140 INTRODUCTION OF GUTTA PERCHA INTO ENGLAND. 
present sufficiently plentiful, yet the substance, I fear, will 
become soon more difficult to be procured, from the destruc- 
tive mode pursued by the natives in obtaining it. 
A magnificent tree of fifty, or more probably 100 years' 
growth, is cut down, the bark stripped off, and the milky 
juice collected and poured into a trough formed by the hol- 
low stem of the plantain leaf ; it quickly coagulates on expo- 
sure to the air; but from one tree, I was told that not more 
than 20 lbs. or 30 lbs. are procured. 
I believe, however, that the j nice may be obtained by 
tapping the tree, and that it might thus be made to produce 
in moderate quantities for many years ; but this mode is too 
slow for the natives. Besides, although the first discoverer 
of a tree might be inclined to do so, the next who found it. 
would, probably, cut it down, their being no property in 
the trees of the forest, excepting where grants of land have 
been given. 
Allow me, now, to correct an erroneous mode of pro- 
nouncing the name, which I have observed used by many 
gentlemen with whom I have conversed on the subject. The 
word is a pure Malayan one, gutia, meaning the gum or 
concrete juice of a plant, and percha, the particular tree 
from which this is procured. The ch is not pronounced 
hard like a k, but like the ch in the English name of the 
fish perch. Had I thought there was a probability of the 
name being mispronounced, I might have used the uncouth 
orthography, per/sha, but it would have run the risk of 
being taken for a Russian or Polish name. Some of your 
readers may think I place too much value in a name ; but 
in these days, when public attention is beginning to be at- 
tracted to the affairs of the " farther east," and the spirit of 
enterprise is leading many of our countrymen to explore 
those interesting regions, if one of them were to inquire of 
a Malay for gutta jr?er&a, he would be told the thing was 
unknown, when perhaps plenty of the gutia percha might 
be procurable by pronouncing the name properly. 
