42 AN ACCOUNT OF A BOTANICAL EXPEDITION 



climbers, and the small village at the base and the river 

 fringed with Nipa and other tidal vegetation, winding along 

 beneath it. We spent the day collecting at the base of these 

 cliffs and obtained a large series of additions to the collection. 

 We had heard of a marvellous cave here from which a river 

 issued, and in the afternoon went in search of it. After going 

 northwards along the cliff base for about a mile and a half, 

 we came to a stream of some size and found that it did 

 indeed issue from a bole or tunnel in the limestone rock, 

 but the tunnel was only about 6 feet high andvthe water 

 apparently 3 or 4 feet deep, so that it was more like a drain- 

 mouth than a cavern, and did not at all come up to the glowing 

 description of the natives. The main cliff here receded forming 

 a kind of valley and the stream probably came from the base 

 of the cliff through a flat stratum of rock now covered by 

 cultivation which might perhaps be the remains of the talus 

 fallen from the cliff and so forming the bay or valley. This 

 wonder of nature is close to a mosque and graveyard. 



Two of the most striking plants on these limestone cliffs 

 are the Siamese cycad. Cycas Siamensis and the Gouty 

 Balsam Impatiens mirabilis. The cycad grows high upon the 

 cliffs at or near the top. It has a long thick white stem 

 usually swollen at the base, which often hangs down the side 

 of the precipice curved into strange shapes and looking like 

 some weird white serpent. It is often fifteen feet in length and 

 about six inches through. The Gouty Balsam grows lower 

 down. Its swollen brown stem is of all manner of shapes, 

 straight or curved, branched, and swollen in one part or 

 another according to the pressure of the rocks on which it 

 grew. It was mostly small here, about one or two feet tall, but 

 Mr. Curtis found it in the island of Terutau seven feet high 

 and regularly branched looking like the antlers of a stag seen 

 over the rocks. The stem is so soft that it is broken in two by 

 a slight, jerk and is as pulpy as a boiled carrot. It was coming 

 into.flower at the time of our visit. It only produces one or 

 two leaves on the ends of the branches and a raceme or 

 occasionally two of yellow coalscuttle-shaped flowers. It is 



Jour. Straits Branch 



