in the plains. Attempts to grow it in Perak or Se :;or s in the hill 
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. 
Gambir. — The history of the introduction of Gambir into agri- 
culture was published in the first series of th z 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 , 
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 1819. 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 1 p 1 ver abandoned cultivation, but I have never 
seen it undoubtedly wi.d 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 
(1368-1643), but this was probably Indian Cutch. 
Divi-Divi, Caesalpinia coriaria , the pods of which are used for 
tanning, was introduced to the Malay Peninsula by MuRTON in 1878. 
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, Heematoxylon campeachianum , introduced at the 
Botanic Gardens, Singapore, has never been cultivated. It is of 
slow growth, and is not sufficiently remunerative» 
