OCTOUF.K 



1884.] 



THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



2S9 



Getult Sundik. Payena Leerii. 

 This variety grows in swampy places mar the coast, and 

 I i'ouuil one- tree with its root iu a small creek, the water 

 of which was quite salt, ami only a short distance from 

 the regular Mangrove tree-, fringing the stream. The 

 leaves are small, shiny, and have a reddish tint when youug. 

 The bark is about three-eighths of an inch thick and 'lark 

 brown iu colour moderately rough. 



The flowers are white and the fruit is sweet and eaten 

 by the Malays. Its gutta is like Taban Sutra ic appear- 

 ance, and is collected by scoring the barkj catching the 

 sap, and boiling it until it coagulates. A tree measuriug 

 two feet ami eight inches in cirrumfererice at three feet 

 from the ground ami its', feel to the hist branch that I 

 hail felled gave <;.', oz. ol' gutta. 



Getah Sundik. Payena . 



This is a tree much resembling Payena Leerii, but differ- 

 ing from it in the leaves being longer in proportion to 

 their breadth, the fruit anil seed smaller, ..ml the bark, 

 which is reddish brown, is only about one-half the thick- 

 ness, and consequently tin- yield of gutta is much less 

 (the yield seemiug to he in proportion to the thickness 

 of the bark). This variety, therefore, is lesv valuable com- 

 mercially than the thick-barked kimls. i may observe that 

 it grows in swamps like the Leerii. 



Getah Gahru .' Bassia . 



This is one of the Bassias nearly allied to B. Mot'eyana; 

 ami it grows on the hills up to an elevation of 2,600'feet. 

 The bark is light grey, ami tie- wood seems to be of 

 good quality. 



The leaves are dark green ami the Hewers white. 



The fruit is reddish-brown, ami covered with silky hairs, 

 like that of liichopsis Gutta. • 



The style is often persistent^ Its gutta is white and 

 hard, and is used only for mixing with better classes of 

 gutta. 



There are several other Bassias which yield gums that 

 are used for mixing also, hut X have not as yet obtained 

 any hotauical specimens of them. 



Kayu Jelutony. Vyera . 



The gum from this tree is known as Getah Jelutony, and 

 is employed in the same way as that from the various 

 kinds of Bassia. 



The word "Kayu" means wood, hut it is at times used 

 by Malays instead of " Poleok" a tree, where they consider 

 that it sounds better 



This tree is one of the loftiest to he found in the jungle, 

 ami Ins blackish-grey bark (white inside) which yields 

 great quantities of white sap win u cut into. It bears 

 large I.e. m-like pod? in pairs. 



Its leaves are green above ami bhiish-white beneath, and 

 arranged iu whorls at intervals, with seven leaves in each. 

 The wood is white and very soft, and is largely used by 

 the Chinese for making coffins, for which purpose it is 

 Well adapted, as it is light and decays very rapidly when 

 exposed to moisture. 



On the great loss of Gutta, besotting from the 

 wasteful mode 01 extraction' employed by the malays 



Whilst engaged in collecting specimens and information 

 respecting the gutta-producing trees of Perak, I was greatly 

 struck by the exceedingly small amount yielded by even 

 large tre. s by the present Malay method of ringing the 

 hark, which led me to an examination of the dried bark 

 with a view to ascertain, by a series of careful experiments, 

 what proportion of the whole amount of gutta contained 

 In a tree was actually left in the hark after the usual 

 process of extracting it had been performed. 



With this object I had on the 24th of May, 1883, a 

 tire of Getah Taban Simpor felled, and scores cut iu the 

 bark at distances of fifteen inches along the whole length 

 of the trunk, and obtained 12 oz. of gutta. Some two or 

 three days alter 1 had some of the bark removed, and on 

 tin 29th I cut some of it up into thin slices across the 

 grain, ami boiled them iu water for a short time when 



I found that gutta had been expelled, and remained as 

 .1 slight and irregular coating on (he chips. This I picked 

 off, and weighing it, I found tin- yield to be 3J per cent 

 of the wet bark operated ou. 



Encouraged by this simple ami satisfactory experiment 

 1 next had a weighed sample of bark pounded in a mortar 



:'.T 



and then transferred it to a glass vessel and boiled it in 

 water. 



In a few minutes tin- gutta formed itself into small de- 

 tached white flake*, and by Btirring, collected i'lt-i -.< ,„;,«, 



which was easily rem- i.-,l from Hie tlask. and purified by 



recoiling in clean water. By ilii^ method the sample of 

 wet bark yielded ".-:: percent ol clean white gutta. 



Another weighed sample of hark was cut up and dried 

 in the sun, and then put into chloroform, and after stand- 

 ing some hours, with frequent sinkings, tie- liquid was 



poured oil' and allowed to evaporate, fresh chloroform being 

 added to the bark to extract any gutta which remained 

 in it. Tin- total product thus obtained was ,V7 per cent 



of the weight of ,r,l hark ii-.. I III Hie ex I ieri men t 



1 next took a weighed sample of wet hark ami cut it 

 up into small chips, and dried it thoroughly, and found 

 as if.- result of several experiments that it lost 50 per cent 



ol its weight in the process. 



The following deductions mav he made from these re- 

 sults : — Firstly, that the we! hark which is now allowed 

 to rot iu the jungle contains fully 5'7 per cent of its 

 weight of Gutta Percha, or when dried 11-1 percent; and 

 secondly, that by simply pounding or rasping and boiling 

 tin- bark, nearly all the gutta which it contains may be 

 extracted. 



After the tree was felled I made careful measurements 



of it and weighed portions of the hark, so that f could 

 calculate the total weight on the trunk of tie tree up to 

 the first branch, which I found to he .Mill II. wh.-n in the 

 wet state. 



Now if we take 5"3 percent of this as being the amount 

 of gutta that may be extracted by the process of pound- 

 ing ami boiling already specified, we find that it would 

 yield 281b. over and above the 12 oz. which were obtained 

 by the ordinary Malay method ; or, to put it in another 

 way. that for every pound of gutta collected at present. 

 'ft lb. are wasted ! 



In the Kew Report for 18S1 I find it stated that iu the 



year 1875, the export of gutta from the Straits Settle- 

 ments ami Peninsula was estimated at ten millions of 

 pounds weight. 



I have no means of ascertaining the accuracy of that 

 estimate, hut accepting it as being tolerably correct, we 

 must, from my experiments, come to the conclusion, that 

 even if we take the amount of gutta wasted, at Only 

 thirtj times tin- weight of that collected, there were, 

 during thai <un '/tar, no less than three hundred millions 

 ol pounds, or putting the price at only 2.*. 6d. per pound. 

 £37,500,000 sterling worth of Gutta Percha thrown away 

 and utterly lost ! 



'I'.. fully realize the importance ol' this subject, it must 

 !»' borne in mind that this vast destruction of th.-se 

 valuable trees (which are of such very slow growth- an, I 

 of this material, on which the communication of the world 

 may he said in a measure to depend, i-. going on every 

 year without any cessation whatever. 



It will be noticed that I have left, out of my calcul- 

 ations all the bark on the upper part of the trunk, and 

 on the l.ianches, which however is just as rich in gutta, 

 as the lower portion of the trunk: even the leaves con- 

 tain a notable proportion. I have tested also other 

 varieties of these trees and have obtained almost identical 

 results, therefore I need not enter into further details. 



The question naturally arises, can the bark he broken 

 from the trees and dealt with in the country, or can it 

 be dried ami sent to Europe, to be ground up anil 

 treated in the manner I have described, or in some other 

 way sufficiently economical as to be commercially success- 

 ful ? This question deserves the most anxious attention, 

 especially of those who are engaged in the working up 

 of this material; for if it can he successfully accomplished, 

 tin 11 tin- sun.- supply could be furnished with one~thirtieth 

 of tl,,- present annual destruction of trees! 



With the object of having this point so far tested, I 

 have collected some hark, and am sending it to the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew. with a request to have il sent to one 

 of tin large manufacturers, so that a report may be 

 obtained from them on the subject. 



Tin- labour involved in stripping tl..- trees, carrying out 

 tie- w.-t hark from the jungles .where no roads, or even 

 paths, exist), drying it, carrying it, to a port, ami thence 

 to Knglan.l, an- items of expense, which must not be 



