GUTTA CULTIVATION. 45 



a very valuable report to Sir Hugh Low, k.c.m.g., Resident in that State, 

 upon the gutta percha yielding trees indigenous to it. 



In this report he set out grounds for believing that no less than thirty 

 times the amount of gutta percha actually extracted by the process 

 of felling remained in the tree, and was thereby wasted. 



Struck with this fact he was anxioiis to ascertain if any part of 

 this enormous residue could be extracted from the dried bark after 

 removal from the tree. 



As will be seen from the accompanying correspondence, four baiTcls 

 of bark of one of the species wei'e despatched to Kew for the purpose 

 of obtaining a report upon the question. 



The India Rubber, Gutta Percha & Telegraph Works Company, 

 Limited, as in so many other cases, obligingly assisted this establishment 

 in the matter. 



I regret to say that after a very careful study of the question they 

 find that though a large proportion of the gutta percha is undoubtedly 

 recoverable, it is so intermixed with a brittle I'esin that the resulting 

 product is commercially valueless. 



Unfortunate as is this result it by no means diminishes the credit 

 due to Mr. Wray for his thoughtful suggestion. 



As the question involved is one of the greatest interest, I venture to 

 hope that you Avill think it advisable to communicate copies of the 

 correspondence to the Government of the Straits Settlements, by whom 

 they will, no doubt, in turn, be transmitted to Sir Hugh Low. 



I am, etc., 



(Signed) W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. 

 The Hon. R. H. Meade, c.b.. 



Colonial Office, Downing Street, S.W. 



On receipt of this adverse report in 1886, I procured a 

 supply of bisulphide of carbon and tried extractioxi experiments 

 with it on comparatively speakinsr fresh dried material, obtain- 

 ing, as I anticipated from my previous experiments with other 

 solvents, a gum in every respect similar to that yielded by 

 the same kind of tree by the ordinary method of extraction. 

 Being precluded by my position from having any interest, 

 beyond a scientific one, in the success of the process nothing 

 further was done in the matter until 1887, when Monsieur 

 Eugene Serullas came to Perak to see me on the subject. I 

 then explained the whole question to him, shewed the series of 

 exhibits in the Museum exemplifying the processes of extraction, 

 gave him my report on the subject, a complete set of botanical 

 specimens of the different trees yielding gutta percha, and 

 accompanied him in the jungle to point them out to him and to 

 collect young gutta plants. The next phase of the subject is 

 best given in the following official correspondence. 



