Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/47

 the latter may not interfere with the growth of the young plant, but not too widely to be absolutely isolated, nor on ground unsuited to the requirements of the species. It must be pointed out also that in the thick jungle where the foliage is very dense there is always a risk of the fruit when fallen resting in the branches, or in the tangled mass of creepers that mats together the branches of the big trees. It is, there. fore, important that the fruits or seeds should be in many cases modified so as to avoid this accident. Besides in the case of such palms as Pholidocarpus and Elaeis where the stem is roughened by the projecting bases of the fallen leaves, there is always danger of the seeds resting in the spaces be- tween these leaf bases and the trunk. This is usually obviated by the fruits being made edible and sought by birds, or mam- mals, as in the date-palms (Phoenix) or by the inflorescence being elongate so that the fruit is held out from the tree on long branches as in Pholidocarpus. The oil-palm (Elaeis guineen- sis) is not a native of Malaya, though often cultivated, and the spadix of fruit is short-stalked and hidden among the leaves, so that, unless some animal or bird devours the fruit, there is a great risk of the seed lodging among the leaf stalks, and as no bird here seems to care for the fruit, this is what often happens in trees in the Malay Peninsula. I have seen trees in the Botanic Gardens in which the spaces between the old leaf bases and the stem at the top of the trees were full of seedling oil-palms which, of course, would soon perish from want of nourishment.

In the Malay Peninsula, as elsewhere, the birds play the most important part in the dispersal of seed, but the mammals are agents also of considerable importance, and in this paper I intend to speak of their action in this work, and to compare it with that of the birds.

In the dense jungles that cover the hills of the Malay Penin- sula one very soon notices that bird life gets scantier and scantier the further one penetrates them. Pigeons, hornbills and finches become scarcer, and almost entirely disappear, and even monkeys are not so abundant as one would expect.

In the woods of the Tahan valley in Pahang I have seen the