i8i 



is impossible to get a straight beam, and it is consequently little used 

 except as firewood, or for short posts. It was formerly at least, used 

 for splitting granite at Pulau Ubin, by burning it on the rock and 

 throwing cold water on the heated stone. The trees along the tidal 

 river at Setul, however, were of great size, tall and straight, and 

 some, the Malay informed me, were over six feet in diameter and it 

 was the best timber for beams that they had. 



There is no doubt that a tree may vary in value as a timber tree 

 very greatly in different locality, or, perhaps it should be said different /' 

 climates, although it may be, as far as its species is concerned, 

 identical in flower, fruit and leaf, and a tree that is a valuable timber 

 in one country may be of little or no use in others. 



Carallia integerrima, Mr. R. S. Troup, in pamphlet 1 1 of the 

 Forest Economy Series of India, gives an account of the timber of 

 Carallia integerrima, called " Merpoin" and " Kusinga" here, a not very 

 uncommon tree in the Malay Peninsula. He gives the dimensions as 

 follows : " The tree ordinarily grows to a height of 50 or 80 feet with a 

 girth of 6 or 7 feet and a clear bole of 40 to 50 feet. Logs of 50 to 

 60 cubic feet in Burmah. In Bombay and , Madras it reaches a height? 

 of only about 40 feet with a girth of 4 or exceptionally 6 feet and 

 a clear bole of 20 feet." Now this tree never seems rarely to attain 

 anything like this size in our forests. It is usually about 30 feet tall 

 and has a comparatively short clear bole. A note on a specimen 

 collected by Mr. Cantley's plantcollector, however, in Malacca, gives 

 a height of 80 feet and says it will produce beams. Carallia integerrima 

 is however a very variable tree in foliage and perhaps some forms 

 are bigger than others. . > 



Sindora Wallichi var Siamensis. Saputi. 



A fine tree of this species long a conspicuous object on the lawn of 

 the Botanic Gardens was found last year to have somewhat suddenly 

 died, it is supposed, from lightning. The tree was about 90 feet tall 

 and branched very low, the butt was four feet through. When cleared 

 away it was found that the wood was extremely hard, difficult to cut 

 and split, the bark corky brown an inch thitk: The sap wood is at 

 first cutting white but soon darkens in colour, and a black resin 

 exudes in rings. The heart wood at first is dark red reminding with 

 its black resin of Rengas, (J/fc'/^7////f^r//^;f;c/) but eventually is dark and 

 light brown. The rings are well marked but very irregular in width; 

 in one part of the trunk I counted ten to the inch. The rays are ven 

 fine and close, the -pores not very abundant, but moderately large like 

 those of Merabau {Afr.elia) to which this tree is closely allied. The 

 wood indeed much resembles Merabau except in colour being brown 

 instead of red. It has a good figure, and is harder than Merabau. 



The Saputi, though seldom as thick as Merabau and not so 

 heavily buttressed, attains a height of about a hundred I'eet or more, 

 with a straight cylindric stem when grown in high forest and a large 

 round crown. The flowers are produced in great abundance and 



