H 
until it was time to return to Sungei Siput to catch the train for Ipoh. The Coffee 
on this Estate is the finest I have yet seen. Para Rubber planted alongside the 
road through the Estate do not appear to grow so well as they do in damper soil. 
On the 3rd August 1 went out to some hills about three miles from Ipoh on the 
Gopeng road to the only habitat I know of Habenaria Kkigii, an interesting orchid 
with, greenish flowers. Of this I succeeded in getting some thirty plants and a 
few-other things of interest. It is a difficult spot to work as all the rocks are 
surrounded by swamp. Since I last went along this road a good deal of Coffee has 
been planted and other smaller cultivations have increased considerably. Before go- 
ing out in the morning I visited Mr. Barnard who kindly presented two or three 
interesting plants for the gardens. 
At 5.30 on the morning of the 4th I left Ipoh for Melimbau, a village near the 
foot of Grunong Kledang. In a rikisha it took half-an-hour to reach so that I was 
able to’ start collecting up the hill while it was still cool. There is a good road up 
the IGedang and a Government Bungalow near the top. The distance from the foot 
is four and a half miles. Going slowly and dipping into the jungle here and there it 
was near noon when we got to the top. The lower slopes of this hill have been 
cleared of all big trees fur fire-wood or Charcoal and I noticed several wood-cutters 
at work. About half way up there occurs, and more or less from there to near the 
top, a magnificent Palm with a stem six or seven feet high and immense paddle- 
shaped leaves which the Malays call “ Daun Sang'.’ I spent a lot of time in hunting 
for seeds of this but without success. 
We dug up a few young plants, but Palms are always difficult to transplant and 
I do not expect to save more than one or two. “ Daun Sang” occurs I am told all 
through this range, I saw some leaves used for the side of a native house at Sungei 
Siput, and if any one in the locality can send ripe seeds it will be a most acceptable 
contribution to the Penang Gardens. Near the top there grows a very pretty Indian 
Primrose ( Didymocarpus ) with orange flowers quite new to me and I believe un- 
described. Palms of many kinds are a marked feature of the vegetation on this hill, 
*• Rotans ” and Bertam ” being very abundant. 
On the 5th I packed all plants collected during the previous five days and for- 
warded them to Penang, and on the following day left for Kuala Depang. Kuala 
Depang is not the pleasant place it once was. This, the most charmingly situated of 
Rest Houses, has been turned into a Police Station. 
There are, however, two rooms used by Government Officers when on duty, one 
of which I occupied for two nights before going up Bujong Malacca, It is a pity 
that this house should be occupied by the Police, for Government Officers, unless 
they are more fortunate or sounder sleepers than myself, cannot get much rest when 
in this place. 
On Monday at 8 A.M., I left Kuala Depang with four Malays engaged on the 
spot, and my own man and boy from Penang, to ascend Gunong Bujong Malacca. 
The Malays were a very poor sample but as my time was limited I took the first that 
offered. We went on climbing slowly until about 11 A.M., when we came to a 
Chinese Kongsi-house at a place called “ Kadongdong.” Here the men decided it 
was time to stop and cook their rice and as the spot looked like a promising collect- 
ing ground I raised no objection but poked about among the bou'ders for an hour 
while they got “ makan." Their style of hill-climbing suited me all right but would 
have been a frightful nuisance to anyone whose object was simply to reach the top. 
After leaving this Kongsi-house, in which there are five men, at only a few 
minutes’ walk distant there are two ways up to UIu Palas, the one to the left being 
longer but not so steep. This we decided to take in going up and to return by the 
other. I was very pleased afterwards that the men told me ol this longer route as it 
proved more interesting botanically than the other. 
At about 3.30 ( watch stopped ) vve arrived at another Kongsi-house in a large 
valley which the Chinese call “ Amokong” and the Malays “ Ulu Palas.” The Palm 
“ Palas” { Licuala spinosa ) from which the stream takes its name, is very abundant 
along all the ridges of this mountain. In this mining Kongsi-house in which there 
are six men, but had -apparently at one time been many more, we decided to spend 
the night and go to the top in the morning. After a brief rest I started out to 
examine and collect plants in the neighbourhood but the Malays were all asleep inside 
of ten minutes, and as they were at the other end of the house I saw nothing more 
of them until the next morning. Washing for tin has been going on in these streams 
for years and it is a bit difficult at this point to make out just exactly where the 
original water-courses came in, but so far as I could see there are at least three 
different streams which join at this spot. 
