BAY— -GUTTA PEECEA. 
61 
water For some time, when the greater part of the coloring 
matter will be removed, and the Gutta Percha itself on 
being submitted to pressure will become more imper- 
vious to water than before. In its chemical properties 
Batata resembles both Gutta Percha and Caoutchouc. 
It is dissolved by the same substances in which they 
dissolve. On treatment with sulphur it yields a splendid 
variety of ebonite. Its chemical properties and some 
chemical processes for its purification I propose to bring 
before the Association at a future meeting. The Balata 
tree yields its juice most abundantly during the wet sea- 
son in Trinidad, and during the months of April, May and 
June one may tap hundreds of trees and obtain no juice 
at all. If however the trees, as they rarely do, grow in a 
swamp, the tapping may be continued throughout the 
year. The best time to tap the trees is during the fall 
of the moon, the quantity obtained from each tree gradu- 
ally decreasing, and after the new moon it is almost useless 
to tap the trees. It is a curious fact that an old tree and 
especially a hollow one, yields, in proportion to its size, 
far more juice than a young tree. The process of tapping 
the tree while standing removes sucli a very small pro- 
portion of its sap that it does not materially affect the 
growth, more especially as old trees are almost invariably 
chosen for tapping. A tree having been tapped will be 
found in the course of a few months to have formed a new* 
bark which completely fills up the incisions made in tap- 
ping. 
The production of Gutta Percha from the Balata in 
Trinidad cannot fail in my opinion shortly to become an 
important branch of industry in the Colony. The de- 
mand for the substance in Europe and America is almost un- 
