Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/56

 Marlea nobilis and Eugenias which have a firm texture and are not very hard.

Ungulata.—The Ungulates of the Malay Peninsula include the clephant; rhinoceros, one or two species; tapir, wild ox (Bos gaurus); deer, one or two species; mouse decr, two or more species; and the wild pig. To which must be added as a seed disperser the buffalo (Babalus arnee). These animals act more as scatterers of secd attached to their hair or hides, but probably also, to a certain extent, by swallowing grass-seeds in the herbage. The first four are inhabitants of the densest jungles, especially of the hill regions, and feed chiefly on the bushes and leaves of trees. They make long tracks through the dense forests, and wander often to great distances. I have seen many seedlings, apparently of some small herb, springing up in dung of elephants dropped in their tracks. The wild ox lives, to a small extent, on fruit. One brought down to Singapore ate greedily the fruits of the Sentol (Sandoricum indicum).

Scoparia dulcis L., is a small herb introduced accidentally from South America which has been widely scattered by the water buffalo. In Pahang, I traced it up the Pahang and Tembeling Riversas far as the buffalo went. On sandbanks in the river where for some reason buffaloes had not gone this plant was absent, and I saw it and also Cleome viscosa springing from masses of buffalo-dung, in several places. Many of the smaller herbs and especially grasses and sedges must be distributed by this animal in this way, and Fimbristylis miliacea, a sedge very abundant in marshes where these animals go is called by the Malays Rumput Tahi Kerbau (buffalo's dung grass) for this reason.

Rodentia.—The important seed distributors in the family are the rats and the squirrels.

The rats and mice of the Malay Peninsula are as yet very little known. I have seen at the foot of Mount Ophir, in dense jungle by a stream, a large reddish rat eating the fallen fruit of a wild species of mango, of which it might easily have borne off fruits to its holes under the boulders to some distance from the tree.

There are a great number of herbaceous plants, the fruits