PLANTATION RUBBJ5R INDUSTRY OF THE EAST. 449 



generally consulted, the cases where his advice seems to have 

 been followed being generally the result of independent 

 discovery. 



Wickham's Report. 



Wickham's report, entitled " A Note on the Introduction 

 of the Indiarubber Tree into India," was issued by the Indian 

 Government, and republished by the Ceylon Government in 

 1877. The following is a complete reprint of the report, as 

 pubUshed in Ceylon : — 



The introduction into India of the true Para indiarubber 

 (Hevea) may be said to be now fairly inaugurated. If it is not a 

 great success, I think, without doubt, the fault will be that it has 

 not been planted out in suitable localities. 



The indiarubber tree (Hevea) grows naturally throughout the 

 Amazon valley, with the exception of certain localities. I found 

 it very abundant high up on the Orinoco, above the junction of 

 the Guaviare (the latter stream by right indeed should be styled 

 the Orinoco). It is plentiful on the banks of the Cassiquiare, 

 that curious bifurcation of the Orinoco by which it contributes 

 water to the Rio Negro, and converts Guagana into an immense 

 island. I do not know how far it may extend up the Maranon 

 into Peru, never having been there. It is abundant and very 

 fine about the cataracts of the Tapajos, and it was on this river 

 that I obtained the seeds which produced the plants now to be 

 desjiatched from Kew to India. 



I also found it growing in the interior between the Tapajos and 

 Xingu. The rivers from which the largest supply is now brought 

 by the traders are the Purus and the Madeira. 



In its native forests it grows dispersed among the other forest 

 trees, two or three trees rarely being found in juxtaposition. In 

 appearance the Hevea are handsome trees, with straight cylindrical 

 trunks. They differ wholly from the Ule trees — the Central 

 American indiarubber tree (Castilloa), which I had seen in 

 Moskito and Nicaragua. The wood is soft and perishable. As 

 in the great majority of tropical American trees, the bark is not 

 very thick. It is of a gray colour on the surface, but when scraped 

 (as has frequently to be done before it is possible to tap them in 

 some of the moister districts, owing to the thick growth of the 

 moss ferns and orchids on the bark) approaches in appearance and 

 colour the coat of a light bay horse. Under the native mode of 

 tapping, however, they soon present a warty disfigured appear- 

 ance. The seeds grow, three together, in a sort of hard pod. 

 This pod bursts, when it is ripe and becomes heated by the sun. 

 with a sharp popping sound, and scatters the seed for a consider- 

 able distance around the trees. I have been assured by an 

 Englishman, long resident in the cotmtry as a trader, that an oil 

 closely resembling linseed oil in its properties is to be extracted 

 from the seed. 



6(4)14 (-^8) 



