FicuS. MONOECIA MONANDRIA. 545 



plied the middle of two broad slips to the bulb of a thermo- 

 meter, one on each side, so that the bulb was between them 

 and found the mercury was raised two degrees, viz. from 

 eighty, the temperature of the room where the experiment 

 was made, to eighty-two, by a few quickly repeated exten- 

 sions and contractions of the two slips ; and as the bulb of the 

 thermometer was placed in the middle of the slips, no fric- 

 tion upon it took place, consequently the increased tempera- 

 ture must 1)6 owing to another cause. 



A thin slip twenty inches long, and half an inch broad, sus- 

 pended in the sun-shine when the thermometer in the same 

 place stood at 127, and kept straight by a light weight at its 

 lower end, suifered no perceptible change ; however it is like- 

 ly that a nicer scale to measure any difference that might 

 have taken place, would have detected some little change. 



Ihis substance, the produce of various other trees and 

 vines, the most prominent of which are Jatropha elastica. 

 Linn, siippl. 422. or Siphonia Cahuchu. Willd.iv. 567; the 

 Ule tree or Castilla elastica of Cervantes the professor of 

 Botany in Mexico, and Urceola elastica. Asiat. Res. v. 157. is 

 already so well known as to render it unnecessary for me to 

 enlarge on its qualities. I will therefore only add that this 

 species of Caoutchouc, like that of Urceola elastica, is per- 

 fectly soluble in the essential oil obtained from the leaves of 

 Melaleuca Cajupiiti, commonly called Cajuputi oil. 



26. F. laccijera. R. 



Arboreous. Leaves long-petioled, from cordate to oval, 

 obtuse-pointed, lucid, three-nerved. Fruit in axillary pairs, 

 sessile, oval, smooth, scaly on the inside. 



Kuthal B?/t, the vernacular name of the tree in Silhet, 

 Avhere it is indigenous, and grows to as large a size, as F. 

 religiosa. The fruit appears during the hot season and ri- 

 pens in the rains. 



Young shoots thick anil smooth. Leaves alternate, peti- 

 oled, from cordate to oval, obtuse, entire, three-nerved, firm 



VOL. in. ^y 



