NAMES OF PLANTS 
The same species of plant has among the Malays often more 
than one name. This is due to the fact that Malays of one locality 
have often a different name for a plant from those of another 
locality, and there are often variants also of the same name used 
indiscriminately. Different names are often used according to 
whether the speaker is thinking of the timber, the fruit or flowers, 
or of its resin or latex. Malays have often also a habit of turning 
a name round so that the second half of the word becomes the 
first part, as in the case of the Cashew-nut, Gajus (a modification 
of the word Cashew) being converted into Janggus (a phonetic form 
of Jagus). They have also a tendency to make a primitive name, 
for which they can find no meaning, into some word or words which 
conveys a meaning of some kind, thus the tree Buchdndiuu dcuinindtd 
is commonly known as Otak hudang, meaning prawn's brains, and 
it is explained that the reason it is so called is that the wood is 
red like the brains of a prawn. As a matter of fact the original 
name for the plant is Katidang; this was turned into Katawa 
Hudang, then, as this was unintelligible, Katawa was reversed 
into Otak, and an explanation given. 
Kayu nianis, literally sweet wood, is the name given to the 
spice cinnamon, though the Malays know it is a bark and not a 
wood, and so should be Kulit (bark) manis, if it was really meant 
for sweet-bark, but it appears that they first knew of it by the 
Arabic name Kinamon, i.e., Chinese amomum (an old word for 
spice). This word being to them meaningless, was soon converted 
into Kayu manis, as that was translatable into sweet-wood. 
To all the names of trees and erect shrubs given here is to be 
added the word Poko or tree, which comes first, e.g., Poko glam. 
Climbers are called Akdr (a word which also signifies a root). Small 
herbaceous grass-like plants, Riimput. Lumut (moss) is applied to 
a few flowering plants which have a moss-like appearance, e.g., 
aquatic Uiriculdvids. Sakdt means epiphyte, and is often applied 
to orchids, though the Javanese word Angrek.is commonly used for 
orchids nowadays. Pakis or pdku, used for ferns, is said to refer 
to the nail-like circinate vernation (Paku, a nail), and is used for 
the Cycads which have a similar vernation, Ddun signifies a leaf, 
and is used in a plant-name where the leaf is especially conspicuous 
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