34 AN ACCOUNT OF A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION 



dung of a Tapir, which had probably abandoned this place 

 when the country became too dry. We crossed the hill and 

 descended into a cultivated valley and then returned across the 

 hill at another part and descended again to the village. Bam- 

 boos were abundant on this hill, probably Oxytenanthera 

 niqrociliata, and in the second spur of the hill was a climbing 

 bamboo like Bambusa Bidleyi, but perhaps more definitely 

 scandent, its strong wiry stems were most troublesome 

 to cut or 'get through. No signs of flowers were to be seen 

 on it. 



This hill gave a good idea of the forest flora of these sand- 

 stone ridges, and very different from anything I have seen South 

 of the Malay Peninsula. The absence of many of the typical 

 Malay plants was very marked, many genera seemed to have 

 quite disappeared already. There was even a difference in the 

 tidal mud flora, and the plant collector called my attention to 

 the absence of Octhocharis so common and conspicuous in all 

 the tidal rivers. of the south. The pitcher plants, Nepenthes 

 had disappeared aud we did not see any all through the trip. 

 Animals were scanty on the hill but we saw the large black 

 and white squirrel, Batufa there. We drove back with an 

 extensive collection of plants in the afternoon. The road was 

 bordered by fine Angsana trees, Pterocarpus indicus, which 

 were in full bloom this day, and the native children were 

 loaded with sprays of the fragrant golden blooms. The flowers 

 had begun to fall as we returned and the ground was thickly 

 covered in places with the golden snow of the petals. 



(26th) we worked round the rice fields near Alor Sta but 

 got comparatively little, many of the smaller plants having done 

 flowering, bat the clumps or islands of trees and bushes dotted 

 over the plain contained samples of what was perhaps the 

 original flora of these plains. In a muddy tidal stream near 

 the residency was a species of Crinum which was very different 

 from the ordinary sea shore Crinum asiaticum, and was almost 

 identical with the tidal swamp G. Northianum of Sarawak. It 

 resembled that species in its long seven foot leaves and the 

 large pearshaped fruit, pointed at the tip, and large seeds, but 



Jour. Straits Branch 



