Hooker's Journal of Botany & Kew Garden Miscellany Vol VII (1855) pp 257-269, 289-2961

 Notes written on a Voyage from Singapore to Banjermassing, in the

southern extremity of Borneo; in a letter from JAMES MOTLEY, ESQ.2,
to Sir, W. J. HOOKER.

Machipora3 (Banjermassing, S. Borneo), March, 1855.

When I last wrote to you I gave you an account of my first attempt to reach Sumatra4, when I
was obliged to return to Singapore for a larger boat. I started again on the 24th of January with a
Bugis prahu, of about four tons' burden, and six men besides my servant. I slept that night at a small
settlement among the islands, which I have already described to you; and next day, about ten A.M.,
I got clear of the Archipelago and sailed down the coast of Sumatra: it is a mere line of low trees,
and, as far as I could see, when the high water allowed us to approach it, of one species only,
AEgiceras majus5 I believe, called in Malay “Api Api." The natives assured me that for miles along
the coast no other plant is seen, except in the creeks, where there is a little mixture of fresh water.
The shore is exceedingly flat, of mud so soft that it is hard to say where it ends and the water
begins. Though the rise and fall of the tide is not more than six feet, the beach dries for some miles
out, and we were aground at low water, where we could only see the trees like a dark line on the
horizon; indeed about 150 miles to the southward the coast has literally never been seen from the
sea, even by the surveyors who made the charts, from the impossibility of approaching it in a boat
sufficiently near. Not a break nor a hillock could be seen nor indeed does one exist on the whole
line of coast for fifty miles. The country can hardly be said to be dry land, and the whole coast is
notoriously unhealthy, and swarms with tigers and other wild beasts. At ten P.M. we anchored just
on the equator, off Taryong Daloo6, close to which the water is perhaps deeper, and there is
probably a reef of coral, as the sea made a great noise all night.
25th. We had no wind this morning, but being high water we pulled along close under the Api
Api jungle. The number of birds here is astonishing : there were flocks of sandpipers and plovers,
which must have consisted of hundreds of thousands of individuals, looking at a distance like large
clouds, and completely whitening the jungle where they perched. Of herons I counted nine species;
all around us were fishing innumerable terns, of two species; knee-deep in the water, close under
the bushes, stood long rows of tall black and white ibises, looking like soldiers at drill, their heads
laid back, their long flesh-coloured beaks resting on their white breasts; and every moment brilliant
kingfishers glanced in and out among the trees.
About ten A.M. we came up to a tribe of a very singular race of Malays, the Orang Laut, or Men
of the Sea; though they might with greater propriety be called men of the mud. There are said to be
nine tribes of them; they live entirely in their boats, never quitting the coast, but moving up and
down over a certain district at the rate of a mile or two each day. The Malays of Singapore and the
natives of Singu Rhio and the interior of Sumatra come here to trade with them, exchanging rice,
cloth, sago, and salt, for dried fish and Karang, a species of Arca7 much used for food, and the shells
of which are supposed to yield the purest and best lime for eating with the sirik8 and areca9 nut.
They speak a little Malay, but have also a peculiar dialect of their own, which few of the Malays
understand; and they are exceedingly averse to associating with other people, or marrying out of
their own tribe. They differ a little in physiognomy from the Malays generally, the lower jaw being
narrower, and the alae of the nose suddenly enlarged, as in the Papuans. A good many of the men
had, for Malays, very strong black beards, and, though short, they are well formed; the calf of the
leg is low down, large and decurrent; the shoulders high and broad and the fore-arm muscular and
well-developed. They are professedly Mahometans ,but know very little about it, and retain many
pagan customs, such as faith in augury, offering libations to spirits, etc., like the Dyaks of Borneo.
Their language is said to resemble that of the Battas of the interior of Sumatra, a people I have not
yet met with. This tribe was divided into two Kampongs, or villages as they call then, one of twenty,
the other of about fifty boats of various sizes, and may have consisted of 300 to 400 persons. The
smaller boats were laden with their fishing apparatus, to be hereafter described, and the larger
formed their habitations These boats are sheathed with thin planks or with the bark of the
mangrove, to protect them from the Kapang, or teredo10, so destructive in these seas; the longest
were perhaps forty feet long, and of three or four tons' burden. A sort of house, not high enough to
stand in, is constructed over the whole length of the boat, to the ridge-pole of which are usually
suspended two or three infants swinging in small hammocks. The sides and roofs of these houses
are completely covered with fish, split open and drying in the sun, giving out a horrible stench, and
attracting a vast number of hawks, who sailed round and round, swooping every now and then at the
tempting morsels, and succeeded occasionally in carrying a piece off, in spite of the numerous
naked urchins who kept guard with long sticks. There were four species of these birds, the most
numerous being the red Brahminee kite11 of India : they were perfectly fearless, sweeping past close
to one's head; and it was interesting to watch them devouring their prey on the wing, and really
picking out the pieces of meat with their beaks from between their clenched talons. There were
several Singapore prahus in company with these people, waiting to buy fish. As we rowed past, an
extremely filthy old savage, who called himself Orang Kaya, or chief, came on board; he told us
that his office was hereditary, and that every man of his family bore the same name, Pulek. He told
me that his people sometimes entered the rivers, but only far enough to get fresh water to drink,
which he said was very good. I felt somewhat interested about this matter, as I began to suspect we
should be some time in reaching Indragiri, so I asked him to let me see it. He fetched a cupfull from
his boat: it was muddy, nearly black, and not brackish, but so actually salt that I could not touch it;
yet he drank it with great relish, and said it was better than the clear water we had brought from
Singapore: so much will habit do in modifying human tastes. I exchanged with him some tobacco
and an old pair of trowsers, to which he took a great fancy, for a bundle of dried fish for the
boatmen; and after a most barefaced attempt steal my short clay pipe (a high crime, for it was the
only one I had with me), he took his leave, and we pulled on. We soon got aground however, about
mile from the trees, and were of course obliged wait for the tide. Shortly afterwards the whole tribe
was in motion, following us, and they moored themselves to poles stuck in the mud in a long line,
of which our boat was nearly the centre. They now began to prepare their balat, or fishing weir; it
was a sort of flexible paling, made of strips of bamboo, an inch wide and four or five feet long,
fastened together by the twisted stems of a species of Cissus12 (ths material, like their boat they get
from the Malays). This paling is doubled up and piled upon the small boats before mentioned, in
lengths of 100 to 200 feet in each boat, and from these it is shot like a seine net, when the tide
begins to ebb, in about six feet water, and in a line parallel with the shore; as fast as one boat was
exhausted another was brought up, and a fresh length joined on. A number of boys followed the
boats, swimming, and with their feet striking the bamboos upright in the mud in a perfectly straight
line, though it was impossible to see an inch into the muddy water. In a quarter of an hour they had
laid down more than half a mile, besides a long piece at each end, at right angles to the main line,
and moving up to the shore, enclosing altogether perhaps fifty or sixty acres of water. As soon as
the water had ebbed far enough to allow the wakes of the larger fish to be seen as they swam about
in this enclosure, the boys, taking advantage of the now unoccupied canoes, went paddling about
after them with great agility, holding a long light spear, with the head of the paddle in the right
hand, and seldom failing to transfix, even from considerable distance, any unfortunate fish who
ventured near enough to the surface to show his back free for a moment. When the water was about
three feet deep, and the tops of the bamboos sufficiently above water effectually to confine the fish,
the men began their work in good earnest. The fish, in their efforts to escape to deeper water,
travelled along the inside of the enclosure, close to the bamboos, and the fishermen accordingly
stationed themselves at intervals of about twelve or fourteen yards, with a large bag-net open
against the set of the tide; the water is so muddy that the fish cannot see this net before they strike it,
when it is immediately raised, and the captive secured. The mud here is so excessively soft, that it is
impossible to walk or even to stand upon it; and therefore every man, woman, and child is provided
with a strange instrument of locomotion, without which life would be impossible for these people; it
is called "tongka," and is merely a piece of plank, about four feet long, and eighteen inches wide,
rounded and slightly turned up at each end. I was much puzzled at first to imagine what these
planks could be, of which I saw so many in every boat; but when the tide went down the mystery
was soon solved. Supported on the hands and one knee on the "tongka," they paddled with the other
foot in the mud, and skimmed over the surface with most wonderful rapidity, making the mud and
water fly in all directions, and bespattering one another from head to foot with filth, which of
course cannot be washed off again until the tide rises, - a matter which distresses them but little. A
brisk intercourse was now kept up from boat to boat by this means, and you can conceive nothing
more absurd than the attitudes and action; it all looked natural enough as long as it was confined to
the naked children, but to see grey-headed old men and women scuttling away among the sludge,
and plastered with mud all over their grave wrinkled brown faces, was really most ridiculous: they
looked so very little like human beings, that I felt almost surprised to hear them speak. From this
mode of life the women are obliged to wear most grotesquely short drapery, not reaching their
knees; and the upper part of their dress being in the usual Malay style, this too gives them a very
odd appearance. The quantity of fish caught was very great, judging by the success of those near
me; they were chiefly Scombridae13 and Pleuronectidae14, but there were many other species. Two
or three small sharks were taken; their flesh is highly valued. I saw several specimens of a ray,
covered with blue spots and with a formidable spine near the base of bis long filiform tail: this fish
is much dreaded by the natives, and with good reason; it is exceedingly venomous. I have seen a
European at Labuan suffer for twenty-four hours intense pain from a scarcely visible puncture in the
ankle from one of these fish; the pain was accompanied by vomiting, shivering, spasms, and other
symptoms of poisoning; it was followed by extensive ecchymosis15 up to the thigh, swelling and
suppuration of the glands of the groin and axillae, and great general constitutional disturbance; and
the wound was five months in healing, after forming several deep-seated abscesses and sloughing
extensively. Several flat-tailed sea snakes of a dingy grey colour, called Maroke, were within the
weir; the natives say they are very poisonous, which I have reason to believe, but they refused to let
me kill one, saying it would bring cheloka, or ill-luck, to their fishing; they were gently raised in the
hand-net and put outside the enclosure. A small alligator was hotly chased, but he broke through the
weir and escaped to sea. Great number of fish were rejected, among them two species of
Syngnathus16, one very large, and all the Chaetodon17 tribe, some very curious and beautiful; but I
had with me no means of preserving them. The natives believe them all to be poisonous; a vast
number of shrimp, prawns, squillae, and other crustacea were also rejected, not, as the people said,
because they were not good, but because they had plenty of fish without them. An ichthyologist
who did not mind roughing it a little, and who would follow these people for a week, would reap a
rich harvest indeed. I was told hat the weir was the common property of the tribe, but that every
man fished in it on his own account. When the mud was quite dry, or as nearly so as it could be,
countless multitudes of small crabs, of five or six species made their appearance, and were in
constant motion, raking over the semi-liquid mud with their claws and feet, and every now and then
raising themselves on four feet above the surface, and spreading their extended chelae in the air. I
got two or three specimens of a little varnished black Mitra18, crawling on the mud, but no other
shells, except the Arca before mentioned. It rained heavily all the afternoon, and when during the
night the tide rose and floated us, we had a strong head wind; so we were obliged to remain where
we were until morning, only going out into deeper water.
26th. Got under weigh this morning at five A.M., with a fine fair wind, and stood across the
northern part of Amphitrite Bay19, as it is called on the charts. The shore is still of the same
character, but we were not so near it. I saw many wide gaps in the line of trees, being the mouths of
considerable rivers or creeks, all named correctly and with minuteness on the Dutch charts; in spite
of all this correctness, there is a small but very conspicuous island off a point named Jangong
Kangka20, which is not laid down at all. It is a mere mud bank, covered with Api Api trees, and is
called Pulo Barang, or Mud Island; and I am inclined to look upon it as a proof, if indeed one were
needed, of the extremely rapid growth of the land on this coast. The survey is some fifteen or
sixteen years old, and the island must have been all day long, for weeks, before the eyes of all
employed, had it existed at that time; it is besides visible from so many points, and is so well
adapted for a station, that I think it could not possibly have escaped any surveyor. In favour of this
opinion, I may add that the trees, though tolerably large, are all young and vigorous, ad there are
none of the decayed worm-eaten stumps generally seen in such situations. We entered the mouth of
the Indragiri about twelve o'clock; there was a very disagreeable cross sea, caused by the meeting of
the tide with the fresh-water current, at this season very strong; and I observed, as I have frequently
done in several similar places, a phenomenon which, so far as I am aware, is undescribed. This is a
dull droning musical sound appearing to come from beneath the boat; it varies about three notes, E,
F, G, of the bass clef, which run into one another as in a badly tuned Aeolian harp, and is in tone
something between the bassoon stop of a an organ and the drone of a bagpipe; sometimes it
resembles also the creaking of an ill-shutting door, and leaves an unpleasant vibratory sensation on
the ear. The natives call it “swara hams,” voice of the current, and attribute it to the mixing of the
fresh and salt water. I have certainly heard it in several places at the mouths of rivers, where this
mixture must have been going on, and in such places only. I think it is a little louder at night than in
the day. We entered the northern mouth of the Indragiri, now called Kwala Ioukko21; this I knew
very well from my chart, and supposed the steersman knew it also, as he came in without saying a
word. It appears, however, that he had never been in this way before, and had not intended it, but
had made a mistake; on discovering this, he wished to turn back and go up the main channel, which
would have lost us one or two days, and it cost me some trouble to convince him that we could go
where we were. The stream was at the mouth about a mile and a half wide, the banks fringed with
Nipa and Padada (Sonneratia acida22); the latter always a sure sign that the water is nearly fresh, as
on trial I found it to be. I could also distinguish, by its habit, the tall Rhizophora23 named Tumino;
but until it was dark in the evening we did not approach the shore near enough to se much of the
vegetation. At six P.M. we made fast for the night to a tree at the mouth of a small creek; and a most
unlucky locality we chose, for until about eight P.M. the mosquitoes drove us half mad: they are
always troublesome enough, but those on the Nipa swamp always excessively venomous, every bite
raising a large white wheal. At nine P.M. came on a violent squall with torrents of rain; but we
covered up the boat with Kajang or palm-leaf mats, and went to sleep, in hopes of weathering the
storm comfortably: so we remained until past midnight; and when ail (including, I am afraid, the
watch) were asleep, a huge tree came down with the current, and, striking us with such a shock that
I believed at first the boat must be utterly destroyed, tore us from our moorings, swept away all our
shelter, and swept us down the stream with it. It was raining as it rains only in the tropics, blowing
great guns, and thundering an lightening fearfully, so that we were all drenched in a moment. We
were in a most dangerous position, for we were quite fast in the branches of the drift, and had it
rolled over, the boat must have gone down; however, we got clear of it at last, after half an hours
hard work cutting away with choppers in the dark. The stream was now so strong in the middle of
the river that our anchor would not hold; and as we did not know whether it was flood or ebb at this
hour, we were obliged to try to light a torch to see the compass: in this we succeeded after several
trials, and found we had been carried nearly out to sea again, so we got as quickly as we could to
the bank, and made fast to the Nipa-leaves until daylight.
On the 27th, at five A.M., it was still raining a little; but while the men were cooking their rice, I
went ashore among the Nipa, and got a few shells, - two species of Neritina24 and a Cerithium25
creeping on the mud, a pretty little pink Anomia26 on the stems of the Nipa, and a Bulimus27 and a
Pholas28, the two latter apparently peculiar to the Nipa; the latter forms its burrows in the soft pithy
substance of the thick bases of the growing leaves. It is far from pleasant to explore a Nipa swamp:
independently of the difficulty of getting along in the soft black mud, you are always half devoured
by mosquitoes of the most venomous kind. Just as we started a great blue heron perched on a stump
near us; I put a rifle bullet through his neck and he greatly improved our dinner, after several days
of rice and salt-fish curry. Though neglected in these days in England, I have always found all the
heron tribe excellent food. My servant took off all the meat from the breast and thighs, and, as he
said made beefsteaks of it; it was quite tender, and had in some degree the flavour of woodcock. We
pulled and sailed all day up the river, passing the head of the Delta about noon, and seeing until
three P.M. hardly any vegetation except Nipa and Sonneratia acida, with here and a Rhizophora, or
a tuft of the Fern called Peai (I believe, Acrostichum inaequale29). The Sonneratia is a most
beautiful tree, with very long slender pendulous branches; the flowers are handsome, the long
stamens being of a rich dark pink, but they fall an hour or two after sunrise; the fruit is very
conspicuous, with its great persistent star-shaped calyx; it is acid and slightly bitter, and is eaten by
the natives as a condiment with their rice and salt fish. The creeping rhizomata of the Nipa look
very strange when exposed by the washing away of the mud: each internode is very short,but in
order to give room for the attachment of the enormous base of the leaf, it is applied so obliquely
upon the last, that the whole resembles a number of discs laid in a row, and slightly overlapping
each other; the upper side of these discs, a foot or eighteen inches in diameter, retains the scars left
by the disarticulation of the leaves, and the lower produces a tangled mass of simple fibres, about
half an inch in diameter. The way in which these fibres run into the mud has often forcibly
reminded me of the carbonized traces of the fibres of Stigmariae30 in the underclay of the coals of
Europe (here we have nothing of the sort31). On the stems of the Sonneratia I saw a very handsome
ivory-white foliaceous lichen, without fruit; there was a little pendulous Appendicula32, with thick
equitant leaves and minute axillary purple flowers; and another curious little plant of the Orchis-
family, remarkable in having no leaves or stem - it consists merely of a few radiating fleshy fibres
adhering to the tree; from the centre rise two or three spikes, bearing a few minute yellowish-green
flowers. I have since seen it in abundance in Java, and especially in the island of Banku, where the
trunks of Pleurocarpus Indicus33, planted about the town of Minto34, were completely covered by it.
A small Fern, I think Acrostichum nummulariaefolium35, creeps over the trees to the very
extremities of the twigs. About three P.M. we arrived at a small island in the river, where the salt-
water flood appears to cease almost at once. The Nipa disappears as a social plant, a few scattered
tufts only being seen; and some stunted patches of the Moong, always a freshwater Palm, begin to
rise here and there above the jungle. The island takes its name, Pulo Pullas, from the abundance of a
beautiful little scarlet-fruited Licuala36, so called. From this change in the vegetation, as well as
from the presence of the island and a sand-bank, which reduces the depth to a fathom and a half, it
is probable that at this point the freshwater stream and the flood tide exactly neutralize each other;
and indeed above this, though the stream became less rapid, and its level rose on the flood-tide, we
had no more current up the river. I saw today the first indications of elephants, or at least of some
very large animal, coming to the river to drink. Our wooden anchor would not hold tonight in the
soft mud, so we were obliged to make fast to a tree, though the men professed to be horribly afraid
tigers would leap into the boat. We had another alarm tonight, for, being close to the bank, the rising
tide jammed us under an overhanging tree; but the night was fine, and we soon got all clear, just as
the old steersman saluted the dawn with a most dreary noise, by blowing into a bamboo, which he
called twong-twong.
28th. Off again at five A.M. The Nipa bas quite disappeared, the Padada is much less common,
and not so well grown as lower down. Another social plant, the Rangas, of the Order
Anacardiaceae37, seems to take its place; it is a bushy shrub or small tree, growing quite in the
water; the leaves are of a bright clear green, when young very red, and it was now covered with
fruit, about the size of an egg; the cotyledons very large and covered with a thick corky bark. Two
other trees have received this same name of Rangas: one is an enormous tree, growing also by the
rivers, but quite in the interior; the other is also a large tree, of which I have seen neither fruit nor
flower. It yields a red and dark brown veined wood, largely used for common furniture at
Singapore. The bark of all three, and indeed of several other trees of the tribe, yields copiously a
limpid juice, changing rapidly to a black varnish. This juice is exceedingly venomous, blistering the
skin severely, and leaving foul little ulcers very difficult to heal. The trees are now beginning to be
clothed with parasitical Ferns; there are also a few small Orichideae, chiefly Dendrobia and
Appendiculae, and abundance of the ubiquitous Dendrobium crumenatum. The current came down
so strong about nine A.M., that we were obliged to anchor. I saw now the first alligators; one
enormous fellow I fired at, and, I suppose, hit, for he threw his huge body quite out of the water
with a tremendous splash. The natives say an alligator never recovers from a wound, however
small; he has nothing to scratch himself with, his feet being too short; and they say that the flies in
the air, and the small fish in the water, never leave him a moment's peace: so that the wound
becomes larger and larger. I have indeed seen an alligator which I shot through the leg, taken two or
three days afterwards, with almost the whole shoulder soughed away, so that the story may be true.
The quantity of monkeys seen here is wonderful. I only know the names of two, Nasalis larvatus38,
a horribly ugly animal, and Hylobates concolor39, frequently trained by the Malays to gather fruit;
but there are many other species:- the Moniet 40; the Sipai41, a beautiful little black fellow with white
stockings and long gloves; the Lotong42, a frightful animal, with a scowling face and grizzled black
hair; the Wa Wa43, or long-armed ape; the Orang Hutan44 (this is the proper spelling : it is literally
"man the woods"); the Ungku45, which fills the whole country in the early morning with a most
frightful howling, the most unearthly noise I have ever heard. We passed to day many clear spaces
covered with long grass, species of Anthistiria46 and Saccharum47; these are the favourite feeding
grounds of the elephants. The seed of the Anthistiria contains a good deal of farina, and must be
very nutritious. These places, I was told, were formerly settlements, driven away by the tyranny of
the Rajahs. Met a prahu today going to Singapore with gutta-percha; but all of second-rate quality.
The Nakoda48 told me I should not reach the Rajah's village for three days more. I took the
opportunity of sending some letters to Singapore. The fire-flies tonight are most magnificent, the
whole jungle was lighted up by them: the light is not steady, but is brighter at intervals of about two
seconds; and I have often remarked, that all the individuals on the same tree or branch are subject to
this augmentation of light at the same moment. It has just the effect of some electrical toy, showing
the intended word of outline at the moment the spark passes.
29th. We pulled last night some distance in the dark. The jungle has very much changed its
appearance; it has a much more interior look. Patches of grass come down here and there to the
bank; the trees are larger and more varied in appearance, and there are many Scitamineae49 to be
seen in the shade. There are also many Rotans50; one species, in particular, is most elegant, it is
called Rotan Tikus, "Mouse Rattan;" it has a glaucous pinnate leaf, with wedge-shaped premorse
leaflets and inflated thorny sheaths. At half-past six A.M. passed a river on the left; it is named
Chenaku51. At this spot the river makes a sudden turn to the north-east; its general direction has
hitherto been west. The calm clear beauty of this morning, as the sun rose, was indescribable. We
have now quite lost the Rangas and Padada; the banks are chiefly fringed with Paritium tiliaceum52,
covered with .its magnificent yellow blossoms, which, however, are beautiful only in the morning; a
few hours' sun changes them to a dirty brick-red. Mixed with this were slender Saccharum, and two
species of Phyllanthus53, etc. etc.; and all was matted together by a ternate-leaved Cissus54 with
large black fruit like grapes, and a beautiful purple Ipomoea55. But the pride of all the vegetation
here is the happily named Lagerstoemia regina56: it is a magnificent tree, growing to a large size,
and was now completely covered with lilac blossoms in spikes ten to eighteen inches long, and in
such abundance, that the woods were quite illuminated by it. Imagine Lythrum Salicaria57
multiplied in size ten times, and grown to a large tree, it will give you some idea of this plant. Its
wood is very valuable, being hard, tough, and almost indestructible; it is call here Kamnuching, but
elsewhere Boongoor. We passed an enormous Reed bed; it seemed to be composed of two species
of Saccharum and one Arundo58; it was matted together by several Convolvuleaceae and a
Cucurbitaceous plant like a Luffa59. The long floating runners of the Grasses all fringed with trailing
Confervae, shot far into the stream; and between the stems of the grass, in still places, where the
current could not reach them, were little colonies of Pistia stratiotes60, and a beautiful minute
Azolla61. Thousands of small black swallows, with chestnut-brown throats, were skimming about, or
swinging in the wind, perched upon the feathery waving tops of the Reeds; snow-white herons
gravely stalking over the floating grass; and a flock of busy little finches clinging and searching
about the dry panicles, made it a lively and beautiful scene. The river was a good deal swollen
today, bringing down much drift; and the current was very strong, so that we made little progress.
About two o'clock reached the first settlement on the river, called Pulan Iumhaat62. The clearings
are not more than 200 to 300 yards wide, skirting the river for two or three miles; the stream is
divided by an island, hardly above the now high water, but covered with Padi63, and the black
species of Coix64, called by the natives “Salli batu65;" and here and there small patches of
Sorghum66; the whole interspersed with numerous Anan-trees, Saguerus saccharifer67. I stopped the
boat near this place to get some curious pendulous birds' nests, of which there was a large colony on
some low trees. The bird is a little finch or bunting; the nests are about two feet long, in shape like a
Florence oil-flask; in the bottom is a hollow, as in an ordinary wine-bottle, across which is a little
perch, on which the natives assure me the male bird roosts while the female sits on the eggs, which
are deposited in hollows excavated in the upper part, which is at first built solid. The whole fabric is
of fine grass, beautifully woven together, and is fastened very finely to the branch by a band of
grass passing round it; it swings, however, quite freely in the wind. I got here some specimens of a
curious black spiny Neritina68, from the long floating runners of the Reeds. We also got some
unpleasant fellow-passengers, in the shape of a flight of large greenish-brown Gad-flies, whose bite
was very painful. A large Aroid leaf, probably a Caladium69, was here very abundant and
ornamental; I saw no flowers. About four o'clock stopped at a small house in a Padi path, at the
mouth of a brook; the family consisted of an old man, two women, and several children, and
certainly they were packed into the smallest possible room. There were two young men sitting in
the house, whom, from their affectation of contempt, I knew at once to be Rajahs: they were, it
appeared, the sons of a petty chief up the river, very oppressive and much disliked. There are many
of these petty chiefs in the country, and they are a great curse to the people. They are not generally
oppressed by their absolute rulers; their tribute is taken from them, it is true, in an irregular and
irritating way, but they probably pay not half as large a proportion of taxes as we do in England; but
every man who has a little royal blood in his veins, thinks he has also a right in some particular
district also to collect the same tribute for his own use and benefit; and it not unfrequently happens,
that the poor people, who dare not complain, pay two or three times over. The old man told us much
of his greivances when his aristocratic visitors had taken leave. He then showed us his plantation:
he had plenty of rice, ginger, turmeric, and remarkably large and fine capsicums; and he gave us
some cucumbers, sugar-canes, and a kind of Plantain called Pisang Nipa, from the closely packed
fruit bearing a distant resemblance to that of the Nipa: it was a good and sweet kind. They had here
the largest domestic cats I have ever seen, of a dun colour, with light blue eyes, and very full in the
cheeks, they had the twisted tail of ail the Malay cats.

[Begin Page: Page 289]

Notes written on a Voyage from Singapore to Banjermassing; in a Letter

from JAMES MOTLEY, ESQ., to Sir W. J. HOOKER.,
(Continued from p. 269.)
Martapora (Bajermassing), June 10, 1855.
I now continue the journal of my Sumatra excursion, which I was obliged last time to break off
in the middle of a day, from a sudden alarm of the mail closing, a sort of thing we are very subject
to in these out-of-the-way places. I think I left myself, in the afternoon of January 29, at the little
settlement of Pulo Jumahat. About five o'clock we stopped at a deserted garden to cook; it was a
jungle of young fruit-trees and sago-palms, and many trees of a handsome Erythrina70, full of the
pendent nests already described; the trunks, however, were too thorny to be climbed. There was also
a curious Ficus, bearing its fruit in large, dense bunches on the stem and branches. The men were
tired, but to stop was out of the question, from the number of mosquitoes. Near this place I observed
a beautiful Trichosanthes71 in fruit; the pepos were of the size of an orange, and bright scarlet,
hanging in long festoons from branch to branch of the trees. I saw here also, for the first time on
this river, the beautiful little Caryota furfuracea72, with its elegant, adiantiform leaves; it is often
planted by the natives for the sake of the cottony pubescence which covers the leaf-sheaths, and
which is used for caulking boats, and also for tinder; it is called “Cuput.” Another Palm, however,
whose name I do not know, I think a Wallichia, yields it in greater quantities; and in Java it is
procured from an Areca. The banks are completely lined with the large Musa called "Pisang batu;"
it has probably been planted originally, but is now perfectly wild, growing abundantly among the
trees. I am inclined to believe that this is the original species of the cultivated Pisangs; it is
cultivated everywhere by the natives, and is very constant in its appearance and character: unlike
the other varieties, it is always full of seeds, although they are often abortive: it is coarse and hard,
but has a flavour somewhat resembling a Burgundy pear. The natives consider it to contain more
nourishment than the other kinds, which I think probable, as it has certainly more fecula. Just at
dark we passed a small island, called Pulu Kamudi. As night came on, the mosquitoes arrived, and
in such numbers as I have never seen before or since; the air was filled with them like a cloud; they
bit through trousers, stockings, and jacket like gauze. At last I put on a pair of long hunting-boots,
and two thick flannel shirts, and wrapped up my head in a coarse towel; even then I could not sleep.
The men had not this protection, and, though very much tired, they preferred pulling on to
attempting to go to rest. No one who has not felt it, can conceive the misery and irritation caused by
these insects when they are really bad; and the Malays, who generally have skins almost
invulnerable to them, say that the rivers on this coast are the worst in the world for them. After
several hours' pulling they became more tolerable, and we made fast for the night. The night was
foggy, and I had just put my rifle into its bag to save it from damp, when a tiger showed himself on
the beach, but he went away before I could again get at the gun.
30th. We were off very early this morning. The river is visibly narrower, and the stream stronger,
but still there are no signs of a hill, or even a bank. We passed another island today, called Pulu Lys:
it is covered with large jungle, and was formerly a burial-place for the Europeans who died here,
while the Dutch had an establishment at Indragiri. A little higher up are the remains of the house of
the Resident, who was removed a few years ago, chiefly, I believe, on account of the extreme
unhealthiness of the place in the dry season. We are now evidently approaching the haunts of men:
the jungle generally has been cut, and, instead of trees, the river is bounded by large floating beds of
luxuriant grass and reeds, sometimes fifteen or eighteen feet high; behind are rice-fields, extending
a mile or two from the river, which again are backed up by the long, dark line of primeval forest.
Here and there, wallowing and splashing through the water, are droves of ungainly-looking
buffaloes, with their never-failing companions, the white egrets, or padi-birds, perched upon their
backs. There are now also a good many houses near the river, with a few Plantains, Kaput
(Eriodendron), and Drabus (Psidium), about them. The people seem to make great use, for fishing,
of small rafts constructed of Musa stems, which are very buoyant. Bamboos, up to this point rather
uncommon, begin now to form a feature in the landscape; the commonest are the yellow-stemmed
Bamboo gading, and a very bushy, thorny, and crooked kind, which would make excellent fences.
At two P.M. Landed at a small campong, called Seligi: here there was a considerable quantity of a
small, pink-flowered Indigofera; it is called "Taram" by the Malays, and gives a good dye, but in
small quantity. A number of women were employed in cleaning wax; the combs were very large,
forming semicircles near two feet in diameter; they scrape off the covers of the cells, and let the
honey run out, and then boil down the wax in water. They gave us some honey; it was sweet and
good, and without the resinous flavour which spoils so much of the honey here, but, as usual, it was
thin and watery. At five P.M. we reached the settlement of the Sultan; it is called Rangat 73, and
consists of some hundreds of houses, completely buried in cocoanut and other fruit-trees. I made
my boat fast before the Sultan's house, and sent to announce to him my arrival. After a short time
the Si-baudhar74, an officer who may be considered equivalent to a chancellor of the exchequer,
came to introduce me to the great man. I found him sitting in the verandah of a pretty good wooden
house, the Sultan Muda, or heir-apparent, being at his side. They were both stout, good-tempered
looking men of forty to forty-five years old; they talked very intelligently, and smoked opium the
whole time I was with them. The Sultan showed me with great pride some brass guns, made at
Indragiri, and they certainly were beautiful specimens of Malay work. I was provided with a letter,
which I produced, and it was handed to a secretary, who immediately read it aloud, much to the
edification of some two hundred people who were round us. The people here speak excellent Malay,
better than I have heard generally anywhere, except among the Malays of the high class in
Singapore, where it is perhaps better spoken than anywhere else, except in the kingdom of Menang
Kaiban75, the cradle of the Malay power and language; Indragiri is however not more than 100 miles
from Menang Kaiban, and, strange to say, the neighbours are at peace. I made inquiries of the Rajah
about the coal, which was the object of my journey: he did not give me much encouragement about
the main river, but showed me very good sample from the Chenaku, a river I have passed lower
down, and be promised me a boat and a guide to go thither; after about an hour's talk I left him, and
took up my quarters, by his desire, in a small schooner which he had moored in the river: she was
about forty tons, and was named Sambarani, the name of the Pegasus of the Malay mythology. Here
I was more comfortable than in my small boat.
I remained at Rangat, waiting for my boat and guide, until the 3rd of February; I could not walk
about much, all the country being under water, and the only result of this wasted time was the
following list of the plants I saw cultivated about the houses at Rangat:-

Padi. Oryza. Kawak. Coffea Arabica.

Jelli. Coix. Pisang. Musa, many varieties.
Jelli Butu. Coix. Jubbu. Saccharum.
Jagong. Zea Mays. Nanas. Bromelia.
Sagu. Sagus, 2 sp. Kladi. Colocasia.
Anan. Saguerus saccharifer Birai. Caladium odorum.
Klapa. Cocos nucifera. Rambutan. Nephelium lappaceum.
Pinang. Areca Catechu Kumpal benang. Nephelium.
Sardang. Corypha sp. Mantam. Nephelium.
Jukas. Caryota furfuracea. Manyga. Mangifera Indica.
Pinang Sindawa. Pinanga sp. Bachung. Mangifera faetida.
Manygista. Garcinia. Belunu, |
Manygista Ijan. Garcinia. Buyei, | Mangifera.
Butun. Cassia fistulosa. Bambangam, |
Moringa, 2 sp. Romania, |
Capsicum, 4 sp. Nona. Anona.
Sarai. Andropogon Schoenanthus. Nona Kaffre. Anona squamosa.
Liman Besar. Citrus Decumana. Jantong Sapi. Anona reticulata.
Liman rupis. C. Limonellus. Jaram. Indigofera.
Liman pont, | Gondola. Basella alba.
Liman manis, | Citrus. Papaya. Carica Papaya.
Liman panjang, | Pangi. Pangium edule.
And 8 or 9 others | Ahampaka. Michelia.
Dulima. Punica Granatum. Ahampaka putch. Michelia.
Pala. Myristica moschata. Janjong. Talauma Candollei.
Drarbas. Psidium, 2 sp. Kanaga. Uvaria odorata.
Jambu, 6 varieties. Jambosa. “ Euphorbia sp.
Jongkeng. Pergularia. Mawar. Rosa Indica.
Asam jawa. Tamarindus. Bunga gambri. Jasminum.
Erythrina, several sp. Malatti. Jasminum Sambak.
Duka, | Mulatti kosta. Guettarda.
Lansat, | Lansium or allied Irong. Solanum Melongena.
Ayer ayer, | genera Chakri. Melia Azedarach.
Manko, | Halia. Zingiber officinale.
And 3 others. | Kunyet. Curcuma longum.
Sittni. Citrullus edulis. 3 other Scitamineae.
Petola. Luffa, 4 sp. Ganda suli. Canna.
Jinum. Cucumis sativus. “ another species.
Kahinon. Cucumis Melo. Kanuming. Murraya paniculata.
Baligo. Cucurbita farinosa. “ Elaeocarpus, 2 sp.
7 or 8 other Cucurbitaceae. Kambang sapatu. Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis.
Sidah badak. Opuntia. Ang suna. Pterocarpus Indicus.
Bamboo. Bambusa, several sp. Rami. Boehmeria.
Lukan. Artocarpus incisifolia. “ Clitoria tenatea.
Nungka. Artocarpus integrifolia. Kachang. Phaseolus, 4 sp.
Champada. Artocarpus. Kachang panjang. Vigna Sinensis.
Jarap. Artocarpus. Petch. Parkia speciosa.
Durian. Durio Zibethina, Kachang tana. Arachis hypogaea.
and 2 other varieties. Gambir. Uncaria Gambir.
Kukam. Flacourtia, 3 sp. Pactra, Impatiens balsamina.
Nammana. Cynometra. Kauari. Canarium commune.
Karambolu. Averrhoa. Kamiui. Canarium Moluccanum.
Bilumbung. Averrhoa. Jambu moruet. Anacardium occidentale.
Kapus susan. Gossypium fruticosum. “ Codiaeum variegatum.
Kapuk. Eriodendron. Jaruk. Ricinus communis.
Henai. Lawsonia. Jurak hollanda. R. spectabilis.
Bung kudu. Morinda citrifolia. Jarak china. Jatropha multifida.
Lada. Piper nigrum. Ubi kayu. Jatropha Manihot.
Sirih. Piper Betel. Ubi pulek. Convolulus Batatas.
Sirih buah. Piper Sirihboa. Ubi gadang. Dioscorea triphylla.
Lada panjang. Piper. Ubi mera. Dioscorea sp.
Baiam Celosia, 4 sp. Pandan harum. Pandanus odoratissimus.
Poko. Mentha sp. Triphasia.

I will now leave the rest of my journey for the present, and answer your two letters of December
29 and February 17. I should indeed have been glad to have seen more of Java, but at the same time
I considered myself very fortunate in getting the chance at all: it was only while I was waiting for
the decision of this very slow-going Dutch Government. I shall remember your hint about the Java
plants, should the opportunity occur at some future time, but I hope I am fixed to Borneo for some
years to come. There is a man in Java now a Mr. Henshall 76, but he is a mere commercial gardener.
He bas been out some time, and sends home large quantities of Orchideae to Henderson's, I believe;
but he is profoundly ignorant of botany. Borneo however will repay investigation: it is true that near
the sea we have immense marshes hardly above water, but behind them are hills of gravel,
sandstone, and eruptive rocks, having on the surface large grassy plains, with small scattered
patches of wood. Having been obliged to survey this country very minutely, in consequence of a
stupid mistake in the Government Engineers' chart, I have had the opportunity of running a good
deal about; and though obliged to travel too quickly to botanize much, I have still seen much of the
vegetation, and have got together more than 500 species. The way I manage is to have the tin
vasculum always on a man's back behind me, so that if I see anything I can put it in, and I am
obliged to get Mrs. Motley to dry them, for I am out all day, and sometimes several days together.
The survey will however soon be over, I hope, and then l shall not be quite so nomadic. Besides the
500 species, I have have some 100 or so more Orchids, which I keep in the garden, and dry a
specimen when they flower, always putting a flower or two in spirits, with a corresponding number;
but I do not succeed well with the Orchideae; and now that it is the dry season, I lose many of my
plants for want of a proper place to put them. I am living at present in a Government building here,
for until our boundaries are put all right, I do not know where we shall work coal, and there of
course I must live, so it will yet be some time before I am settled; when I know my location, I shall
certainly make a garden of Ferns and Orchideae. I am looking forward with great anxiety to the
time when I shall be able get further inland. We have close by a tolerably extensive range of hills
2000 to 3000 feet high77, and some further off, which I believe much reach 6000: this is high
enough to give me quite a new flora. I got one Rhododendron at Brune at 760 feet, but only just on
the summit: the specimens of this you must now have. The highest elevation I have yet been on here
is an isolated serpentine hill about 1000 feet; it was very bare and dry, but I found seven Orchideae
I had not seen before, and a new Casuarina78, of which however I saw no flowers or fruit. I shall
have to return to this hill hereafter to seek mineral veins; and I believe the valleys about it, which I
must then explore, will yield me beautiful Ferns. We have many Loranthaceae79 here. I know
certainly six Loranthi and two Visca, not including four Loranthi and one Viscum which I found at
Labuan. I am now trying an experiment with them which, if it succeeds, will be very interesting. I
am grafting and budding them with every variety of joint on different plants, of which I believe
Melia Azedarach80 and Citrus Decumana81 are the most likely to suceed; so far they look well. If I
could send you a Ward's case with living Loranthi, it would be a fine prize for you, and really I have
great hopes. I shall try them also by seed, but this is difficult to find, as the birds eat it all before it is
ripe. We have certainly a Rafflesia82 here, but I have not yet seen it; it must be very rare, for I have
repeatedly searched the only locality I have been able to get pointed out to me without success. I am
not sure of its nidus, for in that spot there are three or four large species of Cissus, or Cissampelos
growing mixed together. I feel however no doubt of its existence, for it was found by Dr. Greiner, a
very intelligent man, the surgeon to the Government coal-mines, and he is at least botanist enough
to know a Raffesia. I hope to get a specimen some day; it may be a new species, for it is described
as much larger than the R. Patma; and the R. Arnoldi has hitherto been found only in Sumatra. I
wish I could get at my Mosses for a week or two, to put them in order to send home, but it is
impossible just yet. My Glumaceae83 are ready, or nearly so; they will be about 140 species, and
will make 20 to 25 very full and good sets. I am now making a set of Ferns, and as this is nearly
virgin ground, I hope they will be interesting. I am also preparing your set of 500 (which includes
the Glumaceae and Ferns, so far as I have gone). I retain a set with corresponding numbers, and I
hope, as you kindly offer to take so much trouble in naming them for me, that you will oblige me by
accepting the set sent. You will find plenty of small things among them, for I have rather a
microscopic eye. I shall obtain a few more Cryptogams here, though not so many as supposed from
the dampness of the climate, and I have not now the pleasure in seeking them that I had, for I
possess no microscope84. It was the present of a very good set of British Mosses from Mr.
Bicheno85, when I was quite a boy, which first turned my attention towards that beautiful tribe, but I
think I am now nearly as much in love with the Ferns. It will be very difficult to send living plant
from hence, as all the vessels loading here go to Batavia, and they would then have to be shipped
again to Singapore. I speak now of Orchideae and such plants: a few weeks' delay for a Ward's case
is of less importance, and they could be shipped at Batavia direct for England. I have one
disadvantage here, to which however I got pretty well accustomed at Labuan, that is, that I must
work quite alone; there is not one who has the smallest sympathy with anything scientific except
Dr.Greiner, whom I rarely see. I do not get on very fast with the language; the reading is not
difficult, and the writing I shall manage, because I can learn it out of books, but the pronunciation is
a terrible difficulty, almost an impossibility, for me; still, as every one speaks Malay and nearly all
French, I manage pretty well, but it will be a great advantage when I can write my letters and
reports in Dutch, as these things often suffer a little by translation. Banjermassing is, as I dare say
you know, the great place for the Rattan trade; all the finest ones come from here. I hope to send
you some of them alive, or at least the seed. Will the seeds of Aroideae travel, and if so, in what
way best? I could often enclose a few seeds in my letters. I send you now some seeds of a little
Cucurbit, of no beauty, but the section of the young fruit seemed to me to show the construction of
the pepo with peculiar clearness, and therefore I believed it might be interesting to you. It is
extraordinary what a number of plants there are here, chiefly climbers, with which I am quite
familiar, and yet I cannot find a trace either of fruit or flowers; and it is strange too how sometimes
you find out their secrets by accident. A few days ago I was exploring a wooded dingle for coals,
when one of the men showed me what he was pleased to call jungle potatoes just appearing above
ground. They had in fact just the appearance of half-dried potatoes, but on breaking one I found it to
be the fruit of a Ficus growing in small groups on the roots. I immediately set to work to trace the
root to its origin, which was some twenty feet away, and I found it proceeded from a tree common
enough here and at Labuan, and whose fruit I have sought ever since I came out to India. You will
have specimens of it among the rest. I like the Fici, many of them are such noble trees, and we have
here a wonderful variety of them. I send also the seeds of a little Aristolochia, more curious for its
pendulous, basket-like seed-vessels than its flowers, which are small; but at least it does no harm to
put them in the letter. When you have seen it once flower, you will probably throw it away. I
enclose it rather because it happens to be on my writing-table than for any other reason. I hope by-
and-by to send you the seed of an interesting plant from Japan, Corchorus pyriformis, Bl., which is
said to afford the fibre of which the finest grass-cloth is made. I had the seed from Buitenzorg, and
it is flowering freely with me. We have here another fine fibre plant, the Boehmeria candicans, from
which was prepared a beautiful silky white fibre, which got a medal at the Exhibition under the
name of Ananas Fibre. It was sent from Java by a Mr. Weber, a gum-tree planter. He showed me at
his house the medal, the fibre, and the plant, which I find also here.
1 Substantial parts of the original letter are reproduced in In Pursuit of Plants by Philip S.Short (2003) pp77-89. The
biographical details are not entirely correct as primary sources were often hard to find before their recent digitisation
and accessibility via the internet; much confusion has arisen in derivatory sources.

Transcribed, annotated, and hyperlinked by Martin Laverty, July 2010

2 James Motley (1822-1859) was a Yorkshireman. He spent some time in S.Wales in the 1830's and worked there
from 1843-1849. He went to Labuan in 1849 with his wife and brother, and had two daughters there before leaving
for Singapore in 1853. He spent 1854 partly looking for work in Sumatra and Java, working on a drainage plan for
Singapore in the spring, before going to S.E.Borneo, via Java, towards the end of the year. Throughout, he displayed
a strong interest in natural history.
3 Machipora is a misreading of Martapura, a town E of Banjarmasin in SE Borneo
4 The letter was started in Surabaya on Nov 28, and finished in Banjermasin on Dec 19, 1854
5 Aegiceras majus is now Aegiceras corniculatum, river mangrove
6 A misreading of Tanjong Datuk.
7 Arca, an ark clam
8 Sirik, or sirih, a leaf chewed with betel nut and lime
9 Areca, the betel nut
10 Teredo, or shipworm, actually a boring mollusc
11 Brahminy kite,
12 Cissus, a climbing plant
13 Scombridae, the tuna family
14 Pleuronectidae, the flounder family
15 Ecchymosis, skin discolouration, as in bruising
16 Syngnathus, or pipefish
17 Chaetodon, or butterflyfish
18 Mitra, or mitre shell
19 The Indragiri river discharges into Amphitrite (now Tembilahan ) Bay
20 A misreading of Tanjong Kangka?
21 Kuala Toeaka on a 1945 chart
22 Sonneratia acida, a species of mangrove. In the previous letter, Motley gave it the local name Pempat.
23 Rhizophora, the 'true' mangrove. In the previous letter, Motley gave it the local name Tameno.
24 Neritina
25 Cerithium
26 Anomia, jingle or saddle-oyster
27 Bulimus,
28 Pholas, piddock or angelwing: a boring bivalve
29 Acrostichum inaequale, a fern
30 Stigmaria fossil roots
31 The coals of Borneo and Sumatra are much more recent geologically than those of Wales or Yorkshire, as Motley
had described in Labuan.
32 Appendicula, an orchid
33 Pleurocarpus Indicus, a misreading of Pterocarpus indicus
34 Muntok on Banka Island was renamed Minto in 1812, and may still have been so named on the chart Motley was
using.
35 Acrostichum nummulariaefolium, now Polypodium n.?
36 Licuala, a fan palm
37 Anacardiacaea, a genus of trees bearing nuts or fruit
38 Nasalis larvatus, proboscis monkey, now found only on the coast of Borneo
39 Hylobates concolor, the white-cheeked or black (crested) gibbon is not (now?) found in Sumatra: the siamang
(H.syndactylus) is also black, so is probably what he saw although, if so, he has also recorded it, from its calla, as
the ungku; the other possibility is white-handed gibbon ( H.lar).
40 Monyet is just Malay for monkey, but may indicate a macaque, Macaca fasciularis or M.nemestrina long- or pig-
tailed, although they tend to be called kra. The pig-tailed macaque has certainly been tamed and used to pick
coconuts.
41 Sipai, or banded langur?
42 Lotong, is Malay for silvered leaf monkey, or langur (Presbytis cristata)
43 Wa Wa, agile gibbon, Hylobates agilis
44 Orang hutan, Pongo pygmaeus
45 Ungku, [ungka in Webster's dictionary], the siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) although Wikipedia says its
“melodious choir singing breaks the forest's silence in the early morning” rather than “a most frightful howling”
46 Anthistiria, now Themeda
47 Saccharum, sugarcane
48 Nakoda ie trader
49 Scitamineae, an obsolete classification covering various monocots such as bananas and gingers.
50 Rotan, or rattans, are climbing palms, often with spines.
51 Chenaku – in the interior of the Kerinci country - subject of another note by Motley on the drinking of an infusion of
coffee leaves
52 Paritium tiliaceum, now Talipariti t., a hibiscus
53 Phyllanthus, or leafflowers
54 Cissus, vines
55 Ipomoea, morning glories
56 Lagerstoemia regina
57 Lythrum_salicaria, purple loosestrife
58 Arundo, cane grasses
59 Luffa, loofah or gourd
60 Pistia_stratiotes, water cabbage
61 Azolla, aquatic ferns looking like duckweed
62 Rendered in the next letter as Pulau Jumahat (probably at P.Gelang rather than Poelaudjoemahat on the 1945 chart,
from description and timings)
63 Padi, Malay for the rice plant
64 Coix, Job's tears, another grass with edible grains
65 Salli batu is later rendered as Jelli butu: jelli batu is probably correct.
66 Sorghum, another grass with edible grains
67 Saguerus saccharifer, now Arenga pinnata, the Gomuti palm
68 Neritina, a snail
69 Caladium, or elephant's ears, are a S.American genus: Colocasia is probably what he saw
70 Erythrina, flame, or coral, trees
71 Trichosanthes, vines, often with edible shoots, leaves, or fruit
72 Caryota furfuracea, one of the fishtail palms
73 Now, Rengat,
74 Si-baudhar, a misreading of si-bandhar
75 Menang Kaiban refers to the Minangkabau people of W.Sumatra,
76 John Henshall gardener to Baron J.H.Schroder. , collected orchids in Java
77 These would be the Meratus Mountains
78 Casuarina, evregreen commonly known in Malay as aru or rhu
79 Loranthaceae, mistletoes
80 Now Melia azedarach
81 Citrus Decumana, probably the pomelo
82 Rafflesia, giant parasitic flowers
83 Glumaceae, an old term for grasses. Motley had evidently undertaken to collect them, probably for Hooker, as he
described in another letter, from Java in October.
84 By Jan 10, 1857, Mitten had sent a microscope
85 J.E.Bicheno (1785-1851), sometime lawyer, secretary of the Linnean Society of London from 1825-1832,
unsuccessful investor,with Motley's father, in S Wales iron works from 1826, yet ending up as governor of
Tasmania.