Botanic Gardens, 
Penang, jth December , i8$6„ 
Sir, — Regarding the botanical tour recently made in the Siamese Malay States, 
on which I promised to report as soon as I had potted up the plants and attended to 
other matters requiring immediate attention, I have the honour to submit the follow- 
ing ■ . ’ 
• I left Penang in the S.S, Petrel, which is at present the only steamer trading 
between this port and Tongkah, on the afternoon of the gth November, and arrived 
there the following day, the voyage occupying about 23 hours. There was very heavy 
rain during the night on the way up, and I began to fear that I had undertaken the 
trip too early in the season, but fortunately my fears proved to be groundless for 1 had 
fairly dry weather albthe fortnight I was away. On arrival in Tongkah, I called on 
Prah NANISON, the Acting Chief Commissioner, expecting to get the use of the steam- 
launch to go to Kasum, but unfortunately the launch, like pretty well everything 
else in all the places I visited, is sadly out of repair and cannot be used. He, 
however, kindly offered me the loan of a boat, and promised to have it ready the follow- 
ing morning, and also furnished me with letters to the Governors of Kasum and 
Pongah. At this season the wind is unfavourable for getting from Tongkah to the 
places I wished to visit, and unfortunately the mast of the Commissioner’s best boat 
snapped at the foot before we had been an hour under sail, so that we had a long row 
into Pulau Sirih for repairs, where we remained all night. 
On the second day we tacked about without making much progress until 5 P.M. 
when we landed on Pulau Panjang to do some cooking, and while this was being 
done I collected a few plants. Cirrhopetalum medusae appeared to be abundant . 
on rocks in this, island. At 6.30 P.M. started again with a fresh breeze standing 
straight across for the picturesque island^, near the entrance to the Kasum River 
tinder shelter of one of which, Pulau Prabat, we anchored until 5 A.M., when we got 
under way again. At 7 A.M. landed on a small island to cook and collect plants; the 
most interesting kinds found here being two species of begonia and two of pogonia, 
the native name of one of the latter being “ elephant ear.” From this place we proceed- 
ed slowly against wind and tide to Kasum which was reached between 3 and 4 P.M., 
so that I had actually been about 49 hours from Tongkah. ' 
The scenery among the islands before entering the Kasum River is magnifi- 
cent. Scores of islands of the most fantastic forms rising abruptly from the sea to a 
height of several hundred feet. Similar scenery may be seen in Langkawi, but on a 
much reduced scale. On arrival in Kasum I sent my letters of introduction to the 
Governor with a request for an empty house if possible. In a short time I received a 
message that the Governor was suffering from fever and would not be able to see me 
for two or three days, but'a house was being prepared for me. This w r as the one de- 
cent looking house in the village originally intended, I was told, for a Post Office, but 
as soon as -the men commenced cleaning it out it was found to be unsafe, so I had to 
go into a Chinese attap house in the main and only street. For a place of its size, 
and it is a village of about 100 houses, and perhaps 700-800 inhabitants, Kasum is 
the most miserable looking place I ever set eyes on. The main street is overgrown 
with weeds and in places knee deep in mud. On either side are tall bamboo leaning 
at all angles with the remnants of banners dangling in the breeze, the remains of the 
decorations of some religious festival long past. The houses are of plank and attaps 
with very sharply pitched roof and a sort of covered five-foot way in front, but it is 
only in places that one can cross from one side of the street to the other without 
sticking in the mud. A few days’ residence in this place has a most depressing effect. 
The morning after arrival, I collected orchids, &c. along a road that was commenced 
3 or 4 years ago and cut for a distance of about 4 miles to a place called Wattam 
where there is a Bhuddist Temple in a cave in the limestone rock with numerous . 
figures rapidly going to decay. One of the figures in a reclining position is about 45 
feet long. I spent some time in botanizing on this hill and collected several ‘interest- 
ing plants. One of the priests’ showed me a plant of Dendrobium Farmerii fastened 
on a block of- wood which he assured me was very rare, and, so far as my experience 
goes, it is so, for I only collected two plants of it during the time I was there. 
When the road to this place was commenced it was intended to carry it on to 
Pongah and fine hard-wood beams were brought in for bridging the streams and posts 
for telegraph u r s The wires were never put up and the beams are lying alongside 
the streams rowing. 
Appendix B . 
To 
The Hon’ble the Resident Councillor. 
