26 
The Pangium edule affords an oil which is eaten by the Dyaks, 
who cultivate the tree, which does not grow wild in Borneo. 
Its large fruit contains many seeds, imbedded in deleterious 
pulp. 
Wood oil is obtained from a tree of the order Myrtacee. To 
procure it, a large hole is cut in the trunk, and fire is put in, 
when the oil is attracted by the heat. ‘The natives mix it with 
Dammar, for paying the seams of their boats, and substitute it 
for linseed oil in mingling paints ; it is considered very effectual 
in preserving wood from the effects of the weather. 
Many other esculent oils of fine quality are obtained from the 
seeds of different forest-trees, as the Wiato, or Gutta Percha, of 
the Malay Peninsula; but the people, having an extensive 
choice, take little trouble to procure them, though it cannot be 
doubted they would repay the merchant or traveller who should 
institute researches on the subject of their respective properties. 
The Gutta Percha tree is said to be found in all the forests of 
Malacca, Borneo, and Singapore, and the adjacent islands: fortu- 
nate it is that such is the case, for the quantity is already much 
diminished. The natives have no other mode of procuring the gum 
than by felling the trees and ringing the bark at distances of 
12 to 18 inches, when a cocoa-nut shell receives the flowing sap 
from each incision. It is customary to inspissate the sap by 
boiling it, but this process is not necessary: in a short time it 
consolidates and assumes the same appearance of itself. 
The quantity of Gutta obtained from each tree is from five to 
twenty catties: the catty being equivalent to a pound and three 
quarters English weight. Its great and most valuable property 
is that of becoming soft and plastic when immersed in water 
above the temperature 150° Fahr. It may then be moulded 
into any required form, which it retains on cooling. The Malays 
manufacture it into whips, baskets, basins and jugs, shoes, traces, 
and vessels of various kinds. 
Another substance, resembling caoutchouc in its properties, 
may be obtained in large quantities in Borneo and many other 
islands, and on the Peninsula: it is the produce of a climbing 
Urceola, whose trunk grows to the size of a man’s body. The 
bark, which is soft and thick with a very rough appearance, 
emits on being cut an immense flow of sap, and the tree is 
uninjured by the process. ‘There are three kinds of it in Borneo 
and all of them are known by the name of Jintarvan; the caout- 
chouc which they yield has been proved, by analysis, equal to 
and like that procured from the Ficus elastica. The fruit, which is 
large and of a fine apricot colour, contains twelve or more seeds, 
_ ~~ 
