chap, vii] THE DIPTEROCARPE.E ON MATTANG 



The SapotacecB blossom principally in July. Amongst the 

 numerous species of the family which I collected during this month, 

 I one day at last secured a specimen of " niatto durian," a tree I 

 had long sought for as being in Sarawak the most esteemed pro- 

 ducer of gutta-percha. I had often met with felled trunks of this 

 species on the slopes of Mattang, and in the forest between it and 

 Kuching, cut down by the natives to extract the gutta ; but I had 

 never before managed to find a specimen in blossom or with fruit, 

 although my men had often pointed out young or sterile trees. On 

 account of the great demand for its product, good yielding trees 

 had become scarce around Kuching, and the native collectors had 

 to search far and wide in the forest. The specimen whose flowers 

 I had secured was apparently an undescribed species, to which, 

 on account of the excellence of its product, I gave the name of 

 Palaquium optimum (Fig. 20, 21). 



The Dipterocarpece were in blossom during most of September, 

 and in December their fruits were ripe. During those two months 

 my principal occupation consisted in quartering the forest in search 

 of them. Their presence was revealed by the quantity of flowers 

 or fruit on the ground beneath the tree from which they had fallen. 

 And huge giants, often, were the trees which I was obliged to fell 

 or climb, in order to detach from the higher branches the necessary 

 specimens for my herbarium. Great, indeed, was the labour such 

 deforestation caused me ; and more than once to obtain the 

 spoil from a single species of Dipterocarpus or of Shorea I had to 

 work with three or four men for a whole day to fell the forest giant. 

 I nevertheless managed to obtain not less than fifty species of 

 Dipterocarps in the two above-mentioned months, within the 

 radius of a mile from my hut. Amongst these fifty species were 

 seven Dipterocarpus, thirteen Hopea, fifteen Shorea, four Balano- 

 carpus, two Cotylelobium, two Dryobalanops, and two Vatica, most of 

 which were at the time new to science, only a few having been 

 previously met with on the islands of Bangka and Blitong, whose 

 flora has strong affinities with that of Borneo. 



Some of these Dipterocarpece have certainly a marked resem- 

 blance to species which grow in Sumatra and on the Malay Peninsula, 

 but they are, at least at present, unknown from other localities, 

 although most undoubtedly they must have a greater diffusion 

 than the contour of Mount Mattang. It is, however, I think, well 

 worthy of note that here the Dipterocarpeae are represented by 

 several allied genera, including a considerable number of species, 

 which, often presenting amongst themselves intermediate charac- 

 ters, may be supposed to be derived one from the other. This is, 

 I opine, one of the essential features of a truly endemic flora, and 

 very strongly contrasts with the character of an adventitious 

 immigrant flora, in which the genera and species are an assem- 



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