24 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



entirely intercept the rays of the sun ; below, each tree is raised 

 upon a stool of roots, which spreads around over considerable 

 spaces. These roots are swollen, and succulent, arching from the 

 stem to the mud with the convexity upwards, and gradually 

 raising the main trunk high above the mud. Most of the trees 

 belong to the order Rhizophorace^, which numbers about 50 

 species distributed through 17 tropical genera. A few do not 

 germinate on the tree, but drop the developed fruit, where imme- 

 diately it takes root, and so helps to spread the forest. One of the 

 genera fPellacalyx) is peculiar to the Straits of Malacca, and two 

 (Plcesiantha and Combretocarpus) are restricted to Borneo. The 

 others in the Peninsula belong to the genera Ceriops, Bruguiera, 

 Carallia, Gynotroches and Anisophyllea, the last with four styles, 

 while all others except Combretocarpus have only one style. The 

 commonest species probably belong to the genus Bruguiera. 



Besides the Rhizophorace^ the Mangrove forests are made up 

 of many other plants ; amongst which, in the Malay Peninsula, 

 are three species, if not more, of Sonneratia, a genus formerly 

 included amongst the Myrtace^, but now placed with the 

 Lythrarie^e. It lines the muddy estuaries of the Malay Penin- 

 sular, Borneo, and, as far as I know, all the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago. It goes by the name of the Willow, and forms 

 fluviatile thickets some little distance into the interior beyond the 

 Mangroves but where the water is still brackish. It is something 

 like a willow, but distinguished by a depressed fruit, around which 

 the sepals of the calyx stand out in rays, reminding one of popular 

 representations of the sun. The fruits of S. acida, L.f., are eaten 

 by the Malays. The wood is stigmatised as soft and useless by 

 Kurz, but he and M'Clelland say that the strong, hard, close- 

 grained wood of S. apetala, Buch., is useful. 



Quite as abundant is jEgiceras majus, Gaertn., which forms 

 dense hedges round the islands of the Indian Archipelago and 

 grows far outside the tropics in Australia. It is a pretty 

 plant, covered for the most part of the year with cymes of 

 fragrant flowers. It belongs to the Myrsine^e or Ardisiads, an 



