20 THE FLORA OF LOWER SIAM. 



nature in such a place as this. When a flood comes tearing 

 clown, it clears 3-4 yards on each side of its banks and leaves 

 a slimy top dressing with no doubt many seeds from 

 elsewhere. 



The vegetation that succeeds a crop of paddy has no 

 more resemblance to that which preceded the paddy than the 

 crop of weeds that succeeds the corn on the hillside has to 

 the heather. In those spaces one often finds plants and yet 

 nowhere around are others (of the same kind) to be seen. 

 Where the seeds come from I cannot tell.' 



In an other letter he refers to the flowering seasons of 

 the different plants. " The Globbas commence to flower here 

 in May and flower into September. The Malvaceae season 

 commences two months later and also ends about two months 

 later. The orchids commence to flower about April." 



In Alor Stain the end of February I found the ricefield vege- 

 tation much dried up, Xyris indica was perished to the root, 

 leaves and scapes brown and rotten, Geissaspis was quite over 

 too as were many of the smaller ricefield plants, but on reaching 

 Perlis we: found the Geissasjris, Smithia and most of the rice- 

 field weeds in good flower. {Xyris indica however was dead) 

 Kanga, where I collected, however, is closer to the long range 

 of limestone hills and there was obviously more rain there, 

 or to be accurate the rainy season lasted longer. The same, 

 thing might be said of Setul where we found a little Xyris 

 indica not over. Lagerstroemia floribunda was still in flower 

 at Alor Sta but pretty well over in Setul. The native col- 

 lector with Mr. Kloss collected it in flower at Chong in Trang 

 in December.) 



Tongkah. The following account of a botanical excursion 

 to Kasum and Pungah by Mr. Curtis in 1896 was published 

 in a Garden Eeport the following year. As this Eeport is now 

 scarce and the account possesses some interest, I reprint it 

 here. 



" I left Penang in the S.S. Petrel, which is at present the 

 only steamer trading between this port and Tongkah, on the 

 afternoon of the 9th November, and arrived there the follow- 



Jour. Straits Branch 



