TO LOWER SUM. 49 



and the rivers run close under them. The fields around were 

 swampy, and at the base was a dense mass of tidal river plants 

 Acanthus ebracteatus, Acrostichum aureum and Pandanus. 

 Pushing and cutting our way through this we came to the 

 base of the cliff, which is precipitous and full of caverns of 

 no size, and pools of water. A large brown owl (Ketupa) 

 flew out of a cavern and sat on a rock gazing at us, and 

 monitor lizards scuttled away. We pushed through the 

 scrub along the eastern face and came out into pasture again, 

 but a heavy rainstorm drove us to refuge in a cavern. After 

 the storm was over we went along the pastures, very wet, in 

 the direction of Batu Kajah Wang, the next limestone block. 

 Between the two is a deep swamp almost entirely covered 

 with the rather scarce sedge Heleocharis equisetina. The 

 water was up to and above the knees, but there is a kind 

 of track across. In the pastures, apparently abandoned rice- 

 fields, were abundance of the two sundews Drosera Burmanni 

 with white, Dindica with pink flowers, and yellow flowered 

 Xijris and many other pretty little plants. 



The ground rises to the East of these wet fields and 

 becomes sindy forming a heath land in parts, with low 

 bushes, and numerous grasses and sedges, with a turfy soil. 

 In parts it is all sand with bamboo bushes shrubs and small 

 trees. This heath land stretches from the village as far as 

 the river, and is a delightful botanical region. The nearest 

 approach to this style of vegetation it bears is the large sandy 

 area near Pekan on the Pahang river, and in this district I 

 found in 1891 many plants which were also common on the 

 Setul heath. But this latter was much richer, and contains 

 many plants of a more northern type. While the greater part 

 of the Pahang heath flora consisted of Malayan types more or 

 less modified for their surroundings. The idea suggested by 

 comparing the two heath floras was that while that. of Setul 

 had been formed from Indo-Chinese plants migrating south, 

 that of Pekan wa^i composed of such Malayan plants as could 

 adapt themselves to a xerophytic condition and a sandy soil, 

 together with a few of the Indo-Chinese plants which had 



R. A. Soc, No. 59. I9H. 



*4 



