34 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
it was occasionally employed to make handles for parangs, 
(or wood-choppers), instead of wood or buffalo horn. So 
long ago as 1822, when I was assistant-surgeon at Singapore, 
I was told of Gutta Percha, in connexion with caoutchouc ; 
and some very fine specimens were brought to me. There 
are three varieties of this substance, Gutta Girek, Gutta 
Tuban, and Gutta Percha. I may here mention that the 
latter name is often erroneously pronounced in England. The 
ch is sounded by the Malayans like those letters in our 
word perch (a fish). And attention to this point is of some 
importance ; for if our countrymen were to ask the natives for 
Gutta Perca, they would probably be told, that such a sub- 
stance was unknown, while plenty of Gutta Percha might be 
procured by pronouncing the word correctly. The. name 
is pure Malayan; Gutta meaning the gum, or concrete juice 
of the plant, and Percha the particular tree from which it is 
obtained. I could not help thinking that the tree itself - 
must exist in Sumatra, and perhaps derive its name from 
thence, the Malayan name for Sumatra being Pulo Percha ; 
but though the Straits of Malacca are situated only one 
degree to the north of Singapore, I could not find that the 
substance has ever been heard of there or in Sumatra. - 
* But to return to the period when I first noticed the 
Parang handle that was made of Gutta Percha ;—my curiosity 
being excited by the novelty of the material, I questioned. 
the workman, a Malay woodsman, in whose possession 1 saw 
‘it, and heard that the material of which it was framed could: 
be moulded into any other form, by dipping it into boiling 
water till it was heated through, when it became plastic eg 
as clay, regaining when cold its original ee” = ri- x 
gidity.” 3 
DE Montgomerie goes on to say that de. péréhiaier the 
Parang handle, and sent for more of the substance, and that 5 
on instituting experiments, he ascertained that Gutta Percha ee 
was likely to prove a most valuable. material for making, 
those parts of surgical instruments which had hitherto been. 
formed of caoutchouc, the latter having the inconvenience of 
