WATER-LILIES, ETC.

The bunga tarati or seruja (Nymphaea nelumbo) as well as several other beautiful kinds of aquatic plants are found upon the inland waters of this country.  Daun gundi or tabung bru (Nepenthes destillatoria) can scarcely be termed a flower, but is a very extraordinary climbing plant.  From the extremity of the leaf a prolongation of the mid-rib, resembling the tendril of a vine, terminates in a membrane formed like a tankard with the lid or valve half opened; and growing always nearly erect, it is commonly half full of pure water from the rain or dews.  This monkey-cup (as the Malayan name implies) is about four or five inches long and an inch in diameter.  Giring landak (Crotalaria retusa) is a papilionaceous flower resembling the lupin, yellow, and tinged at the extremities with red.  From the rattling of its seed in the pod it obtains its name, which signifies porcupine-bells, alluding to the small bells worn about the ankles of children.  The daup (bauhinia) is a small, white, semiflosculous flower, with a faint smell.  The leaves alone attract notice, being double, as if united by a hinge, and this peculiarity suggested the Linnean name, which was given in compliment to two brothers of the name of Bauhin, celebrated botanists, who always worked conjointly.

To the foregoing list, in every respect imperfect, many interesting plants might be added by an attentive and qualified observer.  The natives themselves have a degree of botanical knowledge that surprises Europeans.  They are in general, and at a very early age, acquainted not only with the names, but the properties of every shrub and herb amongst that exuberant variety with which the island is clothed.  They distinguish the sexes of many plants and trees, and divide several of the genera into as many species as our professors.  Of the paku or fern I have had specimens brought to me of twelve sorts, which they told me were not the whole, and to each they gave a distinct name.

MEDICINAL HERBS.

Some of the shrubs and herbs employed medicinally are as follows.  Scarcely any of them are cultivated, being culled from the woods or plains as they happen to be wanted.

Lagundi (Vitex trifolia, L.) The botanic characters of this shrub are well known.  The leaves, which are bitter and pungent rather than aromatic, are considered as a powerful antiseptic, and are employed in fevers in the place of Peruvian bark.  They are also put into granaries and among cargoes of rice to prevent the destruction of the grain by weevils.

Katupong resembles the nettle in growth, in fruit the blackberry.  I have not been able to identify it.  The leaf, being chewed, is used in dressing small fresh wounds.

Siup, a kind of wild fig, is applied to the scurf or leprosy of the Nias people, when not inveterate.

Sikaduduk (melastoma) has the appearance of a wild rose.  A decoction of its leaves is used for the cure of a disorder in the sole of the foot, called maltus, resembling the impetigo or ringworm.