Ill 



I 



to Payena. Previous to this, in 1878, Dr. Dennys, Assistant 

 Curator of the Raffles Museum, Singapore, had reported that 

 * Gutta Sundek ' was a somewhat inferior variety of gutta percha 

 to that yielded by 'Gutta Taban ' (Palaquium Gutta). The 

 information of 1881 was supplemented in 1881 by the following 

 extract from notes by Mr. Wray, published in the "Tropical 

 Agriculturist" for October, 1881, p. 289 : 



" This species grows in swampy places near the coast, and I 

 found one tree with its root in a small creek, the water of which 

 was quite salt, and only a short distance from the regular 

 mangrove trees fringing the stream. The leaves are small, shiny, 

 and have a reddish tint when young. The bark is about 

 three-eighths of an inch thick and dark brown in colour, 

 moderately rough. 



" The flowers are white, and the fruit is sweet and eaten by the 

 Malays. Its gutta is like 4 Taban Sutra • in appearance, and is 

 collected by scoring the bark, catching the sap and boiling it until 

 it coagulates. A tree measuring 2 feet and 8 inches in circum- 

 ference at 3 feet from the ground, and 38£ feet to the first branch. 



that I had felled gave 6\ oz. of gutta. 



In the Malay Archipelago Payena Leer it appears to be a much 



more important source of gutta percha than had been suspected. 

 From the important "Observations on Gutta Percha" by Dr. Bnrck. 

 translated in the " Tropical Agriculturist," it appears to be not 

 uncommon in Southern Sumatra. 



In the Palembang district it is known as ' Balam Tandock,' 

 4 Balam Tjabe,' < Balam Sonte,' ' Balam Troeng/ According to 

 Dr. Burck, M. Van Leer, Health Officer of the 1st Class, from 

 whom Messrs. Teysmann and Binnendyk obtained their speci- 

 mens, remarks that the ■ Pohon Balam ■ is a tree frequent on high 

 lands, attaining to a great age and exceptionally large girth. Bees 

 form nests on it, and on this account the tree is planted and culti- 

 vated more for its wax than for gutta percha. The natives only 

 fell them for the gutta percha when they think them too old to be 

 useful for wax production. The method of collecting the gutta 

 consists "in cutting the tree down, cutting off the crown and 

 making a number of incisions in the trunk and principal 

 branches." 



i> 



In the district of Soepajang the gutta is called * Balam Pipis.' 

 Dr. Burck states that the tree grows above elevations of 2,000 ft. 

 in humus soil in thick woods and needs shadow and moist ground. 

 The fruits are pear-shaped, green and hard. 



Koelan.' 



making 



known 

 gutta, tl 



and for buckets, whilst the wood serves for household furniture 

 and oars of prahus." 



W 



known 



M 



botaniques de la Gutta Percha," Paris, 1881, mentions that the 



tree is called ' Balam 



27805 



A 2 



