When we look down upon the lowland forest or gaze up into its vaults, we see the canopy of dipterocarps whose sombre crowns compose very largely the ocean of trees that once covered the Malay Peninsula.  The family holds the most important timber-trees, best known from the names of the dead timbers that they supply, such as meranti, seraya, keruing, kapur, chengal, resak, and mersawa.  This glorious spectacle has been whittled away in the course of civilisation, decimated this century by commercial logging, and now, with demand for agriculture, it is in danger of
disappearing.  Vast trunks thunder along highways to saw-mills, apparently from nowhere, and revenue accrues, but where can the citizen, the biologist, or the visitor see these fabulous giants--the most majestic trees that any land produces?  One would have thought that such a national heritage should have been guarded zealously.  There remain, fortunately, some tracts of this lowland forest preserved as catchment areas, national parks, forest reserves and game reserves though, as the shortage of timber increases, they may be deprived.  (pp. 233-234)

From:  Corner, E.J.H., (1988 (1st ed. 1940)),Wayside Trees of Malaya, 
(Volumes 1 and 2), Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.