( GUTTA-monUCING TEEES, 211 



the ripe fruit. There are six ovules, but one or two seeds only 

 arrive at maturity. 



On the apex of the young fruit, the six carpels of which it is 

 formed can be distinctly traced. The fruit is coated, like the 

 backs of the leaves, with brown down ; its flesh is soft, and it is 

 sweet, but it has a disagreeable flavour of gutta percha. 



The seeds are very oily, and they are, together with some of the 

 seeds of nearly allied species, collected by the Malays and the 

 Sakais, who dry them in the sun for some days, and then express 

 the oil by putting them between two flat pieces of wood, and apply- 

 ing pressure by clamps and wedges. 



The oil, which is solid at the ordinary temperature (that is up to 

 90°), is highly esteemed for cooking purposes. Birds, squirrels, 

 monkeys, &c, are very fond of the fruit and of the seeds, which 

 adds to the difficulty of obtaining them. 



It flowers in the month of March, and ripens its fruit in June ; 

 but the Malays assert that it only fruits once in three or four years. 



The gutta of this variety is red, and the colour is not due to an 

 admixture of bark, as is frequently stated. It is probable that 

 other varieties of gutta may be sometimes mixed with bark to 

 make them look like Taban Merah, and so command a higher price 

 than they otherwise would ; but the true Getali Taban Merah is 

 red per se, and the water in which it is cleaned, although changed 

 many times, still becomes deeply dyed with that colour. Specimens 

 of this, in fruit, together with wood, bark, and gutta, I sent to the 

 Royal Gi-ardens at Kew, Calcutta, and Ceylon, on May 30th, 1883. 



Method of collecting the Getali Taban Merah. 



A tree having been found, a staging of saplings, tied together 

 with roots or rattans, is erected round it, so that it can be cut above 

 the spreading buttresses. The tree is then felled with a little 

 Malay axe called a " beliong" and as it lies on the ground, \/ 

 shaped rings, about one inch broad, are cut in the bark, at intervals 

 of 15 to 18 inches, all along the whole length of the trunk, and of 

 the large branches, with a heavy chopping knife, called a "parang" 

 These cuts soon become filled with the white cream-like sap, and 



