6 4 
by Mr. J. S. GOODENOUGH, from Selangor, under the name of 
Kumus bears a close resemblance to that sent by Mr. MOORHOUSE 
and is undoubtedly the same tree. There is a band of sapwood 
round it little more than inch thick and the centre about | inch 
is softer and pithier wood. The rest of the specimen is stronghard 
dense timber. The rings are rather more conspicuous, about 19 in 
number, and rather more regular. This tree was probably about 20 
years old, to judge by the rings. It would square to four inches. 
The timber of this tree may well be reckoned as among the first 
class timbers of the Peninsula. It seems for its class to be of rapid 
growth, and is good all through. It closely resembles a timber 
known now in Singapore as Poonah, which is much*in request. 
The plant appears to be identical with the Shorea ciliata , King. 
The twigs in Mr. MoORHOUSE's specimen are slender and black 
when dry; leaves young ovate with a distinct blunt point, 2 to 4 
inches long, f-i^ inch wide, coriaceous pale above when dry, with 
about 14 pairs of nerves very inconspicuous above, beneath more 
conspicuous, and the whole of the underside of the leaf covered with 
a thin white scurf easily rubbed off, which makes the leaf beneath 
appear whitish petiole slender, little over J an Inch long. Older 
leaves seem to be narrower, lanceolate, acuminate, the nerves more 
conspicuous, and the while scurf absent; panicles short, 1 to 
inch long, peduncles and especially the upper branches of the 
panicle flexuous, covered with a white scurfy wool; flowers short- 
ly phdicelled, \ inch long, narrow oblong, from a broader base, 
pubescent, ^ inch long; “ Stamens -30 in fascicles of 3 unequal, the 
connective produced into an apical process crowned with 3 to 5 
cilia.” Calyx lobes in fruit, three long narrow blunt, covered with 
stillate pubescence, two short. 
This plant was first collected by Mr. Curtis in Penang, No. 
1578 of his collection, and though Mr. Moorhouse's specimens 
differ in some respects, I have little doubt as to the correctness of 
the identification. There are no flowers on the'latter. The Penang 
specimens in flow'er and fruit have very distinctly reticulate nerved 
leaves ; those of the Seremban specimens have not, but where by in- 
jury the leaves have lost the epidermis the reticulations are very 
conspicuous, and are traceable too in the old leaves. 
The foliage of Shoreas varies very much at different times of the 
year, and at different ages and different forms or states of the leaves 
properly correlated with those of adult trees, have not yet been 
collected; many such indeed, as Shorea ciliata , have been collected 
but once. Flowers and fruit are seldom to be met with/and often 
the trees are inaccessible on account of their great size, so that the 
study of these most important timber trees is very difficult. — Editor. 
FIBRES. — Continued. 
Coco-nut Fibre. — Coir. — This is the fibre of the husk of the coco- 
nut beaten out. Although there are extensive coco-nut estates all 
over the Peninsula and an abundance of husks, there is hardly any 
