AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 5.] FEBRUARY, 1902. [Vol. i. 



THE TIMBERS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 



Continued. 



RHIZOPHORE/E. 



This order includes most of the plants known as Mangroves, 

 though not all the trees which compose a mangrove forest belong 

 to this order for besides these, the Nireh (Carapa order Meliaceae), 

 Dungun (Heritiera order Sterculiaceie), Avicennia order Verbe- 

 naceae, and several others are commonly to be found with the true 

 mangroves, known here as Bakau. These plants are easily distin- 

 guished by their peculiar fruit which germinates on the tree pro- 

 ducing the long cigar-shaped green root so well known. The trees 

 inhabit tidal rivers as far up as the sea water goes, and emitting roots 

 from the branches form the impenetrable thickets along the edge of 

 the sea and rivers. These thickets often have a great value in hold- 

 ing the banks of the rivers, and preventing their being gradually 

 washed away, and cases have occurred where the destruction of the 

 mangroves have so altered the mouth of a river that the mud banks 

 on either side having been washed down, boats over a certain 

 draught are no longer able to go up or down. 



The mangrove is the most important supply of firewood being 

 used for nearly all the smaller steamers, engine works, and house- 

 hold firing, being preferred to any other wood for these purposes. 

 The bigger trees are used also for piles and posts in wet places, 

 as they long resist the action of water. The bark of several species 

 is used for tanning and dyeing nets, cloth and skins, and there are 

 manufactories of Mangrove Cutch for export in Borneo and else- 

 where. The Mangrove Cutch chiefly derived from Ceriops Can- 

 dolleana, Tengah, is mainly used in Europe for dyeing. 



In some parts of the Peninsula the mangroves have been so 

 largely cut for firewood that they are quite destroyed. The native 

 wood cutter cuts where he can get the wood away in the easiest 

 manner, that is to say on the edge, thus driving back the man- 

 grove. In some spots where from propinquity of the town the 

 demand for firewood is large, the swamps formerly containing true 

 mangroves, now consist of nothing but the worthless Avicennia 



