PLANTATION RUBBER INDUSTRY OF THE EAST. 435 



commissionecU Mr. J. Collins to collect all the available inform- 

 ation concerning rubber trees, in order the better to determine 

 in what direction efforts should be made. Collins was not a 

 plant collector, as has been stated, but was (or had been) 

 Curator of the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society. His 

 selection was probably influenced by the fact that he had, a 

 short time previously, pubhshed a Paper- on " India Rubber, 

 its History, Commerce, and Supply." Collins compiled an 

 exhaustive report^ which was issued in 1872. There is no 

 evidence that he visited South America. His report was based 

 on information previously pubhshed, and on the specimens in 

 the Kew herbarium, &c. A large volume of data was already 

 in existence, more especially wdth regard to the rubber trees 

 of the Amazon, which had been investigated by Spruce 

 twenty years before. Spruce had collected specimens of most 

 of the Heveas and of the rubber produced by them, and had 

 recorded that Hevea hrasiliensis jdelded the rubber most 

 abundantly exported ; and details of Spruce's notes and 

 specimens had been pubhshed by Bentham.'* CoHins's 

 information with regard to Hevea was derived from Spruce. 



Colhns's Report includes a memorandum by Dr. Brandis, 

 recommending the estabhshment of plantations of Ficus 

 elastica, and approving of the suggestion to import Hevea. 

 With regard to the latter, Brandis wrote : " The nearest 

 approach to this {i.e., the rainfall of Para) would be found 

 in some parts of Ceylon, which, as regards temperature also, 

 would appear to offer to the BraziHan Heveas a most congenial 

 chmate." He also recommended Malabar and Burma. 



As a result of CoUins's Report it was concluded ^ " that the 

 estabhshment of plantations of Ficus elastica should be im- 

 mediately undertaken in Assam ; but that the caoutchouc from 

 the Heveas and Castilloas of South America was superior to 



1 Collins, Report, &c., p. vii. : '' To C. R. Markham, Esq. Sir,— I 

 have the honour to submit, as directed by you, for the information of 

 Her Majesty's Secretary of vState for India " ; also p. iii. ; and Mark- 

 ham, " Peruvian Bark," p. 445: " I intrusted the duty of makmg the 

 necessary researches and investigations to Mr. J. Collins." 



» Journal of the Society of Arts, December 17, 1869. 



' Report on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, &c., 1872. 



* Hooker's "London Journal of Botany," 1854 



• Markham, "Peruvian Bark," p. 445. 



