APPENDIX.
The main object of my journey eastward was the collection and introduction of beautiful new plants to the Veitchian Collection at Chelsea. Botanical specimens were obtained and preserved whenever practicable, as also were birds and other objects of natural history. I was fortunate in adding about fifty new species of ferns to the lists of those already collected in Borneo, and of this number, as will be seen from the following report, about twenty were absolutely new to science. Perhaps the greatest good fortune which attended my exertions was the introduction alive of the Giant Pitcher Plant of Kina Balu (Nepenthes Rajah, Hook. f.). This wonderful plant and its geographical allies were discovered in 1851 by Hugh Low, Esq., C.M.G., and were figured and described by Sir Joseph D. Hooker, K.C.S.I., in Vol. xxii. of the Transactions of the Linnæan Society. Mr. Low made repeated journeys to Kina Balu from Labuan, but unfortunately failed in his endeavours to introduce these fine plants to European gardens in a living state. Mr. Thos. Lobb, one of the most successful of all Eastern plant hunters, attempted to reach the habitat of these plants in 1856, but was prevented by the natives. These plants are very remarkable, and, so far as is at present known, exist only on this one mountain in Borneo.
PINANGA VEITCHII.
Nepenthes bicalcarata, the “Two-spurred Pitcher Plant,” was also for the first time introduced alive, and is very remarkable, its pitchers being armed in a really formidable way, and the swollen stalks of its urns are perforated by a species of ant in a singular manner.
NEPENTHES BICALCARATA.
Of palms a beautiful species of areca, having gracefully arched leaves and vermilion-coloured sheaths, was introduced alive, as also a very attractive dwarf species of pinanga (P. Veitchii, H. Wend.), the bifurcate fans of which are purple below and glaucous-green above, blotched with brown. Aroids are plentiful in the shady Bornean forests, the species in some cases being extremely local in their distribution. Of the new genera discovered two have very pretty spathes, and if they can be successfully cultivated will prove very interesting and ornamental stove plants. Piptospatha insignis, N. E. Br., a pretty little “rock arad,” found on sandstone boulders in the beds of mountain streams, has a tuft of lance-shaped leaves and dainty white spathes tipped with pink. Gamagyne Burbidgei, N. E. Br., is a plant of larger growth, being a foot high but otherwise of similar habit. The spathes are of a bright rose colour. This plant grows beside mountain streams in positions where the passing water laves its roots.