Avteievgea) THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 339 
The Banyan, or Ficus indica, is famed for its «< pillared shade, where daughters grow 
about the mother tree,” and the *‘ tot rami, quot arbores,” which has furnished a motto 
to the Royal Asiatic Society.: Species of the genus afford grateful shade in. America, 
as in India, The wood of Morus tinctoria, called fustick, is used for dyeing yellow, 
so also of Broussonetia and Ficus tinctoria; in India, the roots of Artocarpus Lakoocha 
are used for dyeing the same.colour. From the fondness of birds for the fruit and the 
tenacity of life in the seed of two species, F. indica and religiosa, are explained 
two phenomena very familiar to all who have visited India: one is that of a palm- 
al yan: and the other that of the pippul, 
f. religiosa, vegetating, (where the seed has been deposited in cracks), on the driest walls 
and most elevated domes and minarets, which, by its increase, it soon destroys. The 
former appearance Dr. Roxburgh has also well explained, as proceeding from the 
seed of the Banyan germinating, on the moist upper parts of the palmyra-tree (Borassus 
Jlabeliuformis); and thence sending down its descending shoots, which in time. entirely 
tree _ gTowing out of the centre of the 
enclose the palm; this finally appears with only its bunch of leaves projecting beyond 
the 
mi Ly ' BORE. ; 
best from South America, and superior to it from lightness of colour, and freedom from smell. There can be 
little doubt, therefore, of its becoming an important and profitable article of commerce, since nearly 500 tons 
of Caoutchouc are now imported from other parts of the world; and its applications and uses are so rapidly 
increasing, that it is not possible at present for the supply to keep pace with the demand. It may be hoped, 
therefore, that some _enterprizing individuals will be induced to collect carefully, that is, keep clean, the 
milky j juice of Ficus elastica. The tree is called kasmeer by the inhabitants of the Pundua and Juntipoor 
mountains, which bound the province of Silhet on the north. It i $ also found near Durruvj, in Assam, between 
the Burrampooter and the Bootan Hills. The highest price for caoutchoue can, however, only be obtained 
for that which is collected in the bottle-form ; or preferably in that of a cylinder of 14 ‘o 2} inches in diameter, 
and 4 or 5 inches in length, according to the models sent by theauthor to both the Asiatic and Agricultural 
Societies of Calcutta. Much useful information will be found on this subject in Dr. Roxburgh’s Flora Indica, 
vol. iii. p. 541-545 ; also, in his article on Urceola elastica, or Caoutchouc-vine of Sumatra and Pulo Penang, 
following another by. Mr. Howison on the same subject, in the fifth volume of the Transactions of the 
Asiatic Society of Calcutta. Vide pamphlet on the Plants which yield Caoutchouc, by the Author. 
As connected with this subject may be mentioned a discovery to which the author was led, and announced 
in a paper read before the British Association at Bristol (v. Atheneum, 3d Sept. 1836). By referring to the 
observations on the families of Cichoracec, Lobeliacew,, Apocynee, Asclepiadee, Euphorbiacew, Urticee, and Arto- 
carpew, it will be seen that in each of these families there are plants yielding Caoutchouc, and in some of them 
a few employed in making bird-lime; with others r , narkable for the tenacity of their fibre. But it is singular 
that in these same families should be contained the several plants on which the silk-worm feeds, when unable 
to obtain its favourite food, the leaf of the mulberry. Thus, in Europe, it is fed on lettuce and dandelion 
leaves, lately on those of a species of Scorzonera, all belonging to the Cichoracee ; so, in India, Ficus 
religiosa, of the family of Artocarpee, has been found the best substitute for the mulberry leaf. Other species 
of silk-worm also feed on plants of these families ; as Phalena Cynthia, or Arindy silk-worm, on the leaves 
of Ricinus communis, one of the Euphorbiacec. Mr. Morley informs me, that a caterpillar, which has a very 
large cocoon and spins a tough, but coarse kind of silk, feeds on the leaves of the South American Caoutchouc- 
tree, or Siphonia elastica, also of this family. Considering that such facts were not likely to be accidental, 
I was led to suppose that this substance might possibly form a necessary ingredient in the food of silk-worms, 
and be in some way employed in giving tenacity to their silk. I therefore inferred that it might probabjy be 
9x 2 found 
ae 
