BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 39 



Camphor, obtained by incisions and collected in half-cylinders of 

 split bamboo. After straining it is put into bottles for preserva- 

 tion. " Vateria indica is the tree from which is obtained a false 

 resin, called Copal in India, which when fresh appears under the 

 form of a liquid varnish called Pimen dammar or Piney varnish in 

 British India; it is solid, tenacious, but has the inconvenience of 

 melting- at a moderately low temperature. (36-5°C.). According 

 to Wight it is obtained by making incisions in the trunk where the 

 liquid collects and hardens. In Malabar wax lights are made of 

 it which give a brilliant light and exhale a perfumed odour." 

 (Baillon, "Nat. Hist. Plants," IV. p. 219). 



Formerly it was stated in most treatises on the geographical 

 distribution of plants, that the flora of New Guinea is thoroughly 

 similar to that of Borneo, and that its vegetation is an eastern 

 extension of the Indo-Malayan flora, ^ir Joseph Hooker, on the 

 other hand, in denying this statement, pointed out that none of 

 the DiPTEROCARPE^ had been found to the east of Borneo. 

 This, however, was equally incorrect, as I have seen the order 

 as well represented in the Philippines, the Sulu Archipelago, and 

 in all the islands of the Molucca Passage where I landed, in- 

 cluding the Xulla Islands and some others down to Amboyna, as 

 in Borneo or tlie Malayan Peninsula. The explorations of Beccari 

 have also shown that a few species occur in New Guinea, but the 

 small number of species found there (three I believe) shows a 

 remarkable falling ofi" from the preponderating influence of the 

 order in the Malayan region. 



Mr. Thistleton Dyer has chronicled a single endemic species in 

 the (Seychelles group, which is, to use his own expression, " like 

 that of Nepenthes pervillei, an interesting connecting link between 

 the Indo-Malayan flora and its westward outlying extensions in 

 Madagascar and central Africa." (See " Journal of Botany " for 

 1878, page 98). 



The order is well represented in Cochin-China, Tonquin, Cam- 

 bodia, and Siam. I frequently remarked in Cochin-China large 

 trees with the trunk blackened about a yard from the soil, with 



