186 GAMBIR. 



displaying in the interior, on being fractured, a 

 light-yellowish brown.* 



From my own observation, as well as from the 

 assertions of all the Chinese manufacturers of 

 this extract, whose boiling-houses were visited, 

 no sago was used in the preparation, although it 

 has been asserted by many writers, that the sago 

 is required to give consistence to the extract ; 

 but a good extract ought certainly to have suffi- 

 cient density in itself without the addition of any 

 other substance. t 



The flavour of the extract is very pleasant, hav- 

 ing at first the agreeable sweetish taste of the 

 liquorice-root, and afterwards a not unpleasant 

 astringent bitter flavour. The largest quantity of 

 this extract is consumed in Java ; being used by 

 the Javanese in coarse dyes, as well as a masti- 

 catory. The Dutch government encourage, to a 



* As, on a former occasion, I had some doubt whether the 

 shrub was monoecious or dioecious, I took another oppor- 

 tunity of making my examinations ; the result of which was, 

 that although a great many of the shrubs had male and female 

 flowers on separate trees, yet a few had both male and female 

 on the same tree. 



f One Chinese proprietor of a Gambir manufactory said, 

 he could make half a pecul of the extract daily. The baskets 

 for packing the Gambir when ready for sale, are made from 

 a common kind of rattan, found in the jungle. 



