43^ 



These trees are grown from seed and are of rather slow growth. 

 They prefer good low lying but not too damp soil, stiff clay does 

 not suit them at all. 



Olacine^e. 



The orange drupe of the Bidara Laut, Ximenia Americana, a sea 

 shore shrub is eaten by natives, but is poor. 



Celastrine.*:. 



Salacia grandiflora^ Kurz, " Nasi Sejuk M is a half scandent 

 shrub with dark green leaves and small pearly flowers, the fruit is 

 about 2 inches through with a rather thick orange coloured rind 

 and a number of seeds enclosed in a sweet pulp after the manner 

 of a Mangosteen. It is widely scattered over the Peninsula, but 

 apparently does not fruit much. Plants which have been a good 

 number of years in the Botanic Gardens have only lately flowered 

 and fruited. 



Rhamne^e. 



Zizyphus Jujuba. The Jujube is cultivated here and there in 

 the Peninsula. It is a thorny shrub or small tree with small ovate 

 leaves yellowish beneath, little green flowers and globose or ovoid 

 orange yellow fruits. It seems to prefer hot and dry sandy spots. 



It fruits well in Malacca, but a tree for many years in the Singa- 

 pore Botanic Gardens has never yet produced fruits. 



Z. calopliylla . Wall. Akar Dawai-dawai, a common thorny 

 climber, in the edges of forests, produces often an abundance of 

 small drupes, orange coloured with a small stone covered with a 

 sweet pleasant pulp. It is quite worth eating, though too stragg- 

 ling and irregular a plant to be worth cultivating. There is also 

 but little pulp on the seeds, and the Malavs say the proper way to 

 eat it is to swallow seed and all. 



Ampelide.k 



The Grape vine, Vitts vinifera^ has been successfully cultivated 

 in Singapore, and produced fruit, but the climate of the Straits does 

 not appear to suit it really well. In fact it may be said to be des- 

 tinctly not a plant for the tropics. The grapes which f have eaten 

 in the tropics (Brazil) were small and green of the kind commonly 

 known as sweet water grapes and rather poor and acid. The plant 

 does not seem to like our heavy rains and thrives best in dry 

 weather. 



Vitis Mavtetli. The Saigon vine has long been cultivated at the 

 Botanic Gardens where it fruits heavily every year. The bunches 

 of grapes are very dense so that the little black grapes are not 

 much longer than a large sized black currant. Probably if thinned 

 out with a pair of grape scissors as is u^ual with grapes cultivated 

 in Europe they might attain a larger size. They are sweet and 

 juicy, but leave a slight trace of the irritation on the tongue after 

 eating which is *o characteristic of our wild grapes. It is probably 

 due to the presence of raphides or minute spicules of silica. 



It is readily grown from seed or cuttings. The plant though 



