BALATA, a valuable raw material, resembling gutta-percha and used as a substitute for it, derived from the latex of the bullet tree (Mimusops balata) a near relative of the gutta-percha tree. The bullet tree is native in the West Indies and South America and is abundant in Guiana. It is really an inferior gutta-percha, the latex containing about 5o% of that substance. It is used in machine-belting. (See GUTTA-PERCHA.)