From this picturesque little spot we proceeded through a jungle of lofty grasses and shrubs, with elevated trees rising from the dense mass; a sedge grass bearing a beautiful silvery inflorescence, the _Flemingea_, _Melastoma_, different species of _Nauclea_, and numerous ferns were seen; of the latter, among other elegant species, was the widely-spread _Gleichenia Hermanni_, attaining the elevation amid the wilderness of six and eight feet, and _Blechnum_, _Polypodium_, _Lycopodium_, were mingled with others, adding to the denseness of the vegetation. As the sun rose and diffused its rays around, a great number of butterflies, beetles, and other insects passed away in enjoyment their short fleeting lives, and revelled upon the sweets the flowers contained. A lofty species of _Pandanus_, named by the Malays Ninpuan, was very abundant in moist situations; it rose with its long foliage bending at the extremities, and as the tree increased in elevation it bore a closer resemblance to the growth of the palm tree, and attained the height of forty and fifty feet. The leaves of this tree bleaching about the Malay houses, I found were used by them for a variety of purposes, as coverings for their dwellings, and the manufacture of coarse mats. We often emerged from the pathways leading through a wild country, upon neat cottages, surrounded by plantations, inhabited and cultivated by that industrious class of people, the Chinese. A primary object of cultivation, I observed, was the Gambir-shrub,[65] and the pepper-vine: the former was cultivated and exported to a much greater extent, until the Dutch government, by heavy duties, prohibited its introduction into Java, in order to encourage the cultivation and exportation of it from their own settlement at Rhio. Vegetables of different kinds, the sugar-cane, &c. are also cultivated for the supply of the Singapore market. The situations selected by the Chinese in this undulating country, for their farms and plantations were upon, or close to the sloping hills; and these places are selected for the Gambir and pepper plantations, the lower land proving too swampy. The pepper harvest had commenced, and the vines had the appearance of being very productive this season, being covered with a profusion of clusters of the pepper-berries, large, and of fine quality.[66] Some had even attained maturity, having changed from a dark-green to a vivid red. From the latter, the berry being in a ripe state, the white pepper is made; some of very excellent quality was shown us by a Chinese planter who had prepared it.