297 



youth of a tree is its most important period of life. The young 

 plant is unbranched and has formed only a few buds to take the place 

 of any injured. Its leaf area is small and on its leaf area depends 

 its root growth. Any weakening of the seedling is apt to cause 

 weakness in the adult, slow growth and poor development. 



It is therefore advisable to see that the nursery beds are not over- 

 crowded, and that the plants are free from mites. Perhaps the best 

 treatment for these is the old one of flowers of sulphur. The finely 

 powdered sulphur is put in a bag of cloth of not too thick texture and 

 this is tie! to the end of a stick. Holding this in one hand among 

 the seedilings, it is beaten with a switch so that the fine sulphur dust 

 flies on the breeze through the bed beneath the leaves. 



H. N. Ridley, 



Director. 



R. Derry, 



Curator. 



MALAY CAMPHOR. 



By a. Sanger Davies. 



Dryobaldiwps C amphora, known to the Malays as ' Kayu Kapur.' 



General Appearance. 



A very large evergreen tree attaining a height of 1 50 feet and a 

 girth up to 35 feet. In the smaller girths the tree is not buttressed 

 but when it attains a girth of 5 feet it puts out fairly strong buttresses. 

 In places where this tree is' found it towers above the surrounding 

 jungle and may be recognized miles off by its greyish looking foliage 

 and the shape of its crown, which is best described as being like an 

 umbrella. 



The branches are small for the size of the tree. Bark I in. to 2 ins. 

 thick, greyish brown, uneven, in older aged trees peeling off in large 

 flakes. When the tree flowers in September, the whole jungle pre- 

 sents the appearance of having been through a snowstorm, even the 

 rivers carry away thousands of fallen blossoms. 



Distribution in Pahang. 



Ihe Camphor tree is found growing along all the lower slopes of 

 the dividing range between the Rom pin and Endau watersheds. It 

 is also found to a small extent on low hills lying to the North of the 

 Rom pin river. 



In the Kuantan district it is found on the slopes of the Bukit Sar 

 range which forms the dividing line between the Jabboh, a branch of 

 the Kemaman river and the Baloh river which flows into the sea some 

 10 miles north of Kwala Kuantan, but the area here is not of much 

 account. In the Romi^in district I would estimate that the total 

 area containing Camphor is not far short of 200,000 acres. 



