ains, which is cut into large masses; these
are further divided by a knife into small cubes, about an inch square,
or into still smaller pieces, which are laid in frames to dry. This
catechu has more of a granular, uniform appearance than that of
Bengal; it is, perhaps, also less pure."

The younger leaves of the shrub are said to produce the whitest and
best gambier; the older, a brown and inferior sort. There are other
species of _Nauclea_ indigenous to Singapore, but they do not produce
any extract.

Dr. Bennett has particularised four qualities of gambier:--

1. Small round cakes, about the size of a small lozenge. Color pale,
purplish, yellowish, white.

2. Cubes, in which shape it is principally imported into England, and
square prisms, or oblong pieces.

3. Circular discs, or short cylindrical pieces.

4. Cubical amylaceous pieces, of a darker brown than the other kinds.

Gambier is one of the most powerful of the pure astringents.

The chief places of manufacture are Saik, Malacca, Singapore, and Rhio
or Bintang. Bennett, in his "Wanderings," says there are 60,000
plantations of gambier on this island. After that of Rhio, the next
best gambier is that of Lingin. That used by the Malays, with the
leaves of betel, in the same manner as cutch in other parts of India,
is the finest and whitest; the red being stronger tasted and rank, is
exported to Batavia, China, and England, for the purposes of tanning
and dyeing. It is frequently adulterated with sago powder, but it may
be detected by solution in water.

Large quantities of gambier are imported, under the corrupted name of
cutch, into Calcutta, from Pegu. The quantity of gambier produced in
Rhio, by the Chinese settlers, amounts to about 4,600 tons a year,
about 2,000 of which are exported for the consumption of Java, the
rest being sent to Cochin-China and other neighbouring countries.

Two methods of obtaining gambier are described. One consists in
boiling the leaves in water, and in inspissating the decoction; the
other, which yields the best gambier, consists in infusing the leaves
in warm water, by which a fecula is obtained, which is inspissated by
the heat of the sun, and formed into cakes.

The injudicious practice adopted by the Land Office in Singapore, of
granting indiscriminate licenses, or "cutting papers" as they are
formed, seems open to objection, and is driving many of the Chinese
cultivators to the neighbouring island of Johore, whe