28 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



next five or six years it was so persistently destroyed for 

 the extraction of the milky juice that the tree was almos>t 

 exterminated, and at the present time only a few trees, that 

 are carefully pi-eserved as curiosities, exist at Singapore. 

 In 1847 it was plentiful at Penang, but a similar fate has 

 overtaken it there. 



To collect the milk the trees are cut down, and the bai-k 



Gutta-percha (Dichopsis gtittd). 



stripped off, when it flows readily, and is collected in a 

 cocoa-nut shell, the spathe of a palm, or some similarly im- 

 provised vessel, and formed into blocks or lumps of various 

 sizes and shapes, the fluid quickly coagulating on exposure 

 to the air. The average quantity obtained from one tree is 

 about twenty pounds, and as the imports into this country 

 amount to between 40,000 and 60,000 cwt. annually, an 

 enormous number of trees have to be sacrificed to supply 

 the demand. In consequence of this destruction, and fear 

 of the eutire loss of the article to commerce, attention was 



