85 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 Trees that Count— The Ficus. 



THE RUBBER OF THE EAST AGE FOR TAPPING 



VALUE OF THE LATEX AN EPIPHYTE THE SEED- 

 GROWTH— IN PLANTATIONS UNCERTAINTY OF YIELD 



HABITS IN VARIOUS LANDS. 



f^VF the many varieties of Ficus that have from 

 ^-^ time to time entered into the range of com- 

 mercial possibility, there are only two which require 

 notice in a work of this character. They are the 

 Ficus elastica (Rambong), or Assam rubber tree, 

 and the Ficus Yogleii, the Abba rubber tree of 

 the West Coast of Africa. The latter is only 

 deserving of mention because it is now fast dis- 

 appearing, and also because it was once the staple 

 rubber tree of a vast area of country that has now 

 to depend for the most part for its supply of ex- 

 portable rubber on the forest vines of the far-inland 

 zone. 



The Ficus is of the order Moraceae, and is one of 

 the most important in the whole vegetable kingdom, 

 comprising as it does more than 600 species scattered 

 all over the world, and including, of course, the 

 popular and indispensable fig. But the plant with 



