eater portion of the
surface of the island being clothed in luxuriant vegetation. The king of
the forest is the _tapan_, which, rising to a great height without fork
or branch, culminates in a splendid dome of foliage. The official seats
of some of the chiefs are constructed from the wood of this tree.
Iron-wood, remarkable for the durability of its timber, is abundant; it
is used by the natives for the pillars of their homes and forms an
article of export, chiefly to Hong-Kong. It is rivalled in hardness by
the _kayu tembesu_. In all, about sixty kinds of timber of marketable
quality are furnished in more or less profusion, but the difficulty of
extraction, even in the regions situated in close proximity to the large
waterways, renders it improbable that the timber trade of Borneo will
attain to any very great dimensions until other and easier sources of
supply have become exhausted. Palm-trees are abundant in great variety,
including the _nipah_, which is much used for thatching, the cabbage,
fan, sugar, coco and sago palms. The last two furnish large supplies of
food to the natives, some copra is exported, and sago factories, mostly
in the hands of Chinese, prepare sago for the Dutch and British markets.
Gutta-percha (_getah percha_ in the vernacular), camphor, cinnamon,
cloves, nutmegs, gambir and betel, or areca-nuts, are all produced in
the island; most of the tropical fruits flourish, including the
much-admired but, to the uninitiated, most evil-smelling durian, a large
fruit with an exceedingly strong outer covering composed of stout
pyramidal spikes, which grows upon the branches of a tall tree and
occasionally in falling inflicts considerable injuries upon passers-by.
Yams, several kinds of sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers,
pineapples, bananas and mangosteens are cultivated, as also are a large
number of other fruits. Rice is grown in irrigated lands near the rivers
and in the swamps, and also in rude clearings in the interior;
sugar-cane of superior quality in Sambas and Montrado; cotton, sometimes
exported in small quantities, on the banks of the Negara, a tributary of
the Barito; tobacco, used very largely now in the production of cigars,
in various parts of northern Borneo; and tobacco for native consumption,
which is of small commercial importance, is cultivated in most parts of
the island. Indigo, coffee and pepper have been cultivated since 1855 in
the western division of Dutch Borneo. Among th