, at another those of the Minyak Kruen, Diptevo- 

 carpus pterygocalyx. Melannorkea Curtisii, one of the trees known 

 as Rengas, was loaded with its red-winged fruit and formed a 

 conspicuous object. The timber of this tree was in request by 

 the woodmen, and felled trunks could be seen lying" in the wood. 

 The heart wood is hard and dark red. and as there is much soft 

 white sap wood, the felled log's are left on the ground till the 

 termites have eaten off the sap wood, when the heart wood un- 

 touched by them is dragged to the foot of the hills on buffalo- 

 sleds. ' Vitex con'acea, a small tree, was bright with its innumer- 

 able violet flowers which attracted hosts of butterflies. Leeches 

 are rather troublesome in this part of the wood but disappeared 

 in the higher parts of the hill. The track is an easy gradient but 

 long and toilsome and was decided by my boy and the plant col- 

 lector to be worse than that up Mount Ophir. At one spot a tine 

 view towards the northwest is to be obtained, but otherwise 

 the path is entirely closed in by jungle. At about 2000 feet 

 altitude the flora suddenly changes. The trees are smaller and 

 more slender and the ground in the more rocky spots is covered 

 with orchids and ferns. The path traversed a thick scrub of the 

 curious fern Oleandra neriiformis as high as one's head. Here 

 and there were open grassy spots on which grew many pink- 

 flowered Sonerilas. white Hedyotis and yellow Xyris, the latter 

 being a new species described as Xi/n'.s Ridleyi. 7 



The turf was ploughed up at one of these grassy patches by 

 rhinoceros, but the animals were not seen. The camping ground 

 lies in the highest of these spots between two peaks of the range, 

 the highest of which lying towards the south is a thousand feet 

 above it, and is the summit of Gunong Jerai. There is a good 

 stream of water and plenty of firewood here. The rocks consist 

 of quartzite, sandstones, and micaceous schists and piles of 

 stones were pointed out as relies of tin mining operations 

 abandoned some few years previously. A little way below 

 the camp was an outcrop of iron ore (haematite). Close 

 to the hut were evident verv recent traces of a large tiger. 



