48 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



our service can steam up the Brunei Eiver and anchor about five 

 yards from the Sultan's door, and, after the usual salute has been 

 fired, the dusky potentate is quite amenable to the soft and gentle 

 arts of diplomacy. 



By the courtesy of H.M. Besident in the British colony 

 of Labuan, I obtained a firman or passport from the Sultan 

 to travel and collect plants and animals in his territory. I 

 was always well received and aided by his subjects, but I suspect 

 6hat the fact of my being accredited by the English Government 

 officials had much to do with this attention. 



Most of the excursions from Labuan were made by way of the 

 rivers along the north-west coast. 



This portion of Borneo at the time of my visits was in its 

 primitive wild state. There were no horses or ponies, no roads 

 except the rivers, no bridges, no English residents, not even a 

 missionary, except one solitary old Boman Catholic priest in 

 Labuan itself. I had to carry all necessaries, and trust to any 

 native hut for lodgings at night. 



The only beasts of burden available were black water-buffaloes, 

 and very useful they are in crossing the streams and for carrying 

 baggage. 



Good native boats and native boatmen are to be had every- 

 where—near the coast and alongside the rivers inland. 



The most critical and laborious portions of my travels were 

 the two distinct expeditions made to the great mountain of Kina 

 Balu, and the voyage to the main island of the Sulu Archipelago, 

 a group about midway between Borneo and the Philippines. 



Kina Balu is an enormous mountain lying inland off Gaya 

 Bay. It is nearly 14,000 feet in height, and is remarkable for 

 the rare and curious vegetation that clusters on its slopes and in 

 its defiles.* 



Apart from the rare Orchids and Ferns found only in this 

 •district, the mountain itself is the only known habitat of the 

 giant Nepenthes figured long ago by Sir Joseph Hooker t and 

 Sir S. St. John.J Here only can be seen the quaint Nepenthes 

 Lowii with its flagon-shaped urns. 



N. Edwardsiana, with pitchers of elegant form, 12 to 20 inches 

 in length, and of a soft vermilion colour, also grows here. So 



* Dr. Stapf, in Trans. Linn. Soc. Bot. Ser. 2, iv. p. C9, &c. 



f Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxii. J Life in the Forests of the Far Eatt. 



