5 
collected in Perak some sixty years ago. About 136 numbers were obtained 
in all. 
In April, in conjunction wtih the Forest Department, a small party 
under Mohamed Nur, Herbarium Assistant at Singapore, was sent for 
nearly four weeks to Ringlet, Cameron Highlands, to collect during the 
clearing of some forest on Boh Estate. About 400 numbers were obtained 
as well as a big collection of wood-specimens and spirit-specimens. The 
results will afford a valuable and representative sample of the mid-mountain 
forest which, lying between the plains and the mountain-tops, has received 
as yet but scant attention. 
In October and November, Mohamed Nur was again sent off in 
conjunction with the Forest Department, but this time to collect specimens 
on behalf of Harvard University, U.S.A. The expedition was undertaken 
at the request of Dr. E. D. Merrill, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, 
and at the expense of Harvard University, for the purpose of supplying the 
University with abundant material of Malayan plants. Mohamed Nur 
visited the Telok Forest Reserve near Klang, the Sungei. Tinggi Reserve 
near Kuala Selangor, Ginting Simpak and Bukit Ranching. About 450 
numbers were obtained, a collection of wood-specimens for the Forest 
Department and another of spirit-specimens for the Botanic Gardens. Most 
of the duplicate specimens, when named, will be sent to the Arnold 
Arboretum. Another expedition will be organised in 1938 on the same 
basis. 
For the success of these expeditions special thanks are offered to the 
following persons:—to Mr. C. F. Symington, Forest Research Officer, 
Kepong, for supervising the expeditions led by Mohamed Nur : to Captain 
A. T. A. Ritchie, Chief Game Warden, F.M.S., for providing Mr. Corner 
with the opportunity of ascending Gunong Tahan : to the Honourable 
Mr. N. R. Jarrett, British Adviser, Trengganu, for assisting Mr. Moysey’s 
expedition to Gunong Padang: to the Conservator of Forests, Johore, 
Mr. H. G. Grieve of Tebrau Estate, Johore Bahru, and Mr. Ho Cheow 
Chan, Sungei Kavu Saw Mill, for their assistance in the exploration of 
the Johore Forests: to Air. F. FairliE, Boh Plantations, Ltd., for 
accommodating the expedition to Ringlet and allowing the collections to 
be made on his estate. 
BOTANICAL MONKEYS 
Toward the end of the year there were added to the collecting equipment 
of the Department two berok-monkeys (Macacus nemestrina), which were 
kept in the garden of the Assistant Curator’s Quarters, Cluny Road, and 
the second Malay plant-collector, Ngadiman, was given charge of them. 
The berok is the Coconut or Pig-Tailed Monkey which, as is well-known, 
is widely used in the East by Malays for gathering coconuts. The wild 
monkeys are caught as .young as possible—so-small even that they will sit 
in the hand; and they are trained gradually to twist young fruits off 
the coconut-inflorescences so that when they have grown strong enough 
they can climb the tallest trunks and drop the full-sized nuts from the 
crown. But it may not be so well-known that a few of these monkeys are 
taught also such other jobs as plucking mangoes or pulling bunches of 
rambutans from the orchard trees. It seemed possible, therefore, that a 
monkey so trained would solve even the botanist’s problem of obtaining 
specimens from tall trees, palms and climbers the height of which rendered 
them inaccessible; for, if the tree cannot be felled — and to cut down a 
forest giant for the sake of a few twigs is not merely costly but destructive 
—then one must employ a native climber or use a shot-gun, and both have 
their limitations. The berok is imperfect, too, because it cannot scale big 
