NOTES ON DIPTEROCARPS. 275 
The wood of Vatica and Pachynocarpus seems to be very much 
alike. The sapwood of Vatica Wallichii is white or pale yellow 
and the heartwood is brownish yellow, becoming much darker after 
exposure to the air. There is less of resin in the wood than is 
usually found in most members of the order. 
A pale damar runs out of injuries and glazes over the stem. 
The tree attains no great height, reaching say 60 feet and the 
spread of its branches is narrow, say 10 feet from the trunk. If 
grown in the open it keeps its lower branches and is then leafy 
nearly to the ground; but in high forest its trunk is straight and 
branchless to 30 feet or more. A tree 50 feet high may possess a 
diameter at breast height of 20-30 inches. "The bark is light grey 
and smooth. 
Its times of flowering in Singapore are uncertain doubtless in 
response to the uncertainty of the weather. All trees flower to- 
gether. Flowering however in the Peninsula seems to be most 
common in April or May. 
Individual trees differ from each other in small points. ‘The 
leaves of some dry darker than the leaves of others. ‘The flowers 
vary from a pale cream to milk-white; in some there is a touch of 
red upon the outside of the bud; examined at sun-down the petals 
may be bent just to a right angle on their claw, in others more. 
These variations characterise whole trees. It may be that the trees 
whose flowers are most pigmented, are the trees whose leaves dry 
darkest; but this has not been proved. <A flower whose petals are 
bent through a right angle is figured below. The small eye 1s 
noteworthy. : 
Fig. 5 on the left, a flower of Vatica Wallichw in face view: Fig. 6 
on the right, a-flower of Vatica RKidleyana, also in face view. Both nat. 
size. Below each is the stigma and style enlarged. 
The flowers have a strong and pleasant scent. By their multi- 
tude they make the tree conspicuous at flowering. ‘They open 
about dawn, and fall about the next dawn. The stamens number 
15;—if 10 in such plants as that upon which Vatica Kelsall was 
founded, then so by. reduction, accidental probably. The flowers 
face downwards and outwards chiefly. Three or four distinct 
patches of glandular tissue occur in a row upon the underside of 
the leaves where the lateral veins break into loops. These leaves 
last for about 3 years. Six months pass before the fruit is ripe. 
The fruit is dry and water-distributed chiefly by means of floods. 
We have seen this process in operation in the Tasek Gelugor Forest 
Reserve in Province Wellesley, where heavy rain had flooded the 
R. A. Soc., No. 86 1922. 
