[184] Rochon’s “Voyage a Madagascar et aux Indes Orientales.” Paris, 1791, p. 319.
Amongst the native names of trees in the Indian or Malay Archipelago which are to be found in an altered form in the islands of Bougainville Straits, I may refer to _Kanari_, which is the common appellation of “Canarium commune,” in the former region.[185] The kernels of the fruits of this tree furnish a frequent source of food to the Malay races and also to the inhabitants of the Maclay coast of New Guinea, where the tree is known by the similar name of _Kengar_.[186] In the islands of Bougainville Straits, where the same or an allied species of “Canarium” is found, the fruits of which form a staple article of food, the Malay name of _Kanari_ and the New Guinea name of _Kengar_ have been contracted to _Ka-i_. . . . The sago-palm (“Sagus,” sp.) affords another instance. It is, according to Crawfurd, the _Râmbiya_ of the Indian Archipelago.[187] Earl informs us that in Kisa, one of the islands of the Sarawati group in the Banda Sea, it is known as the _Pihir_.[188] On the Maclay coast of New Guinea it is the _Buam_.[189] In Bougainville Straits it receives two names, _Bia_ and _Nami_, the former (I think) being applied to the tree and the latter to the sago. . . . Then again, the two similar names, the _Katari_ of Bougainville Straits and the _Gutur_ of the Maclay coast,[190] are applied in both regions to resin-yielding trees which belong, however, to different genera, the _Katari_ being a species of “Calophyllum,” and the _Gutur_ a species of “Canarium.” In both localities the name is also given to the resin itself, which is employed by the natives for various purposes. But the important point is that these two words are merely slightly altered forms of _Gâtah_, which is the general name for gums and resins in the Indian Archipelago;[191] and I need scarcely add that gutta-percha is but the _gâtah_ of the _Pârcha_ tree, the familiar “Isonandra gutta” of this region.[192] . . . . Some of the names of trees in Bougainville Straits I have been unable to trace further westward than New Guinea. Thus, the breadfruit-tree (“Artocarpus incisa”) is the _Balia_ of Bougainville Straits and the _Boli_ of the Maclay coast of New Guinea.[193]