a shape more poplar-like and the latter in the climate of Singapore dies at the branch-tips^, while trying to make good 
by sucker-shoots^ for, in common with several other tropical Australian plants, it finds the climate here only just 
supportable. The behaviour of Australian plants in general shows in how great a measure the plants of that continent 
are prevented, by the moist heat of Malaysia, from migration towards Asia. 
At the turn of the road near to and almost facing the Lake is a good tree of the Waringin, Ficus Benjamina. 
Opposite to it, upon the end of Lawn A, is a tree of the Japanese Camphor, Cinnamomum Camphora. This useful 
plant thrives better in a cooler climate than Singapore has. In eastern China and southern Japan, where it is native, it 
attains its full growth in 40-50 years, but lives, it is estimated, to 1,000 years. At such an age the trunk may be 20 ft. 
through ; but very large trees are rare, and it is considered well grown if 2-3 ft. through. Cinnamomum Camphora 
has been in the Singapore Gardens for nearly 50 years, but the bush at this spot is about half that age, yet very under- 
sisied. Camphor is found in the wood of old trees, here and there in lumps, but only a small part of that in commerce 
is so obtained ; the greater part is won by distillation of the wood and of the leaves- — even of fallen leaves. 
Near the Camphor tree is a pleasing specimen of the Australian Buckinghamia celsissima. It has not attained in 
fifty years the 60 ft. and over which it reaches in northern Queensland ; and it has never seeded, though it is frequently 
in flower. As an Australian plant of the coastal regions of Queensland, it behaves like the Australian Podocarps and 
Araucarias, mentioned above, supporting the moist heat of Singapore without being fertile. 
A runnel carries off water from the Lake just beyond these trees, and on the further side of it, overhanging the 
Lake, is a wide-spreading fig tree, Ficus Karzii, abundantly supplied with aerial roots. Behind it are small examples 
of the two chief mahoganies — Swietenia Mahogani of the West Indies, and Swietenia macrophylla of Honduras. 
Mahogany is the premier cabinet wood of the World, Whereas true mahogany is the wood of four or five 
American trees, the timber trade has extended the use of the name to other somewhat similar woods from various 
unrelated sources. True mahogany was used for ship-building and repairing by the Spanish conquerors of America, 
and in Britain at the time of Queen Elizabeth it was already recognised as a cabinet wood, Jamaica slowly acquiring an 
export trade in it. When the Jamaican internal supply no longer met the demand, Honduras timber was shipped, 
through Kingston, to supplement it. About fifty years ago, in consequence of the cultivation in India of both trees, 
the discovery was made that the Honduras plant is not a different variety but a different species. As it inhabits a 
moister and more uniformly warm climate than Jamaica has, it grows better in Singapore ; but both species have 
had extensive trials in the Malay Peninsula, and neither with real success. 
The rattan growing into the Ficus is Calamus Scipionum, the chief source of the Malacca cane, which has been an 
article of export to Europe since the i6th century ; it is also in demand locally for the stouter parts of baskets used 
in the tin mines. 
— 14 — 
