INDO-MALAYAN WOODS. 
453 
parenchyma cells. Woody tissue very dark and giving a strongly glisten- 
ing surface in fresh transverse cut. 
Uses. — Piling, heavy construction, bridges, telegraph and telephone 
poles. Much used' for shingles in Borneo. Said not to shrink on ex- 
posure to weather. Proof against termites. Perhaps the best wood in 
the world for piling. Resists termites and ship worm — perhaps because 
of the action of the substance filling the vessels and wood parenchyma 
celib. 
Hinds of billian. — At most places where billian is worked, it is claimed 
that there are two or more kinds of this wood ; e. g. billian simpor, billian 
bulu, billian tembaga , etc. It is certainly true that some billian is much 
lighter and less durable than the standard sort. Some billian is so light 
that it will float when dry. There is a difference between sap and heart- 
wood and between rapidly grown and normal trees which will, I think, 
account for this. I have made efforts to examine the lighter grades of 
billian wherever they occurred and I have uniformly found those trees 
producing the lighter grades of billian to be very rapidly grown ; in fact, 
they were second growth trees, having started as sprouts from old stumps. 
The young stump sprouts, being supplied with great quantities of nourish- 
ment by the established root system of the old stump, were able to make 
exceedingly rapid growth. In making this growth, there was not time for 
the deposit in the vessels and tissues of those substances which make for 
weight and durability in as great quantities as is the case where the 
tree grows at its normal and slower rate ; consequently, the rapidly grown 
young wood is not so heavy nor so durable and, probably, not so strong as 
that of the normally grown tree. 
Billian is one of the very few woods of Borneo which is known outside 
this region. It is exported to Europe in some quantity and has been used 
for piling at several places in Holland and France. It is deserving of 
wider use, but a few years vigorous exploiting will exhaust the available 
supply of it. It is one of the trees which is deserving of planting and 
careful handling. 
Ridl. 247; Newt. 4; Bargagli-Petrucci 18; Becfi. 581; Blits 27. 
CAMPHOR WOOD. 
Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Nees & Eberm. Plate XXIII, fig. 17. 
China, Formosa, Japan, and cultivated in many other regions. 
Wood moderately hard and light to moderately heavy. Grayish to 
dark-red, often prettily marked. Grain rather coarse. Pith-rays fine, 
vessels moderately large to small. Distinct seasonal rings present, the 
larger vessels being arranged in the young wood and the smaller ones en 
echelon in the older wood. A rapidly growing wood. Durable, because 
of the very large amount of camphor it contains and which renders it 
distasteful to insects. It is used very extensively in the making of chests, 
