62 ORNAMENTAL AND SCENTED WOODS. 



wak to buy it of them. The ' rungas ' is a red wood 

 handsomely veined, which takes a fine polish, and is 

 much used at Singapore for the purposes of furniture- 

 making : like the ebony, it is only the old wood in 

 the centre of the tree which is of an useful colour. 



Of scented woods, ' several are known to exist, 

 though few are collected, the value of the others not 

 being yet known to commerce. The ' bidarru,' a yellow 

 wood of a very agreeable odour, is the most plentiful, 

 and being of a very hard and durable nature, is much 

 esteemed for posts of houses and other purposes under- 

 ground : its perfume will ultimately rescue this 

 beautiful wood from its present degradation. There 

 are one or two others, the names of which I have not 

 preserved, which are all very durable and highly 

 esteemed woods amongst the natives. The sandal 

 wood, though it grows on Timor, has not, I believe, 

 been hitherto found on this island. 



Lignum aloes, of which there are several kinds, 

 called generically by the natives ' kayu garu,' are 

 produced apparently by diseases in some trees, the 

 scented and resinous parts not being procurable until 

 the tree has been cut down and decayed. The garu 

 has long been an article of considerable export from 

 this and the other islands to Arabia and China, where 

 it is burned as incense. 



A curious substance called ' plye,' is collected in the 

 forests, and is the root of a large timber tree of the 

 same name. It is very light, more so than cork, and 

 might perhaps be used for the same purposes. A very 

 similar substance is the root of another tree called 



