39 
beams said to have been of Balau perished completely in five 
years, one can only deplore the want of wisdom in the early 
Governments of Singapore which encouraged the destruction of 
the forests of the Island, and either allowed the timber to be 
burnt on the ground for the cultivation of gambier, or let it be sold 
out of the country. Had the Tampenis, Kranji, true Balau and 
other hard wood timbers of Singapore been preserved for the use 
of Government buildings, the cost of repairs during the last fifty 
years would probably have been not a fiftieth of what it has been. 
H. N. R. 
BETIS OR MALAY BILIAN. 
By H. N. Ridley. 
I have received from Mr. Stephens, of the Forest Department 
in Kwala Lumpur, specimens of the leaves, seeds and timber of a 
tree, the wood of which is called Betis, or Bilian, and is of high 
class quality. This so called Bilian must not be confused with the 
well known Bilian of Borneo, Eusideroxylon Schwageri of the 
order Laurineae. The Betis belongs to the order Sapotaceae. The 
Malay plants of this order have been recently described by Sir 
George King in his materials for a flora of the Malay Peninsula, 
but I do not find among them any plant corresponding exactly to 
the Betis. The specimens received are not adequate to describe 
the plant fully, and it may be hoped that further specimens may 
be received with flowers and complete fruit. 
Betis or Bilian of the Malay Peninsula. Palaquium, sp. 
A tree of large size leaves crowded at the tips of the 
branches, oblanceolate entire, tip rounded or with a verv short 
blunt point, base narrowed to the petiole, length three inches, 
breadth one inch, th inly' coriaceous shining above pale beneath 
glabrous, nerves eight pairs alternate, reticulated nervules 
conspicuous, petiole i inch long covered as are the buds with a 
little red wool. Flowers and fruits not seen. Seed very large, 
i£ inch long one inch across, £ inch through, elliptic flattened 
base rounded tip sub-acute, light yellow-brown, shining hilum 
large and broad, half the width of the seed. Cotyledons 
large and fleshy, no albumen. 
The most nearly allied species I have to this plant, is 
Palaquium microphyllum, King and Gamble, a native of Singapore, 
but the leaves are more obovate and smaller and the petiole more 
woolly. The seeds of this plant I have not seen, but in a 
collection of plants from Sumatra received from a native collector 
some years ago there are specimens (distributed by me under 
the number 11,335) of a very similar plant bearing unripe fruit. 
This fruit is globose, about as big as a cherry, and the unripe seed 
bears some resemblance to that of the Betis. The foliage of this 
Sumatran plant is larger than that of P. microphylla and more 
coriaceous than that of the Betis, the reticulations of the nerves 
being invisible. 
