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use for making twine. It has ovate dentate leaves, small green 

 flowers in slender spikes, and a woody green three-lobed capsule. 

 The Malays call it Ramin (or Rami) Bukit, Sumin Jantan, or 

 Sumin Bukit. 



The trouble of collecting the bast is rather against the use 

 of this class of shrub. 



Macaranga Javanica, Muell (Euphorbiacece). This common 

 tree appears as secondary growth in abandoned cultivated ground 

 in great quantity, and grows with considerable rapidity, but never 

 attains any great size. It is commonly known as Balik Angin. 



The chief value of the plant consists in its aid to reafforesta- 

 tion, as it soon covers the ground, but some years ago a planter, 

 Mr. Dupoy, in Singapore, having somehow mistaken it for 

 Ramie, stripped the bark and extracted a fibre of fine white 

 colour but not very strong. 



Mallotus Cochinchinensis, Muell (Euphorbiacece). An almost 

 equally common tree, also known as Balik Angin, was also experi- 

 mented with by Mr. Dupoy. 



The bast of both these trees is thin and red-brown, strong 

 and tough. The fibre is remarkably fine and w hite, rather short 

 and not very strong. I do not remember ever to have heard of 

 natives using it for tying purposes. Of the two trees Mallotus 

 Cochin-chinensis appears to have the best bark. 



Gnetum. — There are several species of these remarkable 

 climbers in the forests, in some of which the lianes attain a 

 considerable thickness. The bark is thickened often in rings, 

 giving the lianes a knotted appearance. The common name for 

 this set of plants among the Malays is Akar Dagun. Other names 

 are Akar Mantada, A. Putat, A. Sebusehpaya, A. Saburus, A.Tutubo 

 {Gnetum funiculare Bl.) A. Jullah, A. Perut Sumba, A. Sacherit 

 Hitam, A. Serapat Jantan, and Selampah for G. neglectutn, Akar 

 Tali is a name also occasionally used for the Gnetums. The 

 bark of these plants, produces a fibre used as string by Malays 

 in the forest, and from a sketch by Vaughan Stevens I believe 

 that the "Lennow" of the Sakais is one species, probably 

 G. funiculare. This, he says, supplies the Sakais with thread for 

 sewing. The bark of Gn. Gnemon, the Maningo, a tree cultivated 

 occasionally for its fruit, is used also in many parts of the East, 

 and G. scandens of the Indian islands is used by the Andamanese 

 for making fishing nets. 



Anodendron paniculatum. — A. D. C. (Apocynacea), a big clim- 

 ber, common in India and Ceylon, but rare in the Peninsula, is said 

 to give a strong and fine fibre much used by the Cinghalese. 



Cryptostegia grandiflora (Apocynacece), a common garden plant 

 here, a climber with purple flowers, is also recommended as a fibre 

 plant, the fibre resembling flax. It seems never to have been 



