346 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



tubers are the most palatable and yield 6 or 7 per cent, of starch. 

 From the stems a tough fibre is obtained. The plant proved hardy 

 at Sydney \ it requires rich soil. 



Pachyrrhizus tuberosus, Sprengel. (Dolichos tuberosus, Lamarck.) 



The Yam-bean or Ahipa of Venezuela and other parts of South- 

 America up to elevated country. Climbing to a height of 20 feet. 

 Pods much larger than those of P. angulatus, in a young state 

 serving like French beans, when boiled tender and sweetish, but 

 deleterious when raw [Trimen, Dyer]. They are free from fibrous 

 strings at the hedge. Seeds variable in colour. The tubers of three 

 plants may fill a bushel-basket [Macfadyen] ; they mature within 

 some few months. These edible tubers may attain a weight of 

 60 Ibs. [Naudin]. 



Palaquiuni Ghltta, Baillon and Burck.* (Dichopsis Gutta, Bentham ; Iso- 

 nandra Gutta, Hooker.) 



The " Gutta-Percha " or the " Gutta-Taban " Tree. Malayan 

 Peninsula and Sunda-Islands. Attains a height of 150 feet. It 

 seems not altogether hopeless to render this highly important tree 

 a denizen of the mildest wood-regions in temperate climes, Murton 

 having traced it to elevations of 3,500 feet. Indeed, the plant will 

 live in the clime of Port Phillip without protection. The milky sap, 

 obtained by ringing the bark at 5 to 15 inches interstices, is heated 

 for an hour before gradual exsiccation, otherwise its product becomes 

 brittle ; 5 to 20 catties yielded by one tree. Genuine Gutta-percha 

 is only got from plants of the sapotaceous order, as far as hitherto 

 known. Besides Palaquium Gutta, which yields the best red Gutta- 

 percha of Borneo, but is slow of growth and does not produce much 

 till it has attained an age of 30 years, the following are actually 

 drawn into use for obtaining this gum-resin : Imbricaria coriacea, A. 

 de Candolle ; Mimusops Elengi, L.; M. Manilkara, G. Don ; Sider- 

 oxylon attenuatum, D. C., Illippe (Bassia) sericea, Blume ; Payenia 

 macrophylla, P. Leeri (which affords the Sundek-Gutta in brackish 

 coast-lands, as shown by Trimen) and Dichopsis Maingayi, Cl.; 

 Palaquium obovatum, P. polyanthemum, P. Krantzianum, Burck ; 

 Cocosmanthus macrophyllus, Hassk., all from tropical Asia ; 

 Chrysophyllum Africanum, A. de Candolle, from tropical Africa ; 

 Achras sapota, L., Mimusops globosa, Gaertner, from Central 

 America ; but many of these at often cool elevations. Possibly 

 other sapotaceous trees, including some Australian, could be worked 

 for Gutta-percha. For the search of new kinds of Gutta-Percha- 

 trees in unexplored regions practical experts, conversant with the 

 gathering and preparing the sap, should be specially engaged. The 

 Gutta-Percha-trees require more than any other plant at the present 

 day to be reared for the world's supply of a most important industrial 

 article, for which there is no substitute. Of this article 62,000 cwt. 

 were introduced into Great Britain in 1884, valued at 462,000, in 



