BOOKS REVIEWED. 



211 



extent of branches or of leafage, but by its price ! — by what we paid for it 

 when we bought it ! ! Thus a tree that cost " half a guinea may safely 

 carry eight fruits," and so on. No doubt the author is right as to trees 

 he himself seeds out (unless, by the way, they are quite new varieties, of 

 which a half -guinea tree would be a very small plant indeed), but any such 

 rule is preposterous, as it supposes one of two things : either that every one 

 buys his trees from one source, or that all sellers send out exactly equal 

 trees. 



We have felt bound to point out what seem to us blemishes because 

 the book is well worth the trouble. It is full from end to end of excellent 

 advice and practical details, but they all want a little puzzling over to be 

 sure we understand the author aright. 



" Wanderings in the Great Forests of Borneo." By Odoardo Beccari. 

 Translated by Dr. Enrico H. Giglioli. Revised and edited by Dr. F. H. H. 

 Guillemard of Cambridge. 8vo., 424 pp. (Archibald Constable, London.) 

 16s. net. 



This is an English translation of " Nelle Foreste di Borneo," but 

 lacking some of its appendices, while it contains an added chapter con- 

 cerning the political and social condition of Sarawak at the present time. 

 Dr. Beccari visited Borneo the Beautiful for the first time in June 1865, 

 so that much that the present volume contains was written nearly forty 

 years ago, but this need not deter the naturalist from reading a most 

 interesting book, since natural history never grows old. A couple of 

 years or so were profitably spent in Sarawak in exploring the rivers 

 Bintulu, the Bejang, and the Batang Lupar, and very interesting collec- 

 tions of animals, birds, insects, and plants were obtained. 



Dr. Beccari 's success as a collector is widely known, and perhaps no 

 one has done more in this way since Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace visited 

 the Malay Archipelago, including Borneo, now many years ago. 



Throughout the book there are numerous references and observations 

 on the natives and their customs and beliefs, as also anent the timber and 

 fruit-yielding trees, the Palms, Ferns, Orchids, Nepenthes, and other rare 

 and beautiful or economic types of vegetation with which Borneo abounds. 

 The capital city of Brunei, the Island of Labuan, and other places were 

 visited, and it is to be regretted that Dr. Beccari was disappointed in not 

 being able to reach the wonderful mountain of Kina Balu. This gigantic 

 range, as seen now and then from Labuan, is extremely picturesque, 

 although more than a hundred miles away. It is 13,698 feet high, and 

 is the highest mountain not only in Borneo, but in the whole of the Malayan 

 Archipelago. "I watched it," says Dr. Beccari (p. 248), "with the 

 greatest interest, for the time seemed drawing near when I should tread 

 its summit. This was the dream of my youth, but it was never to be 

 realised. Yet the marvellous plants which are to be found upon the 

 mountain had more than anything else induced me to visit Borneo." The 

 travellers who have really succeeded in ascending the sides of this botanical 

 paradise are but few. The pioneer was Mr. (now Sir) Hugh Low, who 

 originally discovered on its rocky declivities the Great Pitcher plants or 

 Nepentlies in 1850. In the succeeding year he again ascended the moun- 

 tain, accompanied by Mr. (now Sir) Spencer St. John. Mr. Thomas Cobb 



