FicUS. MONOECIA MONANDRIA. 543 



segments lanceolate. Filaments single and short. Anthers 

 erect, clavale, obtuse. Female calyx as in the male. Germ 

 unequally-oblong. Style from one side near the apex, curv- 

 ed. Stigma rather large, and ragged. 



A similar substance to that which the milk of this noble 

 tree furnishes in such abundance, so pliable, so elastic, and so 

 capable of resisting menstrua, has been already described by 

 me in the 5th volume of the Asiatick Researches. I there ob- 

 served that inferior sorts were furnished by the milky juices 

 of the Jak tree, Artocarpus integrifolia, the Banyan tree, 

 Ficus Indica, and the P/pp?da tree, Ficus religiosa ; since 

 that time some other plants have been discovered in the 

 countries immediately to the eastward of Bengal, such as a 

 new species of Willughbeia, there called Luti Am or the 

 scandent mango, another, a new and beautiful Melodinus 

 or climbing apple, there called Sadal Kowa, which yields a 

 milky fluid of the same nature, and (o those I now add the 

 above described Fig tree, which I consider an undescribed 

 species, and to which I have given the specific name elastica, 

 on account of its milky juice. The manner in which the dis- 

 covery was made is as follows. 



Towards the close of 1810, Mr. Matthew Richard Smith of 

 Silhet, sent me a vessel, there called a Turong, filled with 

 honey in the very state in which it had been brought from 

 the Pundua or Juntipoor mountains north of Silhet. The 

 vessel was a common, or rather coarse basket in the shape of 

 a four-cornered, wide mouthed bottle, made of split ratans, 

 several species of which grow in abundance amongst the 

 above mentioned mountains, and contained about two gallons. 

 Mr. Smith observed that the inside of the vessel, was smear- 

 ed over with the juice of a tree, which grows on the moun- 

 tains. I was therefore more anxious to examine the nature of 

 this lining than the quality of the honey. The Turong was 

 therefore emptied and washed out, when to my gratification 

 I found it very perfectly lined with a thin coat of Caoutchouc. 



The tree as above observed, grows to a large size and chief- 



