5 
'/g 
climbers. Roughly speaking woods with large pores are softer 
than those with small ones. . The pores are sometimes arranged 
in groups, or lines, and their size, position and arrangements are 
often very useful in determining woods. 
Medullary rays-- appear in transverse sections as bars, radiating 
rom the centre of the tree to the circumference in longitudinal 
sec ion as road bars, often shining and of a different tint from the 
suiroun mg wood. In the Oaks and Chestnuts thev are very con- 
spicuous and form what is known as silver grain. ' 
Concentric lines —are very fine lines of soft tissue occurring in 
many timbers. 1 hev are often wavy and sometimes very close 
together. J 
Weight. f he weights given in this paper are estimated from 
the weight of hand specimens, and are the weights per cubic foot. 
Where not otherwise mentioned or are marked N thev are from 
specimens in the collection of the Botanic Gardens. * For com- 
pan son, 1 have added weights from other publications where 
ootainable. As the weights have been mostly taken from small 
specimens they must be considered rather as comparative weights 
than actual weights per cubic foot, 
only works published previously on the timbers 
ot the Peninsula are : — 
Notes and Experiments on the different kinds of timbers in 
ord! nary use m the Straits Settlements, by Howard Newton 
1884, and an article in the Kew Bulletin 1890, p. 112. 
The former of these papers deals with about twenty of the bet 
ter known woods several of which, however, are imported from 
various islands in the Archipelago. 
Experiments were made as to their strength and stiffness. All 
are mentioned by their native names, but a few scientific names 
are given, several of which are incorrect. In the second paper 
based on Maingw’s Manuscript and specimens, the Malay 
names are much misspelt and often wrongly identified by some 
wdlT l ° n ‘ TherC ^ a Sh ° rt deSCri P tion of the timber, its use and 
Besides these papers, [ have referred to Gamble's Indian Tim 
bers, a most carefully compiled and useful work and Van Eeden 
Hout Soorten Van der Nederlandsch Oost-Indie (1886 ' ' 
There still remains a great deal of work to be done in (he Malay 
Umbers, some of which have not yet been properly identified 
no adequate specimens of fruit and flowers having yet been oh’ 
tamed of some species, so that it has been impossible to determine 
to what trees the timbers belong. Malays in different places often 
use different names or the same plant, which causes some con- 
fusion, and it is not ahvays easy to find a native who knows the 
correct names for various trees. The dealers in timber have at 
time? attempted to introduce English names such as rosewood, 
Straits mahogany, Straits teak and the like. These useless names 
even when identifiable are better dropped, as they are apt to mis- 
lead people into the idea that the timbers referred to are related 
