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Coesalpinia Sappan, L. Sappan Wood. 



A small thorny tree occurring along river banks in Pahang and 

 elsewhere. It is raised readily from seed, and grows fairly fast, 

 springing up again when cut down. Sapwood white, heartwood 

 dark red, hard. Weight 38 lbs. 8 ozs. 



It is chiefly known as a dye-wood, for which it is sometimes ex- 

 ported but also is used for cabinet work, in Java (Van Eeden ) 



Peltophorum ferrugtneum Benth. Batai, Alai. 



A very handsome tree about 40 feet tall with yellow flowers, 

 common in Malacca. 



Sapwood white, heartwood red strong and said to be nearly as 

 good as Merabau, for building and boats, giving beams 5 to 6 

 inches square. The heartwood also gives a dye used for dyeing 

 cloth. I have never seen trees of any great size and it is apt to 

 branch rather low and irregularly so as not to give timber big 

 enough for beams of full size. The wood of a specimen grown 

 in Singapore is pale reddish, fairly heavy with very fine and close 

 rays, pores in rows medium size, and distinct rings. 



Koompassia malaccensis, Maingay. Kumpas. 



A gigantic tree with smooth grey bark and buttresses. It attains 

 a height of over 100 feet and a diameter of stem of 5 feet or more. 

 It is very common, and is often left by jungle clearers on account 

 of the hardness of its wood and may be commonly seen standing in 

 cleared ground when all the rest of the forest has long disappeared. 



J he timber is usually reckoned to be worthless except for char- 

 coal, of which it supplies an exceedingly good quality. It is com- 

 monly stated that the wood sp-its on exposure and becomes 

 useless. NEWTON states that the wood was formerly in great 

 request and much esteemed, and mentions that the tie-beams of 

 the Singapore Town Hall were made of this wood and in 1879 

 were found to be riddled by termites. He states that it possesses 

 considerable stiffness and transverse strength. Malays say that 

 it will not stand changes of wet and dry, that is to say exposure. 

 At the same time, its fine colour and figure would make it suitable 

 for furniture and in door work. Certainly it will last for an excep- 

 tionally long time under very unusual circumstances. I have seen 

 old stumps which must have been felled many years ago and yet 

 are even now too hard to cut with the axe. Arid in making an 

 excavation for a pond in the Gardens there was found imbedded in 

 mud some feet below the surface a Kumpass tree which though 

 black was yet hard enough to give some trouble to cut. This 

 ground had been forest some fifty years ago and as this tree had 

 been covered with a deep layer of blue mud, on which a good deal 

 of vegetation had grown, it must have fallen some years previously. 

 Another illustration of the durability of this wood may be seen in 

 an old stump about 10 feet tall in the Botanic Gardens. This is 

 the remains of a tree which must have heen felled years ago, 

 before the founding of the Gardens. Parts of it are still so hard 

 that they turn the edge of an axe, and where it can be cut the 



