560 
DESTRUCTION  OF  GUTTA  PERCHA  TREES. 
them  a  good  quantity  of  sap  easily  runs,  and  it  might  be  repeat- 
ed again  after  giving  the  trees  a  reasonable  time  to  recover. 
Natives  will  never  consider  any  future  advantage,  their  great 
object  being  to  get  the  largest  quantity  at  a  time.  Their  argu- 
ment, too,  that  unless  the  trees  were  private  property,  and  could 
be  looked  after,  it  would  be  impossible  to  protect  them  from 
one's  neighbors,  is  very  true ;  and  this  would  be  quite  out  of 
the  question  in  the  extensive  forests  where  the  gutta  trees  are 
found.  At  some  future  period,  I  have  no  doubt  the  gutta 
percha  tree  will  be  quite  extirpated  in  all  the  countries  about 
Singapore,  Being  always  cut  before  it  has  a  chance  of  seeding, 
it  cannot  continue  to  exist  unless  the  price  rises  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  make  it  worth  while  planting  the  tree  on  private  pro- 
perty. 
» It  is  to  be  found  (the  identical  species  ?)  over  nearly  the  whole 
Archipelago  that  is  inhabited  by  the  Malay  race,  but  as  far  as 
I  know  does  not  extend  further  to  the  east.  True  gutta  percha 
is  called  gutta  tahban ;  most  of  the  other  guttas  are  varities  of 
caoutchouc.  Neither  the  Malays  nor  the  Ohinese  make  much 
use  of  gutta  percha,  as  far  as  I  have  seen.  Knife-handles  and 
small  buckets  seem  to  be  the  principal  uses  they  put  it  to  ;  it  is 
sometimes  made  into  bands  for  tying  things  with  also,  but  I 
have  not  often  seen  it  used  in  this  way. 
"  The  quantity  of  gutta  percha  exported  from  Singapore  in 
1855  was  about  1900  tons,  but  this  year  it  will  be  much  short  of 
that  amount,  probably  not  over  1500  tons.  Its  present  price  is 
22  dollars  per  picul  (133 J  lbs.)  for  good  quality. 
"  P.  S.  The  principal  other  vegetable  substances  exported  from 
here  are  gambier,  camphor,  sago,  pepper,  coffee,  sugar,  sapan- 
wood,  mangrove-bark,  nutmegs  and  mace,  rattans,  canes,  cubebs, 
gum  benjamin,  dragon's-blood,  gamboge,  vegetable  tallow,  vege- 
table wax,  gum  copal,  cloves,  tapioca,  arrowroot,  rice,  cassia, 
gum  elastic,  sea-weed,  sandal-wood,  galangals,  rhubarb,  cutch, 
ginger,  teel-seed,  ebony,  cocoa-nut  oil,  wood  oils,  betel-nut,  car- 
damoms, China-root,  timber,  besides  others  which  escape  my 
memory  at  present." — London  Pharm.  Journal,  1857. 
