MALAY PLANT NAMES. 33 



considerable number. This is sometimes due to dialectic vari- 

 ation : — thus the horse-mang'o is called Bachang', Machang-, 

 Hembachang, Membachang, etc., according to locality. But 

 often the local names have no connection with each other, 

 being evidently derived from different roots. Again, a Malay 

 may call a plant by different names according' to the products 

 or properties of it he may be thinking of : thus the Gelenggaiig, 

 Cassia alata, is also known as Daun Kurap — the leaf for the cure 

 of the disease Kurap. 



Again, sometimes one name is used for several trees with 

 apparently no connection, as Resak, which includes one species 

 or more of Shorea {Dipterocarperr), an oak, and one or two 

 unidentified plants, the name really being applied to the timber 

 which in these trees is somewhat similar. It is probable that 

 in all these cases the different Resaks will be found to have 

 qualifying words to distinguish them apart, but these are 

 known to but few Malays. While many of the names are 

 remarkably opposite others are either apparentlj^ meaning- 

 lessly obscene, or their signification is quite obscure. I have 

 added translations of such as are translateable, but many of 

 these are only tentative. 



In some cases the obscurity arises in the following way. 

 A plant originally receives a suitable name, such as Ati-Ati 

 (hearts) for the garden coleus, because of its heart-shaped 

 leaves, but some resemblance is noticed between this plant 

 and another {Sonerila) and though the leaves of this are not 

 heart-shaped, it is called Ati-Ati hutan, that is to say really 

 jungle coleus. The Malay has on the whole a very good eye 

 for resemblance in plants and some of his identifications are 

 really quite remarkable : thus Kerubut is applied to the Rajfiesia 

 and a shrub known as Thotfea, two utterly different looking 

 plants to the eye of an ordinary observer, but which are con- 

 sidered in botany to be allied. Again, he is seldom wrong when 



