OCTOBKR 1. 191; 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Story of Gutta Percha— III. 



KOTAXY. 



IT may will tie imagined how great was the desire of all 

 intelligent persons, when gutta was first brought to Europe, 

 to know the identity of the tree from which it was derived. 

 In 1844 the Rev. Edward White, Chaplain of Singapore, sent a 

 dried branch of the tree to Dr. William Griffith, of the Madras 

 Medical Service and superintendent of the Botanical Garden of 

 Calcutta. There was neither flower nor fruit, but from the leaves 

 Dr. Griffith was able to decide 

 that it belonged to the Natural 

 Order. Safotoccac. He thought 

 that it might belong to the 

 genus Chrysophyllitm. but 

 would not pronounce on this 

 matter. Chrysophyllum, how- 

 ever — though one species has 

 been found in Malaya — is 

 chiefly an American genus. It 

 gets its name from the beauti- 

 ful golden color of the under- 

 side of its leaves, and this 

 peculiarity is shared by the 

 tree which furnishes the gutta 

 percha. The fruit of Chryso- 

 phyllum cainito is the star- 

 apple of the West Indies. 



It was not until 1846 that a 

 flowering branch was sent to 

 Kew Gardens by Mr. Thomas 

 Lobb, botanical collector for 

 the ilessrs. \'eitch, nursery- 

 men of Exeter. Sir William 

 Hooker made an examination 

 of the plant and found that the 

 corolla had fallen ofT. and while 

 he was able to confirm Dr. 

 Griffith in placing it among the 

 Sapotads, he was yet unable 

 to determine the genus. He 

 thought it might belong to 

 Bassia, an East Indian and 

 African genus, which includes 

 the butter trees of India. In 

 1847 specimens of branches 

 with flowers and fruit were re- 

 ceived by Sir William Hooker 

 from Dr. Oxley, of the Indian 

 Medical Service. 



The amateur botanist is usu- 

 ally impatient w'ith synonyms 



and often with good reason. The renamer, who spends his arid 

 existence in trying to find excuses for renaming discoveries of 

 better men, is an unmistakable nuisance and hardly a fit subject 

 for conversation in which polite restraint is necessary. But it 

 is a fact that even the greatest botanists are not infallible and 

 the name chosen by Sir William Hooker was discarded by his 

 own son at a later date. Isonandra gutta was the name under 

 which this famous tree was first made known to the world. 

 Isonandra is sonorous and rythmical, though the meaning "equal 

 stamened" is far from a distinctive trait. The genus had been 

 established by Wight in 1840 and is represented by several 

 species, along w-ith which Sir William placed the newly deter- 

 mined species. This was in spile of the fact that Isonandra 

 had its flowers in fours and the newcomer in sixes. This might 



have been regarded as merely a .specific difference if other species 

 had not been found which agreed in this and other respects 

 with the gutta percha tree, and in 1864 a generic difference was 

 established by Thwaites under the name of Dichopsis. The 

 specific name gutta was retained; and to this naming Bentham 

 and Hooker agreed. Thus the matter stood until the late Dr. 

 Burck, of the Dutch East Indian Service, called attention to 

 the fact that Padre Blanco had in 1837 given the name Palaquium 

 to indubitable specimens of the 

 Senus known as Dichopsis. By 

 every rule in the establishment 

 of nomenclature this name is 

 entitled to stand and has now 

 sained very general acceptance. 

 This discussion is necessary to 

 a correct understanding of the 

 subject and there is really no 

 excuse for the further use of 

 Isonandra or Dichopsis. The 

 (|uestion of correct nomencla- 

 ture is of extreme importance 

 tn an intelligent understanding 

 ■ 'f any subject. 



So it is Palaquium gutta, 

 Burck, which takes its place in 

 the botanical lists of all future 

 time; and it is fitting that this 

 honor should fall to one who 

 lias done so much for the 

 knowledge of gutta percha and 

 in preparing the way for its 

 ciintinued production. As to 

 the question of whether P. ob- 

 longifolium and P. borneense 

 should be recognized as species 

 or as varieties of P. gutta, it 

 must be said that in this, as in 

 all like matters, the burden of 

 proof lies with the "splitters" 

 (if species. The difTerences are 

 but slight — size of leaf, etc. — 

 and the three varieties, or 

 species if it be insisted upon, 

 furnish the only gutta percha of 

 first class quality. Everybody 

 is able to remember Palaquium 

 gutta and there is certainly a 

 call for good reasons when 

 people are asked to remember 

 three species instead of one. 

 The Order Sapotaccac is found in the tropical regions of Asia, 

 the East Indies, America and Africa. The Sapotads are related 

 to the Ebony and Storax families, but not to any order which 

 includes any caoutchouc-producing plants. All of these families 

 are represented in the United States, though by a very few 

 species. Of the Ebenaccac, one is the persimmon. The Styraceac 

 includes the tree which produces the gum benzoin or gum ben- 

 jamin, the source of the benzoic acid and benzoates of commerce. 

 Careless writers and even some botanical textbooks have called 

 Sapotads "Soapworts," being misled by a curious resemblance 

 of the words Sapota and Sapindus, the specific name Saponaria 

 (the soapberry) of one Sapindus and the fact that several species 

 of the latter possess saponaceous principles. But while Sapindus 

 is "soap of India," Sapota is from the native Mexican name 



