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quantities in fishing traps on the sea coast owing 
to its endurance in water. When collected for 
export, this rattan is always washed in sand. It 
is generally exported under the name of Rotan 
Barang, and its principal market is Singapore. 
3. Rotan Semambu or Malacca Cane. 
Calamus scipionum Lour. 
Found from Indo-China, through the Malay Pen- 
insula to Sumatra and Borneo. This is a common, 
large, climbing rattan which grows on low or high 
ground and forms a big cluster of as many as 15 
young shoots before it starts climbing. The stem 
is not absolutely round and is 0.6 to 1.2 in. in 
diameter. The internodes are from 8 to 56 inches 
long, or even longer, and the nodes are very thick. 
The surface is smooth, as though polished, — in its 
natural condition green, yellow, or brown. The 
heart is dirty grey. It is a strong, inflexible, readily 
splitting rattan. The sticks are known in trade as 
Malacca canes and are of several kinds. The three 
principal kinds are the following: — 
Pale or cream coloured sticks are those which 
have been very carefully dried to preserve an even 
pale colour. These are the most valuable of all 
Malacca sticks and particularly fine examples have 
been sold at as much as £25 or £30 per stick. 
Mottled sticks are pale sticks with a fine figure 
that has been obtained by drying them on coarse 
gravel. Sometimes, inferior sticks have this figure 
painted on them artificially. 
Smoked sticks are of various shades of pale or 
dark brown and the colour is the result of smoking 
and oiling. They are sometimes prepared by boring 
