Hibiscus, two arborescent species.
Scævola.
Calophyllum inophyllum. This generally grows close by the sea-side, its roots being washed by the tide at high water.
Cycas revoluta. Very abundant; a more handsome palm than the C. circinalis. It was now in flower. The quantity of pollen discharged by the stameniferous plant was uncommonly great, and of an oppressively powerful odour. It appeared to us, on examining their structure, not at all extraordinary that this plant should long have been taken for a fern of gigantic size. A large, yellow-coloured, pine-shaped, squamate cone terminates the stameniferous plant. Each scale is somewhat of a triangular shape, the apex joining the central stem. On the under surface of the scale are innumerable sessile and minute globules, which burst exactly in the manner of many of the ferns, and discharge a fine, strong-scented, yellow pollen. This palm rarely exceeds ten or twelve feet in height.
Besides these we observed a species of slender Caryota.
Also Nipa fruticans,
And a species of Calamus; and another of Urtica.
We caught several fish in the seine on the 27th and 28th February.
We stood over towards the coast of Borneo, with the wind strong, and quite against us. We now had a heavy swell and rough sea, which soon affected the less experienced amongst us with sickness to a distressing degree.
On the first of March we had sight of a lofty conical hill in Borneo, and on the 2d we came in view of the coast of that island. The wind, which had hitherto been steady and strong, sunk into a gentle breeze as we approached the land, passing from the N.E. to N.W. and N.N.W. with a calm sea.