7 
46. Some of the more interesting and rarer plants of Baguio were: 
Lactuca dentata. Polygonum nepalense, Gynura vidaliana, Gnaphalium japoni- 
cum, Deutzia pulchra, Berchemia philippinensis and Lilium philippinense. The 
iatter is a beautiful plant with white trumpet-shaped flowers and grows in the 
most inaccessible places. 
47. The expedition to Central Malaya yielded new records for the coun¬ 
try. These were: Juncus inflexus, a rush hitherto found only on the mountains 
of Java but common in Europe. Two clumps were found by the roadside about 
a mile below the summit of Gunong Batu Brinchang. but there was only one 
flowering stem. It was at the summit of this mountain that the first Malayan 
record of a Juncacca . J uncus prismatocarpus, was recorded in 1956. On this 
mountain was also found a Himalayan grass, Misccinthus sp., but a specimen 
has been sent to Kew for checking. In the Gunong Bubu Forest Reserve,. 
Kuala Kangsar. a tree belonging to the Mangosteen family, namely Mammea 
malayana was collected in flower. It is new to science. In the same forest male 
and female flowers of a much wanted species Knetna retusa were obtained. 
King’s collector, Kunstler once found this Knema in fruit in the Gunong 
Bubu forest. It has never been collected anywhere since and the main object 
of the expedition was to go back to this type locality and search for it, be¬ 
cause its correct systematic position was not clear. Since Gunong Bubu 
is about 20 miles long and 5 miles wide and had a small bandit population, 
the chances of finding it were rather remote. It was therefore a matter of 
great luck to have found it and to have successfully achieved the mission. 
48. Some valuable information was obtained about the flora of the Ipoh 
limestone which has a vegetation quite different from that of other soils. 
Among the plants collected on the limestone was Mallotus petiolatus. It was 
common but hitherto, in the herbarium, was represented only from a single 
gathering. Also two new shrubs, not yet described, were collected. The new 
road up to the radio station on the summit of Gunong Batu Brinchang has 
opened up the mountain and as a result a number of interesting plants have 
now been found there including new records for Malaya. Development of 
the country and the laying of roads to hitherto inaccessible places will facilitate 
more exploration and doubtless there are many novelties waiting to be found. 
This development however carries with it the risk of destruction of natural 
vegetation. Already the orchid population around the summit of Batu Brin¬ 
chang is being decimated by visitors who take plants home to the heat of 
the lowlands where they anon die. The vegetation of such places is worthy of 
protection, and in particular the rare plants of the mountain forest. Many 
belong to the Indo-Himalayan regional flora which montane has its southern 
limit of distribution on the higher mountains of Malaya. This element must 
have been here for countless centuries undisturbed even by the ice ages of the 
Pleistocene and the volcanic up-heavals which broke up Malaysia into an 
archipelago. 
49. Collections were made at Sabai Estate, Paloh Estate and in the 
Trans-Perak Irrigation Scheme area to sample the vanishing vegetation. This 
was a continuation of the work outlined in the last Report. 
50. Mr. Burkill continued his observations and collections of marine 
aig£e at Raffles Light (Pulau Satumu) and on the neighbouring islands of 
Senang, Biola and Pawai and on the reef Terumbu Selat Biola. Determination 
of these and previous collections is proving difficult in the absence of literature 
and of herbarium material for comparison in Singapore. 
