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vines seldom or never fruit until they have overtopped tall trees 
and reached the light the seeds have the advantage of starting 
from a considerable height. Willoughbeias on the other hand 
h^ve large fleshy round or pear shaped fruits with the seeds 
embedded in an edible pulp of which animals are fond and 
which is also sometimes eaten by human beings. T heir means 
of distribution depends mainly on animals, but growing as they 
often do on steep or sloping ground, the fruit if it has escaped 
the notice of animals and fallen to the ground will be found to 
have sometimes rolled a long distance before coming in contact 
with any obstruction. 
Dipterocarps. 
No Natural Order of Malayan plants contains more valuable 
trees than Dipterocarpeae. Besides furnishing such useful timbers 
as Damar Laut, Chengal, Meranti, Seraya, &c., they also furnish 
oils and damars. They are numerous both as regards species and 
individuals and most of them have winged fruits by means of which 
they are distributed throughout our forest area. 
The flowers are mostly small and inconspicuous but soon after 
these have fallen and the calyx lobes, which eventually form the 
wings, commence to enlarge the trees are the most noticeable in 
the forest, some of the species in a young state being of a deep 
pink or reddish colour, and in others of a yellowish green. These 
when ripe and detached from the tree do not drop directly to the 
ground but descend in the position of a shuttlecock with a slow 
rotary motion and the distance which they travel from the parent 
tree before reaching the ground depends on the strength of the 
wind. 
Seed bearing trees of this order are generally of great height 
and the area over which a single tree spreads its seeds is consi- 
derable. As the seeds ripen gradually they gain the advantage of 
any change in the wind and condition of the weather, for they 
require abundant moisture in order to germinate. 
Sir G. King in the Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Penin- 
sula has described several new species but there is much yet to be 
done in collecting and determining the correct botanical names of 
the trees belonging to this important but easily recognised order. 
Para Rubber. 
The dispersion of Para Rubber seeds is effected in a manner 
different to either of those already referred to, and in the same 
way as Impatiens. When the seeds are ripe the capsules contain- 
ing the seeds burst suddenly with a report that can be distinctly 
heard and shoot the seeds to a considerable distance. An isolated 
tree that recently fruited in the Waterfall Garden, Penang, afforded 
an excellent opportunity for observation. 
Seeds from this tree which is 50-60 feet high were scattered 
around in all directions to a distance of fifteen paces and a few as 
far as twenty paces. 
When one considers the little chance a seedling tree has of 
attaining maturity under the dense canopy of its parent which 
