On the Climate, Productions, fyc. of Singapore. 157 



Terra Japonica, in the books, and is also sometimes confounded 

 with kino. Some of the books speak of kino and gambir as the 

 product of the Nauclea gambir, which is doubtless one of the 

 plants above alluded to. This article is used very extensively 

 throughout India, and the Malay islands, as an ingredient in the 

 masticatory or quid, in which the natives of all ranks indulge. 

 This masticatory consists of gambir, betel-nut, tobacco, shell- 

 lime and siri leaf, a green, pungent leaf in which the other ingre- 

 dients are wrapped. Gambir has latterly become a considerable 

 article of export to England, where it is used extensively for tan- 

 ning purposes, on account of the large quantity of tannin which 

 it contains. One pound of gambir is said to be equivalent, for 

 tanning leather, to seven or eight pounds of oak bark. It is usu- 

 ally sold in Singapore at $2 50 to $2 75 per picul of one hundred 

 and thirty three pounds. 



Siri (Piper betel) is cultivated in gardens in the same way 

 with pepper. It is a vine, belonging to the pepper family and 

 resembling the Piper nigrum. It is cultivated altogether for the 

 use of the natives. The leaf is the part principally used, although 

 the fruit, somewhat resembling the spike or ear on which the pep- 

 per grows, is sometimes chewed by the natives, as a part of their 



quid. 



Vegetables. — Of such as are found in the United States, the 

 following are to be found in the Singapore market every day. 

 Radishes, lettuce, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, egg-plants, 

 (Solanum melongena, L.) sweet potatoes, onions, celery, string 

 beans. Watermelons and musk-melons are also frequently to be 

 had, but of a very inferior quality. 



The chief native laborers by whom these articles are raised, 

 are the Chinese. There are a large number of emigrants from 

 China, arriving every year. The government encourage their 

 going into the jungle as it is termed, and "squatting," and they 

 will not allow them to be ousted without an equivalent for any 

 improvements or clearings they may have made. As they pay 

 no rent, and as there is plenty of excellent land to be found, and 

 as they find ready sale for whatever thay can raise, they gener- 

 ally do well, especially as they are proverbially industrious. 



Allegheny City, Pa., March 10, 1842. 



