AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



F E D ERATED MALAY STATES, 



No. ii.] SEPTEMBER, 1902. [Vol. i. 



FRUITS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA, — Continued. 



Meliace^. 



The best local fruits of this order are the Sentol and Kechapi, 

 {Sandoricum) and the Duku and Langsat [Lansium). 



The Sentol, Sandoricum indicum, is a big though not often a 

 lofty tree, with small creamy white flowers and large round yellow 

 fruit enclosing several seeds wrapped in a rather scanty sweet 

 white pulp. The tree is common all over the cultivated country, 

 and often to be seen along roadsides. It fruits in July. 



The fruit is rather poor and seldom used except by natives, but 

 it is said to make a very delicate jelly when boiled down. 



The Kechapi, Sandoricum radiatum, King, differs from the Sen- 

 tol in its more pubescent leaves and botanically by stigmas being 

 united and radiating with recurved points whereas in the Sentol the 

 stigmas are quite free. 



The fruit resembles that of the Sentol but is more acid, and 

 with less pulp. It is wild in the Peninsula and attains a great size 

 in the forests. It is considered an inferior fruit by the natives on 

 account of its acidity. 



The Langsat, Lansium domesticum, Jack, is a moderate sized 

 tree with light coloured bark. The leaves are rather large with 

 broad leaflets, slightly pubescent on the backs. The flowers are 

 borne on the old wood and branches in small racemes. They are 

 small and yellow. The fruit is about ij inch long elliptic or 

 globose, with a thin buff coloured rind, enclosing two or three 

 thin green seeds with clear white sweet pulp. The rind contains 

 a certain quantity of white latex. The tree appears to be a native 

 of the Peninsula as I have met with it in forests in Malacca, Se- 

 laugor and elsewhere, and it is also much cultivated especially in 

 Malacca. The fruit is ripe in July and August. 



The Duku, differs in the thicker rind of the fruit, quite free from 

 the sticky latex. The pulp is sweeter and the fruit on the whole 

 rather smaller. It appears usually to fruit earlier in the year. It is 

 abundant in Malacca and is cultivated elsewhere. A good quantity 

 of Dukus are regularly imported from Java into Singapore. The 

 Javanese strain being a very good one and the fruit cheap. 



