26 i 
and can be seen from the railway. M. malaccensis is easily 
distinguished from the other wild ‘ one Musa violascens by its 
glaucous foliage and purple-brown bracts, M. violascens has 
violet bracts, the colour of a brinjal, and an erect spike. It is 
more slender and has plain green leaves. This latter, not so 
extremely common as the M. malaccensis, has not yet had a 
really fair trial as a fibre plant, and may prove better. 
Careful preparation of the fibre from stems before flowering „ 
should give a good return, and considering that the only cultiva- 
tion required .is to clear away the scrub round the plant and let it 
grow, there seems no reason why this source of profit should be 
neglected. 
Mr. Machado’s samples were small but he showed a finer 
cleaner lot in his excellent collection of fibres at the late exhibi* 
tion, where he easily carried off first prize. Readers will note in 
Professor Dunstan’s report the allusion to the high price of fibres 
just now. There is, in fact, a very large demand for fibres of all 
kinds, and this is more likely to increase as years go on than to 
decrease. Some, and this includes bananas, might well be grown 
as catch crops in rubber. Again, this is work in which the natives 
might well be employed. The Malays would be encouraged to 
bring in some of the wild fibres of which our forests contain many 
if there was a buyer for them, stationed at some such place as 
Kuala Lumpur. This suggestion was made some years ago in 
the Bulletin apropos of Kabong fibre, for which there was a 
considerable demand in tons, but it is one of those fibres only 
collected in small lots by Malays, and what was wanted was a 
fibre buyer who would take small lots in the districts and 
accumulate them into sufficient bulk to be saleable in Liverpool, 
or Hamburg. As it is a great deal of the forest wealth lies 
ungathered for want of some such system. 
REPORT ON A SPECIMEN OF BENZOIN 
FROM THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES 
BY 
Professor Wyndham R. Dunstan, m.a., f.r.s., Director, 
Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London. 
This sample of benzoin was sent to the Imperial Institute, 
by the Curator of the Selangor State Museum, Kuala Lumpur, 
and is referred to in his letter No. 87/05, dated November 24, 
1905. It was stated that the product was derived from a 
species of Styrax which is fairly common in the neighbourhood 
of Kuala Lumpur, and that considerable quantities might be 
forthcoming if the value of resin were sufficient to make its 
collection remunerative. 
