GUTTA-PERCHA. 255 



models of animals, balls, etc. Sheet India-rubber is in flat 

 pieces about a foot broad, two feet long, and about half an 

 inch in thickness ; these pieces are folded lengthwise like 

 sheets of paper : it fetches a high price, and is esteemed 

 the most valuable. And Pipe India-rubber, in tubes a foot 

 long, and one inch and a half in diameter. 



The property possessed by cabutchouc of dissolving in 

 coal naphtha, renders it extremely valuable in the arts, and 

 its applications have become extremely numerous. The 

 quantity annually imported is less than would be supposed 

 from the extent to which it is used; only between 500 and 

 600 tons were imported in 1852. 



Gutta-Percha (Plate XVIII. fig. 96) in some of its 

 characters strongly resembles caoutchouc ; it is the produce 

 of Isonandra Gutta, Hooker, (Plate XYIII. fig. 95.) 



The Gutta-percha tree is found growing in Singapore, 

 Borneo, and other Malay Islands, where it is one of the 

 largest timber-trees; its light spongy wood is however of 

 little value. The leaves are alternate on the branches, 

 somewhat leathery in texture, entire in their outline, and 

 obovate in form ; they are green above, and a shining orange 

 colour beneath, and are attached by long petioles. The 

 flowers are produced in little tuits from the axils of the 



