160 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM U. 8. NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
As early as 1901 Dr. J. Huber, at present director of the Museu 
Goeldi at Para, called attention to several rubber-yielding species of 
Sapium from the Amazon basin.“ His paper was apparently ignored 
by Professor Jumelle, who nevertheless gives in his book? an excel- 
lent account of the Brazilian rubber-yielding fapuriv, or murupita, 
which he also places, although with doubt, in the genus Sapium. 
According to this author, much of the borracha, fina and entrefina, 
coming into market through Manaos, and heretofore considered a 
product of several species of Hevea, actually proceeds from the 
tapurit, or murupita, tree. 
Further investigations of Doctor Huber’ confirmed Professor Ju- 
melle’s inferences and contributed several important additions to the 
facts already known. At about the same time Dr. Ernst Ule? 
increased by two the number of the Brazilian species of Sapium 
known to produce rubber. In Ecuador and Colombia no less than 
five species of this genus are known to yield good rubber, and in a 
recently written article Mr. A. W. Bartlett’ states that the milk of 
S. genmani Hemsl., growing in the lowlands of British Guiana, yields 
a rubber of excellent quality, long known to the natives, and that this 
constitutes to-day the bulk of the rubber supply of the colony. Thus 
at least nine South American species of the genus Sapium are to-day 
known to yield rubber, while the Central American species that have 
scarcely been investigated botanically may contribute important addi- 
tions to the list. 
Shortly before leaving Costa Rica I received a small sample of an 
apparently excellent rubber, said to have been extracted from Sapium, 
or yds, trees, the exact location of which could not be given. This of 
course had the effect of renewing my interest in the matter, and I 
felt also stimulated to further investigations in that line by Doctor 
Preuss’s discovery of several new rubber-yielding species of Sapium 
on the Pacific coast of tropical South America” <A large number of 
botanical specimens were collected both by myself and by my former 
assistant, Mr. A. Tonduz, most of which were found to constitute new 
species. ‘They were turned over to Dr. Karl Schumann for deter- 
mination, but their systematic study was unfortunately interrupted 
by the untimely death of that botanist, while my departure from 
Costa Rica put an end to any further attempt on my part to ascertain 
the economic value of these species. 
« Bol. Museu Paraense (Goeldi) 3: 865-368. 1901. 
bJumelle, Henri. Les plantes 4 caoutchoue et 4 gutta, exploitation, culture et 
commerce dans tous Jes pays chauds. Paris, 1903. 
¢ Bol. Museu Goeldi (Paraense) 4: 485, 1904-1906, 
4Ule, Ernst. Kautschukgewinnung am Amazonenstrome. Berlin, 1904. The 
same, Kautschukgewinnung und Kautschukhandel am Amazonenstrome. Beiheft 
zum Tropenpflanzer, Januar, 1905. 
e Journ. Board Agr. Brit. Guian. 1: 1-12. 1907. 
J Published in his Expedition nach Central- und Stidamerika, 384-391. 1901. 
