56 



The fruit is a small globose nut with three long narrow wings 

 linear rounded about 7 veined, and reticulated*3 inches long h inch 

 wide, yellow, when ripe turning brown, the other two wings of the 

 calyx are much smaller linear and narrow. The tree is rather 

 liable to the attacks of insects, so much so that the results of their 

 attacks may be often found useful in identifying young plants in 

 the jungles. * 



The branches are often swollen in a fusiform manner. J hese 

 when opened are found to contain curious brown chitinous angled 

 bodies broad at the base and prolonged at the point into a long 

 beak which terminates close to the surface. These are the eggs 

 of an insect probably a cicada. 



Underneath the leaves are often to be seen the felled galls pro- 

 duced by a Gall mite. The nerves and midrib are swollen for part 

 or the whole of the length, and edged with small brown patches 

 nearly continuous which under a lens appear honey-combed. These 

 are patches of the tufted hairs produced by the irritation due to 

 the action of the minute white gallmites which may be seen under 

 a lens swarming on the leaves. They appear to burrow in the 

 soft tissue parallel to the midrib or vein and produce this morbid 

 outgrowth partly of cortex and partly of hairs. 



The commonest gall produced on the ends of the branches is 

 about an inch long rounded but thickly covered with processes so 

 as to resemble the fruit of a chestnut. Another I have more rarely 

 seen is oval or globose beaked about two inches long and an inch 

 through at the thickest part, and perfectly smooth and shining 

 when dry. 



These galls all occur on big trees as well as on young plants 

 and are very characteristic of the species. 



The tree is abundant in the jungles of Singapore, Malacca, 

 Perak and Selangor. It flowers only once in six years, so that its 

 flowers and fruits are rarely to be met. with but when it does fruit 

 it produces a great deal of seed, and seedlings spring up in vast 

 numbers near a tree after flowering. The growth of a tree is very 

 slow, but I have but few data as to its growth. A tree of nine 

 years of age is about ten feet tall and about 4" through at the base. 

 Another tree which could not be more than 15 years old was 

 about 30 feet in height and 6 inches in diameter, its wood showed 

 16 rings of growth but they were rather obscure and ill-marked. 



The stem and branches when cut or broken exude a quantity 

 of Damar, sometimes clear and transparent, but becoming yellow 

 outside. A good deal of the ground damar which is dug up in Sing- 

 apore and elsewhere, appears to have originally been derived from 

 these trees. The timber of young trees at least is that of an ordi- 

 nary Serayah, the rings rather distant, pores moderate size ; the 

 heart-wood distinct reddish, a tolerably light and good Serayah. 



Weight 55 lbs. i oz. (Maingay) S. 54 lbs. 



The wood commonly known as Seraya Batu is stated to be 

 derived from this tree, it is a harder and closer-grained dark brown 

 wood with numerous smaller pores. 



This wood is much valued for planks, boxes, etc., but is seldom 



