138 
colour and hardness are as good as in a freshly felled tree. A sam- 
ple of wood obtained in Klang at a depth of 92 feet below the . 
surface, proved to be a portion of a Kumpass tree still retaining 
its structure. 
The wood is hard and heavy red with rather coarse gram, the 
rings distinct, the pores large arranged in groups surrounded by 
lighter coloured tissue. 
In some respects it resembles Merabau, but is coarser and more 
ornamental than that wood. Neglected as it is now, I believe that 
it will eventually come into use again. Weight 47 lbs. 14 ozs ; 52 lbs. 
14 ozs. 54 lbs. 
K. parviflora Prain. Tualang or Sialang, 
Is more remarkable for its size than anything else. It attains a 
height of over 100 feet, and l have seen in Province Wellesley 
trees measuring 8 feet in diameter. 
Dialium. Kranji. 
There are several species of this valuable genus in the Peninsula, 
but though formerly it appears that the Kranji trees were abun- 
dant, they have been so sought for that it is quite rare now to find 
the timber in the market at all. In the earlier days of Singapore 
great quantities of this timber was felled, and shipped to China. 
There are seven species recorded from the Peninsula, all are large 
trees, and though the timber is not of equal value in all, yet all 
may justly be considered in the first rank of hard woods. The 
flowers are very unlike those of most Leguminosae in appearance 
dull coloured and small, in large panicles with no petals and only 
two stamens. The fruit is a round black pod, usually velvety con- 
taining a single hard seed enclosed in a sweet, pleasanlty flavored 
white pithy endocarp, which is eaten by the natives for which pur- 
pose the dried pods are often sold in the markets. The tree when 
fruiting suffers much from the attacks of monkeys which destroy 
often nearly the whole crop of fruit before it is ripe, and this and 
the demand for fruit by the natives probably militates a good deal 
against the re-afforestation of our jungles with this most valuable 
timber. The trees are of slow growth like most hard wood trees. 
The timber is very similar in all the species, dark brown, and heavy 
and almost indestructible, the pores are usually rather large and 
numerous, the rays very fine and close, the rings of growth often 
obscure, but there are in most kinds close very fine rings as fine 
as the rays making a kind of check pattern with them. 
Laslett (Timber and Timber trees p. 137) says that Red Kranji 
of Borneo is exceedingly tough and one of the strongest woods we 
are acquainted with taking a very heavy strain and breaking with 
an unusually long fracture. One piece tested for tensile strength 
proved equal to a strain of 10,920 lbs. on the square inch. What 
species of Dialium, this was he does not say but several occur in 
Borneo, 
