VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 179 



leys, but was called rose- wood by him ; but from one branch which 

 one of his pupils brought me, 1 saw that it w^as the same as that 

 which on our coast is called white sandal- wood, only it grows 

 smaller and has thinner stems, while on the coast of Malabar it 

 has thick stems and turns yellow and oily; it is the Lignum Sni' 

 talum Citrinum ojjicinale. xiccording to what the priest said this 

 wood here has lighter and darker veins. He had just the day 

 before ordered a stem to be cut, but it had not yet been brought 

 to his house. 



There was some black ebony wood here, but it was not 

 called so in this country. He also spoke of a kind of oil, used for a 

 varnish, and in his language he called the tree Rock. He says 

 the branches are broken off this tree and from those places issues 

 a milky juice, which burns very badly when brought in contact 

 with the skin, but which soon, when exposed to the sun, changes 

 into a kind of oil, which is used for painting purposes. The real 

 so-called Chinese varnish tree did not grow here, but in the 

 kingdom of Cambodia. The resin-trees were everywhere very 

 common in the wilderness, and furnished the means of living to 

 many poor people. He also said that agall ochum (Gharu agallocha) 

 grew pretty frequent in these mountains. It is a twisting tree, 

 which makes many curious bends in its growth ; at this time of 

 the year it was dry and had no leaves at all. In the end of 

 February and in March the oblong leaves being to come out, as 

 there is some rain in these parts during those months. Very 

 soon the small white blossoms come forth ; they are divided and 

 red at the end, and they are followed by a fruit, which ripens in 

 the month of July or August, is about as large as a thumb, and 

 has a sweet agreeable taste — a reason why the natives often eat it. 

 The stem when perfectly sound does not furnish this valuable 

 wood, or at least not the kind so much sought after in trade, but 

 the birds, which come to pick at the fruits, break the branches 

 and in those place a kind of blight is thus originated, the plant 

 begins to sicken and the sap is irregularly distributed, so that 

 there is more in some places, whence it grows resinous. The 

 tree dies, and the ants gnaw the loose much putrified wood and 

 build their nests in it. Probably these insects must at the same 

 time find their nourishment in this way, because they occur in 

 great numbers and remain there even when the wood has already 

 been brought into trade. They are the black, small, long-leg'ged 



