indehiscent fruit), globose to ovoid or obovoid, tipped 
by tiny, sessile, persistent stigmas. Inside, there are six 
to one large, oblong green seeds, each surrounded by a 
juicy or creamy pulp, enclosed in a transparent skin; the 
pericarp is usually fleshy, but sometimes it is suberized 
or lignified. The seed consists of a thick and fleshy al- 
bumen, an incurved embryo, and large and foliaceous 
cotyledons. 
A species of Baccaurea is usually easy to recognize 
from the strings of small, yellowish green flowers (with 
a sour, lemon-like scent) which are developed on burs on 
the old wood (Plate IX); and the strings of fruits on the 
female trees; together with the spirally arranged leaves. 
Another characteristic feature of the genus is the thin- 
ness of the bark, which is, according to Corner (1952), 
no thicker than a piece of paper, so that a cut with a 
pen-knife immediately penetrates the wood. 
It is unusual, but pleasing, to see a Baccaurea tree, 
with dense and abundantly flowered strings borne along 
the branches or on the trunk, sometimes so low that 
they touch the ground. This peculiar feature has, indeed, 
long attracted the attention of botanists, and it has been 
recorded that this character plays a part in native cere- 
monies. Skeat and Blagden (1906) mention that the 
pagan races of the Malay Peninsula used the sticks or 
dibbles made from the saplings of a special hardwood 
tree called tamun (Malayan: setambun—a local name for 
B. parviflora: cf. Corner, 1952) in planting rice. In this 
ceremony, a magician sets out at sunrise for the fields, 
accompanied by all the men, women, and children who 
are going to take part in the sowing. Upon arriving at 
the first available space near the middle of the field, the 
magician draws a circle around himself with a specially 
made staff, which, like the other dibbles, is made of 
tamun wood, the planting sticks are then heaped up in- 
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