6 
trees unless there are climbers on it or small trees beneath by which it can 
ascend to the main limbs and overcome the long bole, but the experience 
of the last year has justified the idea that the berok offers the ablest assist¬ 
ance which the student of trees can have in the high forest. A berok upon 
the shoulder can be likened, in effect, to a falcon on the wrist; and its 
employment is recommended both to amateurs for its charm and cheapness 
and to keepers of Reserves where it is desirable to collect specimens 
repeatedly from the same trees without damage to them. It must be added 
that the berok is immune, moreover, to the irritation provoked by rengas -sap 
so that it enables one to collect specimens from these poisonous trees of the 
Mango-family, so abundant in the forest and yet, through avoidance, so 
little known. 
When Mr. Corner was in Kelantan in April he was fortunate in finding 
a young berok which had been educated just as a botanist might wish. This 
monkey,, called Merah, was brought to Singapore and after several weeks’ 
training it complied with every expectation. On one occasion in Johore, 
for instance, it worked in the crown of a Wild Chempedak at the height of 
170 feet : on another day it collected specimens from 24 trees, all of which 
were over 100 feet in height. At Fraser’s Hill it obtained good specimens 
from five of the giant palms, Caryota equatorialis, which seem to have 
been collected only once before in Malaya, many years ago, and of which 
there w r ere no specimens in the Singapore Herbarium : it revelled, too, 
in throwing down fruits from so many plants of a big climbing fig that 
it was discovered for the first time that the gall-figs of this species (F. calli- 
carpa var.) were twice as big as the seed-figs and differently marked. 
Unfortunately this monkey developed an obscure illness at Fraser’s Hill 
and, though it became a patient at the College of Medicine in Singapore, 
it had to be put away at the end of September. In its brief career, it had 
collected specimens from more than 300 different kinds of tree at negligible 
expense. The technique having thus been proved, the Malay plant- 
collector, Ngadiman, was sent to Kota Bahru to find two more such monkeys 
and to learn how to train them and how to talk to them. After much 
difficulty he found the two 3^oung beroks, Jambul and Puteh, which were 
purchased by the Department and installed at the Botanical Gardens. 
Now the method of collecting by these monkeys is this. They are 
kept on a string or, in the forest, they would run away. The string, which 
is 1S0 feet long, or more if need be, is wound on a wooden frame like a 
fishing line and is attached by a swivel to a collar round the monkey’s neck. 
One speaks to the monkey in Malay, though in the present case it is 
“Kelantanese”. “Gi ata” one says, and the monkey goes up the tree. 
Should it climb along a branch not intended, one shouts “Bukan itu, gi ata 
lagi”; and when it gets to the right branch “Belah itu” and along it the 
monkey goes. When it reaches the twigs to be collected, one jerks the 
string and shouts, “Ambil itu” whereupon the monkey pulls back and 
bites off (“repis itu”) a twig and drops it clear. If more are needed, one 
shouts “Ambil lagi” and the monkey will bite off as many as are wanted. 
When it has finished, one cries “Turun” and the monkey comes down. 
But should any twigs in their fall have been caught up among the lower 
branches the monkey will have noticed and then one says “Turun, pelepas 
itu” whereon the monkey finds the quickest way to the twigs, lifts them up 
and drops them clear as many times as may be necessary. A well-trained 
monkey, when it reaches the ground, picks up the twigs and puts them 
into one’s hand. The twigs which they gather are generally so ample that 
each can be divided into three or four herbarium-specimens : they do not 
pull off the flowei's or fruits but break off the whole twig from behind the 
leaves. In the case of trees which flower from the branches, such as durians 
