506 FOXWORTHY. 



numerous, the distance between them less than the diameter of the pores. 

 Occasionally very short, fine, white, concentrically running lines, espe- 

 cially in the sapwood. Structural work, rice-pounders and firewood. 

 (Jamb. 61. 



Kayea stylosa Tlnv. 

 Ceylon. 



Wood w(\, moderately hard and very heavy. Pores moderate-sized, in 



radial strings, which are more or less in echelon and rather scanty. 

 Pith-ra\s \er\ line, indistinct. Very line concentric hands of soft texture 

 across the rays. 



Ganih. 59. 



DIPTEROCARPACEJE. 



This is, by far, the most important family of the Orient, It is 

 probable that this one gr 0l ,p produces more commercial wood than all 

 others of the region together. The trees here are often of large size and 

 they constitute a Larger percentage of merchantable stand than is the way 

 with most other groups, outside of the mangrove swamps. In places, as 

 some of the dipterocarp forests in India, certain species form almost 

 pure stands '(sal and eng forests in Burma). 



"The most striking peculiarity of this order is, that numerous species 

 are gregarious, forming nearly pure forests of large extent, in which one 

 species has obtained the upper hand, to the exclusion of almost all others. 

 In the tropical forests of eastern Asia, these species play the part which 

 in Europe belongs to trees of Coniferte and Cupuliferse -the Scotch pine. 

 the mountain pine, the spruce, and the beech. The most remarkable of 

 these gregarious species is the s;il tree. Shorea robusta, which forms pure 

 or nearly pure forests of \ast extent at the foot of the Himalaya, from 

 Assam to the Punjab, and iii the hills of eastern central India extending 

 south to near the Godavery River. In a climate and on soil which suits 

 it. this tree reigns supreme." (Brandis Enumeration of the Dipterocar- 

 paceas. ./mini. Linn. Soc. Bot. 31: (1895).) 



Very often a number of dipterocarp species are found making up a 

 vt'iy large percentage of a given stand. 



Many leguminous species have very ornamental wood which is ill 

 gi'eat demand for furniture ami cabinei work, hut they do not supplv 

 anything like the quantity of wood furnished by the dipterocarps. It 

 is this plentiful supply of usable timber which puts the dipterocarps 

 far in the lead among the oriental timber-producing families. 



In many sections the dipterocarps predominate to such an extent that 

 the market conditions would not he seriously changed if all other kinds 

 of u I were taken from the market. It is not to he understood, from 



what has just been said, that the dipterocarps are unsuited for furniture 

 and cabinet work. There are some members of the family which can he 



