It is probable that its habitat covers a great part of the 

 country periodically destroyed by drought, from the banks of the 

 river San Francisco to those of the Parahyba. 



As to the condition of the soil in which it vegetates, it seems 

 that the Manicoba requires little, doing better in clay lightly 

 mixed with sand. 



The resistance of the plant to extreme drought, and at the 

 same time its suitability to well irrigated and fresh earth cannot 

 be explained. 



On dry table lands of hard clay fine and luxuriant examples of 

 the Manicoba are raised. 



Only on the sandy earths of beaches where the air is always 

 damp the plant will vegetate quickly. 



The hygrometrical state of the temperature will make the plant 

 commence in the production of "latex," immediately after the 

 winter, in the months of May and June. This flow of liquid, 

 thin, and without consistence, is easily taken in " Flanders tin 

 cans," in which it coagulates within 4 to 6 hours. 



The amount which the dry season advances, rarefies the milky 

 secretion, and from flowing it passes to dropping, coagulating 

 rapidly on coming in contact with the atmosphere. 



The latex is a liquid of glutinous consistency, made up of two 

 elements, one liquid hardly coloured, the other very fine glo- 

 bules unequal, and of varying colour, which swim in the liquid. 

 The circulation seems to be descending, and is favourable to the 

 nutritive moisture ; as to the form of these milky vessels, they are 

 simple on ramified tubes, completely closed, of transparent walls, 

 and without any appearance of punctuation or of transversal 

 lines. 



The latex which produces the rubber is different to the sappy 

 or nutritive moisture of the plant and unless there be some means 

 of invigorating the latex, then the belief of the explorators of the 

 Seringueira or the Manicoba, that the extraction of the milk weak- 

 ens the tree is not unreasonable. The wood of the Manicoba is 

 spongy, light, white. The Cupim (insect ot Brazil) attacks the 

 wood as it does white pine. Gigantic trees do not resist the un- 

 dermining by the Cupim for more than one year, and when the 

 first high wind comes they fall, throwing sometimes to the ground 

 the shoots, which take root and form new growths, at other 

 times in the falling the seeds get scattered and quantities of plants 

 spring up. The tree of the Manicoba attains a height of 30 feet, 

 it has a round shape and its leaves are similar to those of the 

 Mamoa tree and of an ashy green colour. 



planting Manicoba. 



The seed is hard, flat, and smooth, nearly the size of a matured 

 coca cob, of dark olive colour. Its hardness is extraordinary, re 

 sisting very heavy compressions, also its permeability to water, 

 in which it may remain for a long time without putrefying or 



