ch. iv.] Gutta aud Caoutchouc. 75 



the collectors, would refuse the pure article in favour of 

 that adulterated with bark, and to which its red colour 

 is mainly due. 



Caoutchouc or rubber is in the N.W. districts of 

 Borneo the produce of three species of climbing plants, 

 known to the natives as "Manoongan," "Manoongan 

 putih," and "Manoongan manga." Their stems are fifty 

 to one hundred feet in length, and rarely more than six 

 inches in diameter, the bark corrugated, and of a grey 

 or reddish-brown colour ; leaves oblong, and of a glossy 

 green colour ; the flowers are borne in axillary clusters, 

 and are succeeded by yellow fruits, the size of an orange, 

 and containing seeds as large as beans, each enclosed in 

 a section of apricot-coloured fruit. These fruits are of a 

 delicious flavour, and are highly valued by the natives. 

 Here, again, the stems are cut down to facilitate the 

 collection of the creamy sap, which is afterwards coagu- 

 lated into rough balls by the addition of nipa salt. 



It is most deplorable to see the fallen gutta trees lying 

 about in all directions in the forest, and the rubber-yield- 

 ing willughbeias are also gradually, but none the less 

 surely, being exterminated by the collectors here in 

 Borneo, as, indeed, throughout the other islands and 

 on the Peninsula, where they also abound. 



It was formerly thought that gutta was the produce of 

 one particular species of tree — Isonandra gutta — but that 

 from the Lawas district is formed of the mixed sap of at 

 least five species, the juice of ficus and one or two species 

 of artocarpeas being not unfrequently used in addition as 

 adulterants. The Bornean " gutta soosoo," or rubber, 

 again, is the mixed sap of three species of willughbeias, 

 and here, again, the milk of two or three other plants is 

 added surreptitiously to augment the quantit} r collected. 

 The gutta trees are a long time in attaining to maturity, 



