Some notes on the Leguminose of Siam. 
GLENN CULBERTSON. 
During the latter portion of a few years residence in Siam, 
I spent many interesting hours in the study of the flora of 
that almost untouched botanical field. My work was chiefly 
upon the plants in the immediate vicinity of Bangkok, the 
specimens having been collected during short walks on the 
outskirts of the city, or during more or less extended house- 
boat trips through the many canals intersecting the city and 
much of Lower Siam. 
On .examining the list of a collection of about four hun- 
dred plants, with a view to comparing the number of species 
in the seventy orders represented, I was somewhat surprised 
to find that of these four hundred specimens, which composed 
the greater part of the flowering plants in that immediate 
vicinity, seventy-six were of the order Leguminose. These 
species were found in thirty-eight genera; twenty-two of 
these genera were found under the sub-order Papilionacee, 
eight under Cesalpinee, eight under Mimosee. This is a 
very much larger proportion of the last two suborders than 
is found in a temperate climate. Gray’s Manual of Botany 
gives Papilionaceze thirty-two, Czsalpinez four, Mimosee 
two; while Coulter’s Rocky Mountain Botany gives seventeen, 
two, and one respectively. 
A few of these plants have most probably been introduced, 
but at least ninety per cent are native. 
Of the Papilionacee the genus Prerocarpus, of which there 
are two species (P. indicus and P. macrocar pus), 18 easily 
first in commercial importance, although last on the list 
botanically considered. Both species are rather large trees 
with very hard and beautiful wood, somewhat similar to ma 
hogany but coarser grained. The wood from the roots and 
from large knots or protuberances is much darker than that . 
of the trunk and is richly variegated. This wood is very 
: highly prized by’ the Siamese and Chinese for ornamental 
purposes, and a great many beautiful betel boxes and other 
valuable articles are made from it. Some very good speci” 
mens of this wood, probably bearing the native name ““padoo F 
or ‘‘padu”, were exhibited at the World’s Fair at Chicago. I 
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