7 
and wild nutmegs, some patience is needed to teach the monkey to rip the 
flowers from the branches after having collected the twigs, but as soon as 
the idea is grasped a rain of blossom descends. 
It will be obvious that these monkeys delight in what they are doing : 
and the more one speaks to them, using the same words, the more they 
understand. After some practice in the jungle, they do not have to climb 
every tree but by a series of shouts and jerks on the string and pointing 
and slapping of trunks they can be induced to free their strings and leap 
from bough to bough so that they can visit numerous trees before they are 
obliged to come down for a drink of water. Further, the more practice 
they get, the more they understand what is wanted and they drop down 
any arresting objects such as opening buds, flowers, fruits and galls which 
are invisible from below : indeed, to work with a clever berok in the jungle 
is like fishing in the tree-tops. At the end of his days, Merah was able to 
find in the trees flowers and fruits which had been shown to him on the 
ground : and he knew the meaning of iS words of Malay. The present 
pair are by no means so accomplished. They have a vocabulary of only 12 
words but they are younger and the one, Puteh, is full of promise. As for 
their strings becoming tied up through entanglement in the branches or in 
the stems of climbers, there need be no fear : there is hardly a knot which 
they cannot undo and once it is loose they pass their bodies through the 
coils by pulling on the string and following their chins : if need be, they 
dangle by their necks. 
By the end of the year, both monkeys had done considerable work 
in Bukit Timah Forest Reserve whither the one or the other had been sent 
every day. The specimens, which they obtained, have already repaid their 
cost of purchase, the price of such monkeys being about $25. It seems 
that these two must be congratulated, moreover, on being the first apes 
to enter Government service. 
_ . BOTANICAL RESERVES 
As the virgin territories of Malaya are opened up and the forest-reserves 
exploited, so it becomes desirable that certain small parts of the forest 
should be preserved, here and there throughout the country, as samples of 
the natural vegetation. The idea of making small botanical reserves, 
preferably within forest reserves where they will be in no danger of isolation, 
lias thus gradually developed. Places that immediately suggest themselves 
are the quartzite ridges at Klang Gates, Ranching and Gunong Panti, 
Taman Sedia at Cameron Highlands and a forested cove at Lumut or 
Pangkor. The Gardens Department drew the attention of the Forest 
Department to this proposal during the year and it is gratifying to be able 
to record that the following areas have been approved as botanical 
reserves : — 
The quartzite ridge in the Ranching Forest Reserve, Selangor. 
An area of Forest Reserve on the right of the main road from Ruala 
Rangsar to Taiping. 
The summit of Bukit Senaling, Negri Sembilan. 
The ridge of Gunong Panti in the east of Johore and the head of the 
Segun valley at the eastern end of the mountain. 
An area of 100 acres of swamp-forest by the Sedili River in Johore. 
Bukit Timah Forest Reserve (see below) and two areas of mangrove 
forest in Singapore Island. 
In respect of the botanical reserves in Johore, the Department was 
greatly obliged to the Johore Government for its approval of the scheme 
and for its financial assistance in the demarcation of the area by the Sedili 
