Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra25271894roya).pdf/57

 of which are more or less concealed among the leaves or in the ground. Such is Curculigo sumatrana which has small inconspicuous sweet fruits with very small seeds. These disappear as soon as ripe, and are certainly caten by some rodent. The Scitamineæ again have fruits which are much sought by these little animals. Most of the jungle loving species have the fruits at the base of the stems as Amomum, Zingiber.

The fruits are inconspicuous, but in many cases the bracts. which enclose them are red. This colouring, however, bears rather a relation to the floral stage of development and is intended to make the flowers more conspicuous to the insect fertilizer. When the plant is in fruit, the bracts have usually become shabby and inconspicuous.

Nicolaia hemisphærica and Amomum laterale are two species which have plain green fruits, in the former in a head on a short, stout stem, in the latter in a stout, cylindric, lateral spike about a foot above the ground. These fruits are devoured by some rodent (probably a squirrel) as soon as they are ripe.

There is a great contrast between the fruits of these jungle gingers where the inflorescence is a compact head and radical or low down, and those which live in more open country and possess terminal inflorescence. In the former the fruits are inconspicuous and often green, while in the latter they are either showy and orange as in the Alpinias of the river banks, or they are white in the plants of the open jungle as in the case of Clinogyne and Alpinia galanga.

The squirrels (Sciurus) probably disperse more seeds than the Muridæ, and being diurnal can more easily be scen at work. They do not, as a rule, cat sweet or juicy fruits, but those of firmer texture, as those of the Daroo (Sideroxylon sundaicum), Marlea nobilis, and Pyrenaria acuminata. All these are inconspicuous, small, green fruits containing hard seeds, and it is very common to find gnawn fruits lying some way off from the trees, usually with the seeds uninjured. In many cases a tree is completely denuded of fruit as fast as it is ripe, and the squirrels carry it so far that it is impossible to find any. To some of the introduced fruits they are very