THE NATIVE RUBBERS OF THE MALAY 
PENINSULA. 
There are upwards of a hundred different plants belonging to 
several orders which have been recorded as producing rubber. 
Many of these, however, are really but little known commercial- 
ly, and a considerable number have been practically condemned 
as commercially of no value, either from the inferiority of the 
product or from the small quantity produced. 
This verdict will probably be reversed in some cases when we 
are more familiar with the best methods of extracting rubber, and 
of treating it. Hitherto rubber has been derived almost ex- 
clusively from the wild plants, lately it has come under the hands 
of the planter, and though, as a rule in cultivation of any product, 
one plant is found to be commercially the most suitable to culti- 
vate in most places, still there are localities and conditions in 
which other plants may be preferable, or of value as accessory. 
Although many works have been Written lately upon the va- 
rious kinds of rubbers commonly known, I observe that little or 
nothing has been recorded as to our local rubber vines and rubber 
trees, and there is much confusion about them. T he wild rubber 
plants of the peninsula belong to the orders of Urticacece and Apo- 
cynacece . Of the former we have several species of Ficus, of 
which besides the well-known Getah Rambong, Ficus elashca , 
we have in our forests also Ficus annulata Bl. F. altissima Bl. 
and F . obtusi folia Roxb., all stated to produce rubber, but I have 
failed to get any from the first two. There are also the Artocarfti , 
A. integri folia, the Jack, and A. Kunstleri King, Getah Terap. 
These latter undoubtedly contain a caoutchouc, but it does not 
set sufficiently well, by ordinary methods of treatment to be 
commercially valuable. It remains sticky and m some cases 
semi-liquid, and is chiefly used by the Malays as bird-lime for 
which it is very well adapted. 
The order Apocynaceae supplies the Rubber vines and the Rub- 
ber trees Dyera and Alstonia. 
The rubber vines as rubber producers seem to have been very 
much confused, owing perhaps to the Malays using the same 
name for several distinct species, and also in some cases from 
writers guessing at the plants which produced a special rubber. 
The market names too are very much confused ; such names, for 
instance, as Borneo rubber or Java rubber, have been very loose- 
ly used and the name Gutta Slisu has been applied to Willugh- 
beias and Urceolas impartially. The words Getah Griper Gut, 
Gegrip, Gegrit and in Borneo Singarip, are applied to almost any 
rubber vine whether a Willughbeia, Urccola or Par amen i, and 
may be taken as simply meaning rubber vine as opposed to a ^ lib- 
ber tree. Serapit is another word applied to very vaiious 
