3oS 



in the plains. Attempts to grow it in Perak or Selangor, in the bill 

 districts where it might do, do not seem to have been made. 



Ginger (Zingiber officinale), a plant of unknown origin, having 

 never been found in a wild state, was cultivated in Singapore, in 

 1850, and is still often cultivated in the Colony as also is Turmeric. 



TAN STUFFS AND DYES. 



Gambit- . — The history of the introduction of Gambir into agri- 

 culture was published in the first series of the Agricultural Bulletin 

 p. 22. The Malays formerly used Cate or Cutch, the product of the 

 Indian Acacia catechu, to chew with betel, but this became too 

 expensive, and they used to chew the leaves of a species of Uncaria t 

 possibly Gambir, with betel-nut instead (1720); this plant they called 

 Daun Gatta, because it tasted like Cate' and Gatta Gambir (the 

 latter word a perversion of Krambu scented). 



Before 1750, they discovered the way of making cakes or lozenges 

 of the extract to replace the expensive Indian Cutch. In 1758, seed 

 was obtained in Johore and later, plants, and these were taken to 

 Malacca, where plantations were formed to such an extent that the 

 price of the Gambir cakes fell to less than a quarter of their original 

 price. It was cultivated by Chinese and Malays in Penang, in 1807 

 and introduced to Singapore, in 1 8 19. In 1820, it began to be 

 exported to China and Java as a dyeing and tanning agent. 



Its cultivation was confined to the Colony and Johore, very little 

 being grown in other parts of the Peninsula, but a good deal also 

 was grown in the Dutch Islands. 



The cultivation has always been in the hands of natives, the export 

 Gambir being made almost if not quite exclusively by the Chinese. 

 The Malays cultivated it only for local consumption. Europeans 

 here hardly ever paid any attention to it, and I doubt if there has 

 ever been a really European plantation. 



I am by no means certain as to the original wild habitat of 

 Uncaria Gambir. It can often be seen long persisting in woods 

 which have grown up over abandoned cultivation, but I have never 

 seen it undoubtedly wild anywhere. RUMPHIUS gives descriptions 

 of three species of Uncaria from Amboina, Celebes and Palembang, 

 but it is doubtful whether any of these are the real plant. Its use 

 as a tan stuff was undoubtedly discovered by the Chinese. 



''Terra Japonica", an old name for Gambir, is mentioned among 

 goods sent as tribute to China in the history of the Ming Dynasty 

 (1 368-1643), but this was probably Indian Cutch. 



Divi-Divi, Caesalpinia cor iaria, the pods of which are used for 

 tanning, was introduced to the Malay Peninsula by MURTON in iS;S. 

 It was cultivated to some extent in Singapore at least till about 

 1890, but its cultivation has been abandoned as the trees did not 

 produce enough pods in proportion to the ground it took up. 



Log- wood, Hsematoxylon campeachianum y introduced at the 

 Botanic Gardens, Singapore, has never been cultivated. It is of 

 slow growth, and is not sufficiently remunerative. 



