39 



beams said to have been of Balau perished completely in five 

 years, one can only deplore the want of wisdom in the early 

 Governments of Singapore which encouraged the destruction of 

 the forests of the Island, and either allowed the timber to be 

 burnt on the ground for the cultivation of gambier, or let it be sold 

 out of the country. Had the Tampenis, Kranji, true Balau and 

 other hard wood timbers of Singapore been preserved for the use 

 of Government buildings, the cost of repairs during the last fifty 

 years would probably have been not a fiftieth of w hat it has been. 



H. N. R. 



BETIS OR MALAY BILIAN. 



By H. N. Ridley. 



I have received from Mr. Stephens, of the Forest Department 

 in Kwala Lumpur, specimens of the leaves, seeds and timber of a 

 tree, the wood of which is called Betis, or Bilian, and is of high 

 class quality. This so called Bilian must not be confused with the 

 well known Bilian of Borneo, Ensideroxylon Schn'agcri of the 

 order Laurineae. The Betis belongs to the order Sapotaceae. The 

 Malay plants of this order have been recently described by Sir 

 George King in his materials for a flora of the Malay Peninsula, 

 but I do not find among them any plant corresponding exactlv to 

 the Betis. The specimens received are not adequate to describe 

 the plant fully, and it may be hoped that further specimens may 

 be received with flowers and complete fruit. % 



Betis or Bilian of the Malay Peninsula. Palaquium, sp. 



A tree of large size leaves crowded at the tips of the 

 branches, oblanceolate entire, tip rounded or with a very short 

 blunt point, base narrowed to the petiole, length three inches, 

 breadth one inch, thinly coriaceous shining above pale beneath 

 glabrous, nerves eight pairs alternate, reticulated nervules 

 conspicuous, petiole i inch long covered as are the buds with a 

 little red wool. Flowers and fruits not seen. Seed very large, 

 inch long one inch across, J inch through, elliptic flattened 

 base rounded tip sub-acute, light yellow-brown, shining hilum 

 large and broad, half the width of the seed. Cotyledons 

 large and fleshy, no albumen. 



The most nearly allied species I have to this plant, is 

 Palciquium microphyllum, King and Gamble, a native of Singapore, 

 but the leaves are more obovate and smaller and the petiole more 

 woolly. The seeds of this plant I have not seen, but in a 

 collection of plants from Sumatra received from a native collector 

 some years ago there are specimens (distributed by me under 

 the number 11,335) of a very similar plant bearing unripe fruit. 

 This fruit is globose, about as big as a cherry, and the unripe seed 

 bears some resemblance to that of the Betis. The foliage of this 

 Sumatran plant is larger than that of P. micropliyiia and more 

 coriaceous than that of the Betis, the reticulations of the nerves 

 being invisible. 



