276 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May I, 1909. 



The Editor's Book Table. 



KOTESOF A BOTAXIST ON THIi AMAZON AND ANDES. --- 

 By Richard Spruce, ih.d. Edited and Condensed by Alfred Russell 

 .Wallace, O.M.. f.r.s. - • - In two volumes. London: Macniillan & Co., 

 iimited. 1908. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp. ui + 518; xil + 542. Price, $5.20] 



THE author of this work, a native of Yorkshire, who lived 

 between 1817 and 1893, was one of the most notable 

 naturalists that England has produced. He went to 

 Brazil for the study of botany, arriving at Para in 1849, and re- 

 mained in South America until 1864, during which time his 

 contributions to the herbariums of Europe were more important, 

 .perhaps, than those from any other one source at any time. He 

 left numerous notes which he was never able personally to put 

 into book form, and from these have been selected the material 

 which appears in the two handsome volumes before us. 



The upper Amazon country, when Dr. Spruce began its ex- 

 ploration, was very little known in any way to outsiders, and 

 whoever knows North Brazil to-day can hardly fail to read with 

 interest the story of his experiences for months at a time in 

 regions where he was the first white man who had been seen 

 by the natives. When he first went up the Amazon the site of the 

 present city of Manaos was an Indian village, known as "Barr.-t 

 do Rio Negro," and the existence of rubber in that region was 

 imsuspected. .In fact, when he first went to South America the 

 collection of rubber was confined to the immediate vicinity of 

 Para, at which town the market value of rubber was about 10 

 pence a pound. Dr. Spruce was not interested except incidentally 

 in rubber, but was making a general botanical survey of the 

 Amazon region. He discovered, however, the existence of 

 various rubber species farther upriver, and more than once at- 

 tempted to interest the natives in getting out rubber, but gen- 

 erally without success, the world's demand for this material not 

 having become so important as after his time. 



Before leaving South America, Dr. Spruce was commissioned 

 l^' the English government to secure seeds and plants of the 

 Cinchona species for transference to British India, at the instance 

 ■of Mr. (now Sir) Clements R. Markham, who, by the way, was 

 later instrumental also in the introduction of Hevea rubber into 

 the Far East. Dr. Spruce rode muleback over the Andes, get- 

 ting his collection of Cinchona seeds and plants to the Pacific 

 over the route between Quito and Guayaquil, now traversed by 

 a railway. 



The work of Dr. Spruce having been completed nearly a 

 half century ago, it can have no direct current relation to rubber 

 gathering in the Amazon region. The study of the work, how- 

 ever, is well worth while to-day by those who may be concerned 

 seriously in investments in forest rubber propositions in that 

 part of the world, for the reason that, when one leaves the few 

 centers of population on the Amazon, the forest conditions and 

 the character of the native population has changed so little since 

 Spruce's time. There are, to be sure, better transportation 

 facilities on the Amazon and its leading tributaries, but otherwise, 

 over vast areas explored by Dr. Spruce, conditions have been 

 altered very little. 



The editor of these volumes. Dr. Wallace, who was in Brazil 

 during a part of Dr. Spruce's sojourn there, and who is still 

 living, in his eighty-eighth year, is likewise a naturalist of dis- 

 tinction, as will be indicated by the statement that simultaneously 

 with Darwin he announced the theory of natural selection — or 

 "evolution" — his paper on the subject having been read on the 

 same day as Darwin's paper. 



JOHN A. ROEBLING. AN ACCOUNT OF THE CEREMONIES AT 

 the unveiling of a monument to his m.emory. [Trenton, N. J.] Roebling 

 Press. 1908. [Qoth. 8vo. Pp. 63.] 



A PEPORT of the proceedings at the unveiling of the statue to 



Mr. Roebling, illustrated in The Indi.\ Rubber World, August i, 



1908 (page 380). 



MODERN AIR BRAKE PR.\CTICE; ITS USE AND ABUSE. A BOOK 

 of Instruction on the Automatic, Combined Automatic, and Straight Air 

 and High Speed Brake. - - ■ By Frank H. Dukesmith, m.e. - - - 

 (Fifth edition.) Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co. 1908. [Cloth. 8vo. 

 Pp. 4i7-)-xxxv. Price, $1.50] 



The importance of the air brake in the control of railway 

 traiiis is now so firmly established that its use as a safety appli- 

 ance is rhade compulsory. It may not be generally known, 

 however, that schools for training railway employes in the use 

 of the air brake are maintained. The fact that the practical 

 work before us has gone through five editions within three years 

 is an indication that the importance of thoroughly understand- 

 ing the use of air brakes is appreciated by railway men. No 

 reference is made in this volume to air brake hose, although no 

 air brake system described in it would be practicable without 

 hose. The author evidently assumes that good hose will be 

 used, and confines his attention to the requisite of a good brake 

 system and the proper use of the same. The makers of rubber 

 hose may be interested in looking over this work as a source of 

 information as to what is requisite in a good air brake system 

 in connection with which their products are to be used. 



ENSAYO SOERE EAS PLANTAS USUALES DE COSTA RICA. 

 For H. Pittier. Washington: H. L. & J. B. McQueen, Inc. 1908. 

 [Paper. Svo. Pp. xi4-i764-3o plates. Price $1.20.] 



THE MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN SPECIES OF SAPIUM. 

 By Henry Pittier. (Contributions from the United States National Her- 

 barium. Volume XII, Part 4.) Washington: Government Printing Office. 

 1908. [Paper. Svo. Pp. in -[-11-^-8 plates.] 



The notable contribution to our knowledge of the botany of 

 Central America covered by the first of these titles is the work 

 of a former director of the Instituto Fisico-Geografico Nacional 

 of Costa Rica, and now connected with the United States depart- 

 ment of agriculture. An introduction is written by O. F. Cook, of 

 the same department. The various rubber yielding species of 

 Costa Rica are described here, and the "chicle" tree. 



The monograph on Sapium species was undertaken as a 

 study of possible rubber yielding species not formerly known. 

 Mr. Pittier treats of the importance of Sapium as a rubber yield- 

 ing genus in South America, where no less than nine species 

 have been recognized as having value. He refers to the position 

 of Huber and Jumelle, who designate as a Sapium a tree the 

 product of which is mixed largely with the latex of Hcvea in the 

 "Para rubber" region. [See The India Rubber World, August 

 I, 1905, page 365.] There are, as Mr. Pittier has found, several 

 species of Sapium in Central America, and at least one in Mexico, 

 and he sees no reason to suppose that some of them may not 

 yield commercial rubber. In the San Jose valley in Costa Rica, 

 the milk of a Sapium is used as a birdlime. We hope to see the 

 work of this botanist followed by practical experiments with the 

 latex of the trees he describes. 



(i) A HEVEA BENTHAMIANA (MULL. Arg.) COMO FORNECEDOR.\ 

 de Borracha ao N. do Amazonas. (11) Sobre uma Nova Especie de 

 Seringueira Hevea coHina (Hub.) e as suas Affinidades no (^ncro. 

 Pelo Dr. Jacques Huber. Para; 1908. [Paper. Svo. Pp. 10.] 



The indefatigable director of the Para Museum continues his 

 studies of the rubber yielding species in the Amazon, in which 

 field he is excelled by no other botanist. The publication before 

 us is a reprint from Vol. V of the Boletim of the museum, on the 

 importance of Hcvea Bcnthamiana as a rubber producer north of 

 the Amazon, and the new species, H. collina and its similarity to 

 other Hevea species. 



IN CURRENT PERIODICALS. 



Note sur la Valeur du CasiiUoa elactica en Afrique Occidentale Fran- 

 Qaise. By Yves Henry.=La Agriculture Pratique des Pays Chauds, Paris. 

 VIII-69 (Dec, '08). Pp. SI5-5I9- 



Ein neues \'erfahrcn zur Gewinnung des Kautschuks auf der Kautschuk- 

 milch. By D. Sandman. =Dpr Tropenpfianzer, Berlin. XII-ll (Nov.. '08). 

 Pp. 520-524. 



