1639 
Dryobalanops but is mixed with Diospyros, Quercus, 
Dipterocarpus , Shorea, Eugenia, and other genera. The 
trees towered 200 feet into the air and made a canopy 
of white or, rather, a cream-colored dome. A species 
of Dalium was also in flower, pure white, which added 
to the beauty. " 
Bangkok, Siam. 
October 15,, 1920. 
" Cyrtophyllum fragrans, a tree peculiar to the Malay 
Peninsula, is worthy of cultivation owing to its love- 
ly clean foliage, white fragrant flowers, and also on 
account of its timber which is very valuable. The 
fruits are very small red berries and contalnj minute 
seeds. It is much used as a road tree in Singapore and 
throughout Malay, also in Bangkok. 
"A tree of great interest is Diospyros mollis, in 
fact, it is one of. the most valuable dye plants in 
Siam. The Chinese import yearly 3,000,000 ticats worth 
of silk, pay the duty on it, and all for the purpose of 
dyeing the silk black; every bit is again exported. 
There are large but rather primitive dye factories 
here. It is said that the Chinese have tried to grow 
the tree here in China but were not successful. I have 
seen material dyed black which had been washed twice a 
week for three years and it certainly was still as 
black as black could be. It is said to be a laborious 
process. The fruit must be still green when collected 
for dyeing purposes; it is mashed in water and the 
material is dipped into it, the water is then thrown 
away and the pulp is pressed and placed again in 
water, - this process is repeated many times. The 
material must be dried in the sun after each dipping. 
It is difficult to secure ripe seeds as the fruits are 
collected before maturity. This tree is about 25 feet 
tall, with fruits the size of a large cherry." 
"At Wat Lum along the Menam River I found an in- 
teresting cotton plant {Gossypium arboreum), 10 to 12 feet 
high, and worthy of cultivation on account of its 
beautiful red flowers. There were very few seeds, but 
I am sending some. 
"One of the largest trees here is Dipterocarpus 
elatus y reaching a height of over 100 feet. The natives 
extract wood-oil from this tree by burning large holes 
into the sides of the trunks and leaving a bowl-shaped 
cavity; after the trunk has been burned into, the 
resin begins to flow and it is collected in this cavi- 
ty. The tree is very valuable." 
