INDIA RUBBER AND GUTTA-PERCHA. 681 



As a result of this practice collectors have to go farther and far- 

 ther inland for a supply, so that it often does not pay to transport 

 it to the coast. There is a vast need of better management in 

 collecting and curing the gum, as the African product is of lower 

 grade and brings less than many other sorts in the London mar- 

 ket. It seems a certain source of wealth, and is easy of cultiva- 

 tion, so proper steps are almost sure to be taken for its encourage- 

 ment by the nations engaged in civilizing the continent. TraflBc 

 in India rubber is one great incentive for the building of the 

 Congo Railroad. 



Asia was the second country to furnish Europe with India 

 rubber. The supply has of late years decreased in importance in 

 consequence of the destruction of the trees. American varieties 

 have been introduced with some success by the Indian Govern- 

 ment. The principal native trees are the Urceola elastica, the 

 Ficus elastica (the well-known window plant) and a species of 

 fig, the Ficus religiosa, which is one of the most beautiful trees 

 in the world. Its branches bend down, take root, and form new 

 trunks. The great fig of Narbuddah has three hundred and fifty 

 large and three thousand medium-sized stems, thus constituting 

 in itself a veritable forest. The principal rubbers from India are 

 the Assam and Rangoon. India rubber is also obtained in Oce- 

 ania, notably in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, but very little comes 

 from Australia. It was formerly thought that the rubber tree 

 only grew in moist ground, under tropical suns, but explorers 

 have found them in hard soils on high plateaus. A beginning is 

 being made with cultivation of the trees. The Indian Govern- 

 ment has a nursery of Para trees in Assam extending over two 

 hundred square miles, and has shown that they may be produc- 

 tively raised from foreign seed with little care. The cultivation 

 is also attracting attention in Central America and Mexico. Ac- 

 cording to estimates, it is very profitable. The long waiting of 

 fifteen to twenty years, however, till the tree attains its full vigor, 

 is apt to make individual capital cautious. 



France was the cradle of the rubber industry, and French re- 

 searches permitted the anticipation of many applications of the 

 substance afterward carried out by the English and Americans. 

 La Condamine, who was with the expedition sent to the equator 

 by the French Academy, found the novel article at Quito, where 

 it was known as caoutchouc (from cahucliu of the Mai'nas In- 

 dians), and sent the first accurate knowledge of it to Europe in 

 1736. The natives called it Jiheve (hence hevea). The Omaguas 

 made water bottles of it, provided with a cannula, which were pre- 

 sented to guests before the repast. They were primitive syringes, 

 and gave the name to the tree in some localities. Herissant and 

 Macquer, in France, soon attracted attention to the gum by their 



TOL. L. 62 



