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vines seldom or never fruit until they have overtopped tall trees 

 and reached the light the seeds have the advantage of starting 

 from a considerable height. Willoughbeias on the other hand 

 have large fleshy round or pear shaped fruits with the seeds 

 embedded in an edible pulp of which animals are fond and 

 which is also sometimes eaten by human beings. Their means 

 of distribution depends mainly on animals, but growing as they 

 often do on steep or sloping ground, the fruit if it has escaped 

 the notice of animals and fallen to the ground will be found to 

 have sometimes rolled a long distance before coming in contact 

 with any obstruction. 



DlPTEROCARPS. 



No Natural Order of Malayan plants contains more valuable 

 trees than Dipterocarpeae. Besides furnishing such useful timbers 

 as Damar Laut, Chengal, Meranti, Seraya, &c, they also furnish 

 oils and damars. They are numerous both as regards species and 

 individuals and most of them have winged fruits by means of which 

 they are distributed throughout our forest area. 



The flowers are mostly small and inconspicuous but soon after 

 these have fallen and the calyx lobes, which eventually form the 

 wings, commence to enlarge the trees are the most noticeable in 

 the forest, some of the species in a young state being of a deep 

 pink or reddish colour, and in others of a yellowish green. These 

 when ripe and detached from the tree do not drop directly to the 

 ground but descend in the position of a shuttlecock with a slow 

 rotary motion and the distance which they travel from the parent 

 tree before reaching the ground depends on the strength of the 

 wind. 



Seed bearing trees of this order are generally of great height 

 and the area over which a single tree spreads its seeds is consi- 

 derable. As the seeds ripen gradually they gain the advantage of 

 any change in the wind and condition of the weather, for they 

 require abundant moisture in order to germinate. 



Sir G. King in the Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Penin- 

 sula has described several new species but there is much yet to be 

 done in collecting and determining the correct botanical names of 

 the trees belonging to this important but easily recognised order. 



Para Rubber. 



The dispersion of Para Rubber seeds is effected in a manner 

 different to either of those already referred to, and in the same 

 way as Impatiens. When the seeds are ripe the capsules contain- 

 ing the seeds burst suddenly with a report that can be distinctly 

 heard and shoot the seeds to a considerable distance. An isolated 

 tree that recently fruited in the Waterfall Garden, Penang, afforded 

 an excellent opportunity for observation. 



Seeds from this tree which is 50-60 feet high were scattered 

 around in all directions to a distance of fifteen paces and a few as 

 far as twenty paces. 



When one considers the little chance a seedling tree has of 

 attaining maturity under the dense canopy of its parent which 



