218 GUTTA-PRODUCING TREES. 



The word " Kayu" means wood, but it is at times used by Ma- 

 lays instead of " Poknk " a tree, where they consider that it sounds 

 better. 



This tree is one of the loftiest to be found in the jungle ; and has 

 blackish-grey bark (white inside) which yields great quantities of 

 white sap when cut into. It bears large bean-like pods, in pairs. . 



Its leaves are green above, and bluish-white beneath, and 

 arrange:! in whorls at intervals, with seven leaves in each. The 

 wood is white and very soft, and is largely used by the Chinese for 

 making coffins, for which purpose it it well adapted, as it is light, 

 and decays very rapidly when exposed to moisture. 



On the great loss oe Gutta, resulting erom the wasteful 

 mode oe extraction employed by the malays. 



Whilst engaged in collecting specimens and information respect- 

 ing the gutta-producing trees of Perak, I was greatly struck by the 

 exceedingly small amount yielded by even large trees, by the pre- 

 sent Malay method of ringing tlie bark ; which led me to an exami- 

 nation of the dried bark, with a view to ascertain, by a series of 

 careful experiments, what proportion of the whole amount of gutta 

 contained in a tree was actually left in the bark after the usual 

 process of extracting it had been performed. 



With this object, I had, on the 24th of May, 1883, a tree of 

 Getah Taban Simpor felled, and scores cut in the bark, at distances 

 of fifteen inches along the whole length of the trunk ; and obtained 

 12 oz. of gutta. Some two or three days after, I had some of the 

 bark removed, and on the 29th, I cut some of it up into thin slices, 

 across the grain, and boiled them in water for a short time when I 

 found that gutta had been expelled, and remained as a slight and 

 irregular coating on the chips. This I picked off, and weighing it, 

 I found the yield to be 3| per cent, of the weight of the wet bark 

 operated on. 



Encouraged by this simple and satisfactory experiment, I next 

 had a weighed sample of bark pounded in a mortar, and then trans- 

 ferred it to a glass vessel, and boiled it in water. 



In a few minutes, the gutta formed itself into small detached 



