202 THE PLANT WORLD. 



The name, rubber, came from its use in the first place in England 

 to erase pencil marks. Dr. Priestly thus refers to it in a work on 

 perspective, in the last century, adding that it could then be purchased 

 in cubes the size of half an inch for three shillings each And be- 

 cause it was^upposed to come exclusively from the West Indies, it 

 was called India rubber. In his second voyage Columbus observed 

 that the natives of Hayti played a game of ball in which the ball 

 tossed and caught was made of a more elastic substance than the 

 wind balls used by the Spaniards. In 1615 Torquemada says: "There 

 is a tree which the Mexican Indians call Ulequahuitl; it is held in 

 great estimation, and grows in hot countries. It is not a very high 

 tree ; the leaves are round and of an ashy color. This tree yields a 

 white, milky substance, thick and gummy, and in great abundance." 

 The many and wonderful uses to which this substance may be adapted 

 have been known only to the present century. In 1842 its power of 

 uniting with sulphur was discovered by Goodyear, making vulcanized 

 rubber. In this state it is not affected by heat or cold, and may be 

 made thin and flexible or hard like iron. There are now many fac- 

 tories in America employing thousands of operatives for the manufac- 

 ture of rubber goods. There are few departments of life into which 

 it does not enter. Our policemen and sailors are shod with rubber 

 boots, and protected from storms by rubber coats and hats; firemen 

 are encased in rubber; the soldier sleeps under a rubber blanket. 

 Other uses are as toys for children, bands for confining parcels, tubes 

 for drop-lights, wringers for the laundry, belting for machinery, the 

 hose for firemen's use, in carriages and tools, in steamboats and cars, 

 and more recently as tires for bicycles and wagons. The demand far 

 exceeds the supply to-day, and new uses to which rubber may be put 

 are constantly being devised. 



Gutta percha is a different substance, obtained from different 

 trees. The i^/V/tf/'j/.y ^////« of the Sapotacese family is the principal 

 source of supply. It is a native of Malay, Borneo and other countries, 

 growing in a belt lying about six degrees north and south of the 

 equator. It requires hot and moist air and rich soil. It occurs in 

 groves often from 300 to 500 in number. The flowers appear in the 

 axils of the leaves in clusters. The Malays eat the fruit, about an 

 inch long, and in Sumatra they make a butter from the seeds. The 

 wood is soft, pale, fibrous, interspersed with black lines, the gutta 

 channels. There are thirty varieties of the tree, all producing gutta, 

 but most of them of an inferior quality. The natives cut down the 

 tree and peel off the bark. Much of the sap is lost from their clumsy 

 management, and in order to meet the demand the natives cut down 

 whole forests of trees, planting some other crop like pepper in their 



