178 JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 



Islands that lie at the Eastern extremity of the Straits of Malacca. 

 The place itself is advancing rapidly, and will soon become one 

 of the most populous settlements to the Eastwards. The forests 

 that now form my delight will gradually give place to man and 

 his habitations, but they are more interesting to me in the present 

 state. Flora here luxuriates in endless varieties, where she finds 

 soil, climate and everything congenial. 



I find many, or most of my Penang acquaintances with others 

 surpassing them in magnificence. Witness two most splendid 

 species of Nepenthes,™'' of which I have procured perfect speci- 

 mens, male and female, and have completed two drawings, to 

 which I flatter myself it will not be easy to bring a parallel. I 

 am sure they will glad your eyes, when they shall be submitted 

 to them. 



Quale portentum neque militaris 



Napalia in latis alit esculetis, 



Nee Indiae tellus generat, novarum 

 Stirpium nutrix. 

 I have found here another specimen of the new Tacca, 10G in 

 fruit which I had not before seen. The Gambir, Uncaria Ganibir 

 is here extremely cultivated; I did not meet with a single plant 

 of it at Penang. Among the new plants I have ascertained are 

 the Lytlirum Pemphis 107 Xyris indica, 108 a Fagrcea which I think 

 may be new, 100 with large splendid flowers. It has led me to the 

 discovery that No. 131 of your specimens, is the Fagrcea fragrans 

 of Roxburgh at least as far as I can decide from the abbreviated 

 character, which is all I have. Pray is Roxburgh's Ardisia umbel- 

 lata truly distinct from Swartz's A. coriacea? 110 I find here that 



105. Nepenthes Rafflesiana, and N. ampuUaria, — both described by 

 Jack, and the descriptions put into proof which was reprinted bv Sir 

 William Hooker in 1835 (vide note No. 51, p. 163). 



106. Tacca cristata, see note No. 39, p. 161. 



107. Pemphis acidula, Forst., — a rather rare plant on the coast of 

 Singapore island. 



108. Xyris indica, Linn, is a weed of such places as rice-fields, and 

 is found in the north of the Malay Peninsula down as far as Malacca. 

 Through the Peninsula southwards to Singapore, occurs X. anceps, Lamk., and 

 it is similar enough to be easily mistaken. Although we have reason to be- 

 lieve that there were rice-fields in Singapore previously, it is more likely 

 that Jack named X. anceps as X. indica, than that X. indica has been lost 

 through the abandonment of the cultivation for rice. 



109. Doubtless Fagrcea auriculata, Jack, the description of which ap- 

 peared in the Malayan Miscellanies, ii. (1822) p. 82. 



There are in Wallich's beautiful Plantce Asiaticce Rariores, certain 

 plates, that of Fagrcea auricidata being one, bearing no artist's name: 

 and in several cases the reason is to be traced to the circumstance that a 

 friend of Wallich had supplied the plate. The plate of Jackia ornata is 

 in the same category. It may be suggested from this, but unfortunately 

 without proof, that Jack had supplied the drawings for these two plates, 

 unsigned, so that the published illustrations passed out from the press 

 without a name on them. 



110. Apparently distinct. Ardisia umbellata, Both, is A. humilis Vahl. 

 See note 93. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



