90 ON THE VEGETATION OF MALAYSIA, 



chestnut colour. The part eaten is the pulp surrounding the 

 seeds, which is agreeably sub-acid and very refreshing. The 

 pavia-like husks and the seeds are discarded. The tree is 50 or 

 60 feet high, with dark green poplar-like leaves, and the fruits 

 hang two or three together in lax clusters, the stalks being pro- 

 duced from the older branches. This fruit is eaten in large 

 quantities by the natives ; and the pulp, mixed with rice and 

 water and afterwards fermented, affords them an intoxicating 

 drink but little inferior to the toddy prepared from the Cocoa-nut 

 Palm" (Burbidge, "Gardens of the Sun," p. 317). The author 

 refers to Borneo only, but if Tampoe is Pierardia dulcis, it occurs 

 in Java and Sumatra. 



Emhlica officinalis, Gaertn., (Buah malaka and Kemloco, Malay), 

 is a sour-fruited species of the EuPHORBiACEiE, which grows 

 abundantly round Malacca ; Malaka is one of the native names 

 both in Sundanese and in Malay. The tree is ornamental enough 

 with its feathery distichous leaves ; but the green fruits seemed to 

 my taste too sour to be palatable. The genus Garcinia has many 

 species, perhaps ten or twelve, in Malaysia which may be said to 

 be the head-quarters of the well-known Mangosteen, a name 

 derived from the Malay mangis, which with little modification is 

 found in all Malayan dialects. The fruit is found throughout 

 the equatorial region as far as 14° N. and S. latitude; but Min- 

 danao is the only island of the Philippines in which it succeeds. 

 For those who do not know the fruit it may be described as one 

 of the most luscious, while the tree is particularly ornamental. 

 In July, August, and September it is abundant in the markets 

 and cheap. Another fruit belonging to the same family is 

 Stalagmites dulcis, Camb., the Mundu of Java and Gledok or 

 Gertok-pantok of Sundanese Malay, an evergreen tree 40 to 60 

 feet high, frequent in the forests up to 3000 feet. It yields a 

 superior quality of gamboge, fruiting in February, and bearing a 

 four-celled berry about an inch in diameter. This must not be 

 confounded with Garcinia dulcis, Kz., an equally common tree 

 bearing a berry the size of a lime, smooth, bright yellow, with 

 from one to five large seeds in a yellow fleshy pulp. In the same 



