2 
PLANT COLLECTIONS AND FIELD EXCURSIONS 
In March the Director took io days leave at Fraser's Hill, and while there 
devoted some time to studying* the ferns and mosses of the neighbourhood. A 
fine new tree fern was discovered, and other interesting collections were made. 
% 
In April Mr. Henderson visited Pulau Tioman. Through the courtesy 
of the Officer Commanding the Royal Air Force Flying Boat squadron, 
Mr. Henderson was conveyed by air to Pulau Tioman; the journey thus 
occupied 2} hours instead of two or three days by a small coasting steamer. 
A week was spent on the island, and collecting was done chiefly on Gunong 
Kajang and in its immediate neighbourhood. 
From May 10th to June nth the Director was absent from Singapore, 
attending the Fourth Pacific Science Congress in Java, and the botanical 
excursions subsequent to the Congress. Personal contacts were made with 
botanists from the Netherlands Indies, the United States, Japan, China and 
other countries, and full advantage taken of visits to the Botanic Gardens at 
Buitenzorg and other places of botanical interest. 
In July and August Mr. Henderson made an extensive held expedition 
to various parts of Pahang and Kelantan. Mr. C. E. Carr of Tembeling 
accompanied Mr. Henderson during part of the expedition. Thanks are due 
to Mr. Carr for much help and for the gift of many specimens of rare orchids 
from his collections at Tembeling; also to the District Officer, Kuala Lipis, 
for the loan of a motor boat. Collections of plants were made near Kuala 
Tembeling, and in the upper waters of the Tembeling and Sat rivers; on the 
limestone at Gunong Sen yum, Kota Glanggi and Chigar Perah, and at 
Gua Musang in Kelantan. About 1,000 numbers were collected, and many 
wood specimens of trees in flower, while about 80 species of orchids, some of 
them undescribed species, were brought back to Singapore for cultivation 
and study. In the Ulu Tembeling opportunity was taken to study the 
epiphytic flora of the Neram trees (Dipterocarpus oblongifolius B1.) which are 
so common on the river banks. Good living specimens of the very interest¬ 
ing fern Platycerium Ridleyi were found at Gua Musang and brought back 
for cultivation at Singapore. On the return journey two days were spent at 
Kuantan, the coastal flora was studied, and some collections were made. At 
the end of October Mr. Best made a week’s expedition from Penang to Baling 
in Kedah and collected both herbarium specimens and living plants on the 
limestone hill there. 
In November Mr. Henderson and Mr. Corner visited Perlis. Collec¬ 
tions were made on the limestone hills in the vicinity of Kangar and in the 
rice fields and pasture land. A number of Siamese plants, not hitherto known 
in Perlis, were collected. Specimens of the so called “gouty balsam” 
{Impatiens mirabilis ) were obtained for cultivation in Penang and Singapore; 
the plants have started growth satisfactorily in both places. Impatiens 
Scortechinii was also brought back alive, but this and some other succulent 
balsams from the limestone are difficult to grow r in Singapore. The small 
succulent fern Lastrea chupengensis Ridl. was found in a cave mouth at Bukit 
Chupeng in the exact spot where Mr. Ridley first gathered specimens of it 
twenty years ago. "Heath” land near Kangar was investigated, but 
was found to be somewdiat interfered with by cultivation and grazing. The 
vegetation consists principally of bushes of Rhodomyrtus tomcntosa , and 
Vactinium sp. with a few small stunted trees and a broad leaved bamboo. 
Ferns were almost absent. In wetter parts the vegetation consisted almost 
entirely of spindly trees of A rchytea Vahlii. Both the local species of sundew 
{Brosera indica and D. Burmanni) were found in abundance here, along with 
two or three small terrestrial species of Utricularia, and a minute leafless 
Ophioglossum which appears to be identical with 0 . lineare Brause, only 
known hitherto from a collection in New Guinea. 
The abovementioned collections on the limestone hills of Pahang, 
Kelantan, Kedah and Perlis have added materially to our knowledge of the 
limestone flora of the Peninsula; Mr. Henderson is devoting particular 
attention to this subject. 
