AND SOME ALLIED PLANTS. 218 
succirubra) to Darien to obtain seeds and plants of Castilloa elastica *. This mission 
he successfully accomplished. He reported as follows (August 4, 1875) to С. В. 
Markham, Esq., С.В. :— 
* By this mail I have despatched (addressed to the Under Secretary of State for India) 
a small bag containing upwards of 7000 seeds of the Caucho tree which I have just 
collected in the centre of Darien. There is only one species, the difference being in 
those growing in the shade or exposed. The seeds were collected in good condition and 
perfectly ripe, but from observations on a few gathered on first arrival they do not 
appear to keep well, containing, even when mature, a milky juice. 
- 
* * * * * * * * * * 
“Тһе interior of the Darien forests would frighten most people. Тһе undergrowth is 
composed of boundless thickets of a prickly-leaved species of Bromelia often 8 to 10 
ft. high, the ground swarms with millions of ants, and the snakes raise themselves to 
strike at any one who approaches. 
“Тһе Caucho tree grows not in inundated lands or marshes, but in moist undulating 
or flat situations, often by the banks of streamlets, and on hill sides and summits where 
is any loose stone and a little soil. It is adapted for the hottest parts of India, where 
the temperature does not fall much below 74° Fahr. The tree is of rapid growth, 
and attains to a great size, and I am convinced that when cultivated in India 
it will answer the most sanguine expectations that may have been formed con- 
cerning it. I have been up the Chagres and Gatun rivers. I came out on the 
railway about 7 miles from Colon. I go back to the same place (the village of Gatun), 
from which place by the river the India-rubber forests are reached." 
As stated in the Kew Report for 1875 (p. 8), Mr. Crosss expectations as regards the 
seeds were realized. The whole parcel failed to germinate. Mr. Cross, however, with 
eonsiderable difficulty, and after undergoing shipwreck t, succeeded in bringing safely 
to Kew (Oct. 3) a considerable collection of cuttings from which a supply of plants was 
raised. Of these, two plants were despatched to Dr. Thwaites, Director of the Royal 
‘Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon, April 27, 1876, and thirty-one on August 9 
following. Of these last, twenty-eight arrived alive (Kew Report, 1876, p. 9). 
A further consignment of twenty-four plants was sent, Sept. 15, 1877, to Dr. Thwaites, 
who meanwhile had been establishing the former consignment in the tropieal garden at 
Heneratgodde (Kew Report, 1877, p. 16) Here they made satisfactory progress, 
Mr. Morris describing them, May 18, 1878, as growing “ into broad spreading trees with 
a very majestic air." Dr. Thwaites, however, met with great difficulty—contrary to the 
Kew experience—in propagating the tree by cuttings (Kew Report, 1878, p. 14). 
In 1880 Dr. Trimen, who had succeeded Dr. Thwaites as Director of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, reported. ‘Much better success now attends the propa- 
gation by cuttings of this fine species. Our largest trees at Heneratgodde have now a 
* See also Mr. Markham’s account of the enterprise in * Peruvian Bark (London, 1880), рр. 452-454. 
t Markham, 1. c. p. 453. 
