30 AN ACCOUNT OF A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION 



fore remarked I would suggest that at no great distance of time 

 the whole of this flat land was covered by the sea in which 

 Gunong Jerai and Gunong Perak stood out as Islands as 

 Penang does at the present day, and that the present flora of 

 Province Wellesley and Gunong Jerai came up from the South > 

 while the flora of the country from Bangtaphan to Alor Sta 

 came from Burmah south- wards. 



On the 24th, I and Ahmat the plant collector started early 

 for Gunong Geriang, or Elephant Hill, a large block of lime- 

 stone some miles from Alor Sta. I presume that the hill takes 

 its name from Eriang, a vulture, these birds being very com- 

 mon at times all over the northern part of the Peninsula. We 

 drove in a gharry about 2 miles to a point on the river, whence 

 we took a boat up stream, a jalor provided kindly for us by 

 Mr. Maxwell. A splendid Erythrina, a blaze of red, was seen 

 on the other side of the river. There are two species here 

 obviously native. Most at least of the species recorded as 

 peninsular in the Materials for a flora of the Malay Peninsula 

 are only cultivated plants. A single tree in the Batang Padang 

 valley, Perak is the only specimen of an Erythrina which I 

 have seen undoubtedly wild in the peninsula south of Alor 

 Sta. Crossing the river we turned up a tributary which runs 

 from Gunong Geriang and made our way up to a landing place 

 close to the hill base. On both sides of the river and in fact all 

 over the whole district the land is or has been under culti- 

 vation, and is covered with rice fields or villages, so that 

 whatever the original indigenous flora was, it is almost all gone 

 now. As we went along in the boat we collected any plant of 

 interest we saw, among these I noted that Leea rubra was ex- 

 tremely abundant as a tidal mud plant growing in great 

 abundance. I have never seen it in such a locality before, but 

 it occurs in Singapore in the flat country along the»Bukit 

 Timah road, in the Economic garden, which locality was at no 

 very distant date a similar tidal river as is evidenced by abun- 

 dance of Nipah fruits in a good state of preservation, which are 

 constantly found in digging over the ground and the presence 

 of the tidal mud fern Acrostichum aureum too confirms this. I 



Jour. Straits Branch 



