Balata and the Balata Industry. 169 
zuela and French Guiana.* It belongs to the order 
Sapotacece, to which Dichopsis gutta and several other 
gutta-percha trees of the Malayan Archipelago, which 
are the principal sources of the present market supply of 
gutta, belong. It reaches at maturity a height of 120 
feet with, usually, a large spreading head, and a trunk 
60 to 70 feet long and 4 to 5 feet in diameter. The 
trunk is nearly cylindrical, and as it does not buttress 
much at the base, almost the same size from a few feet 
above the ground up to the first branches. The leaves 
are clustered toward the ends of the branchlets. They 
are 4 to 8 in. long, by 2 to 3 in. wide, ovate-oblong in 
shape, and rounded or apiculate at the end, very leathery 
in texture, dark green above, but, from the presence of 
a very fine lepidote coating, a bright rusty tint beneath 
while young. The flowers spring from among the leaves, 
are very small but profusely produced, and the fruit is 
about the size of a marble, resembling in taste and 
character the fruit of the sapodilla or naseberry tree, 
which belongs to the same natural order. The bark is 
half an inch thick or more, with deep parallel fissures on 
the outside an inch or so apart, running longitudinally 
with chara6teristic uniformity. 
If a piece of partly dry bark be examined it presents 
(without going into the details of structure) three primary 
layers. The outer suberous layer is dark brown, hard 
and dry ; the next, which is usually much thicker, is 
rather spongy in tissue and lactiferous, and of a reddish 
raw-beef colour ; the inner one thin, more ligneous, a 
* Young plants of " M. globosa" of Jamaica and Trinidad growing in 
these gardens, seem to be distinct from the Guiana type. The Trinidad 
tree is said by Professor Dey to bear a large fruit. 
X 
