214 MR. W. Т. THISELTON DYER ON CASTILLOA ELASTICA. 
circumference of nearly seventeen inches at a yard from the ground, and the trees 
are beginning to take their true form.” (Kew Report, 1880, p. 17.) 
In the following year Dr. Trimen reported, “Тһе Castilloa, both at Peradeniya and 
Heneratgodde, produced flowers during the dry weather of April; on examination, 
however, these were all male. This species is said not to produce seed till eight 
years old. Тһе finest tree at Heneratgodde has now a stem of 223 inches in cireum- 
ference at about a yard from the ground.” (Kew Report, 1881, p. 13.) 
Dr. Trimen further reported, Oct. 20, 1882, “We have some sturdy little seedlings 
of Castilloa coming on from our seed. Only three fruits ripened in June, and the 
fifteen seeds from these were sown at once, and germinated in fifteen days.” (Kew 
Report, 1882, p. 22.) 
It is not necessary to pursue the history of the introduction into the Hast Indies 
beyond the appearance of a new seminal generation. It will be sufficient to quote 
from the Kew Report for 1882, p. 40, the account of the first sample of Caoutchouc 
obtained from the Castilloa under cultivation in the Old World. 
* In October 1882, the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Dr. Trimen, 
forwarded to Kew a sample of the rubber of Castilloa elastica grown in the Experimental 
Gardens at Heneratgodde, Ceylon. This was sent from Kew in 1876 (see Kew Report, 
1876, p. 9). The sample was submitted to S.W. Silver, Esq., F.L.S., who very kindly 
reported upon it :—‘ On working and drying a portion of this sample, the loss is 12:3 
per cent.; it is necessary to use warm water in washing this rubber; it becomes on 
drying much darker and shorter than Para rubber. It has a bitter taste, which is not 
removed on washing. The unwashed sample yields 1:9 per cent. ash, the washed sample 
gives 1:2 per cent. ‘The shortness of this rubber would restrict its use to some extent 
where tensile strength or tenacity is required.’ It was valued, Dec. 8, 1882, as worth 
2s. 9d. to 3s. per pound." 
It remains to add that the Darien Castillos has been successfully introduced by 
plants sent from Kew into Liberia and the Cameroons River on the west coast of Africa, 
and into Zanzibar and the Mauritius on the east; also into Singapore, Java, Jamaica, 
. and Granada. From Ceylon plants have been sent to Caleutta, Burma, and Madras, and 
from Singapore to Perak and Queensland.—W. THISELTON DYER. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 
PLATE XXVII. 
Figs. 1-17. Caucho of Darien, from the Ceylon Botanic Garden. 1, leaf; 2, male, and 3, female branches : 
of the natural size;—4, portion of leaf, enlarged ;—5 & 6, vertical sections of male 
receptacle ; 7 & 8, stamens : all enlarged ;—9, vertical section of female flowering-receptacle, 
of the natural size ;—10, single carpel; 11, vertical section of two carpels : all enlarged ;— 
12, fruiting-receptacle; 13, single carpel from ditto; 14, seed ; 15, embryo ; 16, transverse 
section of ditto; 17, single cotyledon and plumule: a// of natural size. 
