CHAP, v.] 



PJTCEER-PLANTS AN3 FERNS. 



81 



me acquainted with one-lialf the ways in which it is ser- 

 viceable to the Dyaks of Sai'awak, 



While upon the subject of phxtita I may here mention a 

 ftiw of the more striking vegetable productions of Borneo. 

 The wonderful Pitcher-plants, forming the genus Xepen- 

 tlies of botanists, here reach their greatest development. 

 Every raoimtain-top abounds with them, running along 

 the ground, or climbing over shrubs and stunted trees ; 

 their elegant pitchers hanging in every direction. Some 

 of these are long and slender, resembling in form the 

 beautiful Iliilippine lace-sponge (Euplecteila), which has 

 now become so common; others are broad and short. Their 

 colours are green, variously tinted and mottled with red 

 or purj^ihi. The iinest yet known were obtained on the 

 summit of Kini-balon, in North-west Borneo. One of the 

 broad sort, Nepenthes rajah, will hold two quarts of water 

 in its pitcher. Another, Kepenthes Edwardsiania, has a 

 narrow pitcher twenty inches long; while the plant itself 

 grows to a length of twenty feet 



Ferns are abundant, but are not so varied as on the 

 volcanic mountaius of Java ; and Tree-ferns are neither so 

 plentiful nor so large as in that island. They grow, how- 

 e\'er, quite dowTi to the level of the sea, and are generally 

 !s lender and graceful plants fi-om eisjht to iGfteen feet high. 

 Without devoting much time to the search 1 collected fifty 

 species of Ferns in Burneo, and I have no doubt a good 

 l>otanist would have obtained twice the number. The 

 interesting gi'oup of Orchids is very abundant, but, as is 

 generally the case, nine-tenths of the species liave small 

 and inconspicuous flo\\'ers. Among the exceptions are the 

 tine Ctelogynes, whose lai^e clustei"S of yellow flowers orna- 

 ment the gloomiest forests, and that most extraordinary' 

 plant, Vauda Lowii, which last is particidarly abundant 

 near some hot springs at the foot of the IVniiijauh Moun- 

 tain. It grows on the low^er branches of trees, and its 

 sbninge pendant flower-spikes often hang down so as almost 

 to reach the ground. These are generally six or eight feet 

 long, bearing large and handsome flowers three inches across, 

 and varying in colour from orange to red, vnth deep purple- 

 red spots. I measured one spike, winch reached the extra- 

 ordinary length of nine feet eight inches, and bore thirty- 



o 



