THE GOMUTI PALM. 



249 



not always put to such a requisition by the natives ; others will pro- 

 duce only one or two female spadices, and the rest male, from each of 

 which the quantity of juice extracted is the same as that obtained 

 from the cocoanut spadices. A single tree will yield in one day 

 sufficient juice for the manufacture of five bundles of jaggery, valued 

 at two cents each. The number of mayams shooting out at any 

 one time may be averaged at two, although three is not an uncommon 

 case. When other occupation or sickness prevents the owner from 

 manufacturing jaggery, the juice is put into a jar, where in a few 

 days it is converted into excellent vinegar, equal in strength to that 

 produced by the vinous fermentation of Europe. Each mayara 

 will yield toddy for at least three months, often for five, and fresh 

 mayams make their appearance before the old ones are exhausted ; 

 in this way a tree is kept in a state of productiveness for a number 

 of years, the first mayam opening at the top of the stem, the next 

 lower down, and so on, until at last it yields one at the bottom of the 

 trunk, with which the tree terminates its existence. 



Dr. J„ E. de Vry states, that although the natives in Java" extract it 

 by a very rude and entirely primitive^mode, this palm contains a great 

 proportion of cane sugar. He thus describes the process, which 

 differs little from that pursued for obtaining sap and sugar from 

 other palms. 



" As soon as the palm begins to blossom, they cut off the part of the 

 stem that bears the flower ; there flows from the cut a sap containing 

 sugar, which they collect in tubes made of bamboo cane, previously 

 exposed to smoke, in order to prevent the fermentation of the juice, 

 which, without this precaution, would take place very quickly under 

 the double influence of the heat of the climate and the presence of 

 a nitrogenous matter. 



" The juice thus obtained is immediately poured into shallow iron 

 basins, heated by fire, and is thickened by evaporation, till a drop 

 falling on a cold surface solidifies ; this degree of concentration at- 

 tained, the contents of the kettle are put in forms or great prismatic 

 lozenges. Several thousand pounds of sugar are thus obtained yearly. 

 I have collected some of the sap in a clean glass bottle, and I found that 

 the unaltered juice does not contain any glucose, but a nitrogenous 

 matter, which, by the heat of the climate, quickly converts a part of 

 the cane sugar into glucose. In order to prove, without employing any 

 artificial means, that the juice exuding from the tree contains pure 

 cane sugar, I collected a sample directly in alcohol ; the nitrogenous 

 principle is thus eliminated by coagulation ; a mixture of equal parts 

 of juice and alcohol has been, after filtration, evaporated on the sand- 

 bath to the consistence of syrup. I brought this syrup with me on 

 returning from Java ; and during the voyage it became solid, pre- 

 senting very fine and well-defined crystals of cane sugar, imme- 

 diately recognized as such by all the experts. At the Congress of 

 Giessen, I spoke of the preparation of sugar from palms as the only 

 rational mode of obtaining sugar in the future, basing my opinion on 

 the following grounds: Sugar, by itself, being only composed, in a 

 state of purity, of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, does not take 

 anything from the soil; but the plants now mainly cultivated for 



