NOTES ON GUTTA PERCHA 



AND ■ CAOUTCHOUC- YIELDING TEEES 

 BY Ms. F. W. BUSBIDGE. 



Communicated with Remarks by Mr. W. H. Treacher, 



Colonial Secretary of Labuan. 



(Read at a meeting of the Society held on the 9ih June, 1879.) 



Notwithstanding the light which has been lately thrown 

 on the subject of Gntta and Rubber-producing trees by the 

 labours of professed botanists and others in the Straits 

 Settlements;, I venture to think that this most important 

 subject, which has long been wrapped in such extreme con- 

 fusion * may still be advantageously discussed, and nowhere 

 with more advantage than in the pages of this Journal. 

 Its importance may be gathered from the following extract 

 from Sir J. D. Hooker's "Report of Kew Gardens," 1877 : — ■ 



" Gutta-Percha. — Liberally nothing is known as to the 

 botanical history of the commercial varieties of Gutta- 

 Percha. Several kinds of different qualities and even exhi- 

 biting different properties are imported into England and 

 are in immense request, especially in telegraph cable manu- 

 factories, but neither the plants which produce them nor 

 the localities in which, they are produced are approximately 

 known. I attach great importance to the prompt investiga- 

 tion of Gutta-Percha-yielding plants. There is reason to 

 believe that they are very local and restricted in their geo- 

 graphical occurrence. The collection of products of this kind 

 for commercial purposes is shown by experience to lead 

 inevitably to the destruction of the trees producing them, 

 since these are recklessly destined and never replaced. 

 It is not merely, therefore, a matter of scientific interest to 



* Extract from a letter from Professor W. T. Tiiiselton Dyer— Otli Au- 

 gust, 1878. 



