410 FOXWOETHY. 



Bider only examples like satinwood, rosewood or teak and give Little 

 or no account of the woods of the great family of Dipterocarpacctc, 

 \\h it'h furnishes much the largest part of the timber of this part of 

 the world. This is as unreasonable as it would be to take a few of the 

 furniture woods of North America, as black walnut (Juglans nigra) 

 or the wild black cherry (Prunus serotina), as representative of the 

 woods of the country. In the eastern tropics, the woods of the family 

 Dipterocarpacea are to the trade what the pines, spruces, firs, hemlocks, 

 oaks and beeches are to the trade in temperate North America and 

 Europe. This family, while it supplies many valuable hardwoods, sup- 

 plies also the most widely used soft and medium grade woods of the 

 eastern tropics. 80 wide is its distribution and BO general the use of Its 

 wood that I believe that all other woods could be spared from many 

 eastern markets without seriously hampering work or affecting prices. 



OBJECT OF TUTS WORK. 



There is a great deal of confusion in the use of the common names 

 of the different woods. Many of the woods of the region are of wide 

 distribution; but, they are known by different names in different coun- 

 tries. This work is undertaken with the object, first, of correlating Phil- 

 ippine woods with the related or identical forms in other sections and 

 then of calling attention to the structure, uses and distribution of the 

 eastern woods. 



DEFINITION OF THE INDO-MAEAYA N REGION. 



This is taken to include all of Ceylon, British India, Burma, the 

 Andamans, Siam, Cochin China, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, 

 Borneo, the Philippines, and all of the Malay and Indian Archipelago 

 down to New Guinea. Tn other words, it is meant to include nearly all 

 of the tropical East. It constitutes a region which geographically and 

 commercially is quite distinct. Japan with its temperate-zone woods 

 constitutes a very distinct group. Australia is also very distinct, with 

 its eucalyptus and other characteristic woods. Wherever woods from 

 either of these regions come into tropical markets to any considerable 

 extent, they are considered in this paper. The number of cases in which 

 woods of the temperate regions are of commercial importance in the 

 eastern tropics is really very small. First of all would come the use in 

 India of the woods grown in the temperate forests of the lower Himalayas, 

 After this come the various eucalyptus species exported from Australia, 

 the Oregon pine from the United Slates, and the camphorwood from 

 Japan and Formosa. 



REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK AND ACKN OUT 1:Ih;\I1:N'TS. 



In the course of the comparative study of the woods of this region, 

 collections of botanical and commercial material have been made in some 

 of the countries considered and material from other countries lias been 



