692 Forestry Quarterly. 



Siam, 200,000 9,000,000 46 



The region is a distinct geographic district. The connection 

 of the islands of the Malay archipelago with southeast Asia and 

 India was first pointed out by Wallace, who showed also that New 

 Guinea, although so close, was a distinct mass not connected bio- 

 logically with the rest, but rather with Australia. So that the 

 Indo-]Malayan region, an old continent, might well be presumed 

 to have forests more or less similar, and the close similarity of 

 the forest over the whole region is indeed remarkable. 



The most surprising thing with regard to the forests of this 

 region to the new comer is its comparative simplicity, that there 

 are heavy stands rather free from undergrowth, that softwoods 

 are not uncommon, and that so much of the timber is of medium 

 or light weight. The common notion seems to be that the forests 

 are composed mainly of very heavy and hard ornamental woods, 

 growing very scattered — due to the fact that only those woods in 

 the past have reached the European and American markets. 



Very little is known abroad of the great family of Dipteracarp- 

 aceae, which furnishes by far the largest share of the timber of 

 the district. This family is to this region what Pinaceae is to 

 the temperate regions. Dr. Foxworthy says, of the Dipterocarp- 

 aceae, "So wide is its distribution and so general the uses of its 



