374 



Durian. Low lying rich alluvial flats seem to suit it well, especially 

 if they arc drained of excess of water. Trees should fruit in about 

 g or 10 years after planting, but some commence earlier. It is 

 seldom attacked badly by any pest. Mistletoes (Loranthus) very 

 rarely damage it, the little fern Drymoglossum is not uncommon 

 on it, and should be removed whenever too abundant. The old 

 leaves are often covered with the parasitic leaf lichens but this does 

 not seem to hurt the tree to any extent. 



Of insect pests, there is a caterpillar which attacks the young 

 leaves when just put out while they are soft and yellow. It is 

 smooth and rather slender an inch and-a-half long. The head is 

 of a pale ochre yellow, the next segments purple, rather lighter in 

 colour in the middle, the back grey with a broad purple line, edged 

 with white down the centre, the sides are dark purple with a white 

 wavy line and a lower black one along the spiracles, the belly and 

 legs are pale green. There is a reddish fawn coloured patch on 

 the last joint but one of the body and the la^t segments are deep 

 purple, the hind legs ochre coloured. I failed to rear the moth 

 and as the caterpillar is seldom to be found though the damage is 

 conspicuous I imagine it feeds by night chiefly. The insect is pro- 

 bably one of the Nocturidce. I met with it in January. 



The amount of damage done by this caterpillar is not so far as 

 I have seen very great but it certainly spoils the appearance of the 

 tree, and checks its growth. It never seems to touch the stiff 

 leathery dark green adult leaves. It also attacks Garcinia dulcis. 



There is also a leaf mining caterpillar which burrows in the 

 young and adult leaf and does a certain amount of harm, causing 

 dead patches in the leaf, which also often curls up and becomes 

 deformed. 



The fruit is not often attacked by animals. It is too large and 

 with too tough a rind for the small fruit bats. Monkeys are of course 

 very troublesome where the trees are near forests, Musangs do not 

 seem to attack them often. A good deal of fruit is sometimes 

 destroyed by wind. As it bruises very easily, a heavy gale of 

 wind will sometimes so beat the fruits against each other and 

 against the boughs that the whole crop is destroyed. So that in 

 very windy spots it is advisable to plant the trees so that they are 

 protected from storms, which as they are not usually tall trees is 

 very easy to arrange. 



The fruit varies a good deal in size, some being small with very 

 •little pulp, others have a rind very thick in proportion to the 

 amount of pulp. A good deal of this variation is, I think, caused 

 by the amount of fertilization, but also is due to the weather 

 during the fruiting season, as the fruit sets a good many of the 

 young fruits fall off and are wasted. 



The young fruits are used by the Malays to make a kind of 

 preserve known as Halua Mangis. The rind is taken off and the 

 inside boiled with sugar. The rind of the fruit is used in native 

 medicine and is largely exported to China. 



A native species of Garcinia^ much resembling in appearance 

 the Mangosteen, is not uncommon especially in sandy open coun- 



