CAOUTCHOUC AND GUTTA-PERCHA. 
TRANSLATED FROM THE ‘‘AUS DER NATUR.” 
Through the discovery of America and the sea route to the East Indies, those 
prophetic words of Seneca were finally realized after so many centuries : 
“Venient annis 
Szecula seris, quibus oceanus 
Vincula verum laxet et ingens 
Pateat tellus, Typhisque novos 
Delegat orbes, nec sit terris 
Ultima Thule.” 
Not precisely these, but similar dark legends, traditions of a remote age, in 
faint though recognizable lines, showed the route which Columbus and Vasco de 
Gama were to pursue. It was the fortitude with which these heroes braved the 
terrors of the ocean that gave them the victory. The one unveiled a new 
world, and the other brought India near to us, a country the charming aspect 
of which had, from the most remote time, kindled the enthusiasm or desires of 
mankind. ‘These deeds soon produced their fruits; the unexpectedly expanded 
view opened a new era, and the inexhaustible resources which became accessible 
brought about a transformation of society. 
The access to the tropical regions, over which nature has so lavishly strewn 
its rich treasures, became more and more easy ; more and more of those precious 
gifts which the incessantly active though always still life of the vegetable realm 
works out there for man, the lord of creation, came to light and took rank among 
the necessities of civilized nations. Centuries have passed and the treasure is 
still inexhaustible—nay, still partly undisclosed. 'The London Exhibition has 
taught us this, its East India division displaying numerous natural products 
which we had not even known by name. 
The abundance of light, heat, and moisture within the tropics creates there 
a vegetation of the luxuriance and splendor of which we of the cold north can 
hardly form an idea. The great fertility of the soil allows so many trees to 
grow up near each other that their branches find no room to spread. Thus 
every stem strives to overtop the other, pushing up towards the light, and far 
from the ground displaying its-crown. Everything is so dense there that none 
can advance a step without opening a path with a chopping-knife. The ground 
itself is not large enough to bear all the plants shooting up in such rank exube- 
rance; they themselves form a new soil for others, a soil which thousands of 
parasites contest with each other. All the fairy splendor spoken of in the 
ancient legend of the suspended gardens of Semiramis is here not only realized 
but surpassed. Here every tree is a true flower garden, rich in its variety of 
tints and forms. Raised high into the air on a single stem, these floating gar- 
dens look down from their giddy attitude upon the wanderer in charming grace- 
fulness. With the manifold plants and blossoms that seem to shoot from the 
boughs of some trees, or to root themselves on them, strangely contrast those ~ 
mosses which hang down from the branches of others like immense periwigs 
or horse-tails, or which, resembling beards, make the giants of the forest appear 
like gray veterans, whose heads the lapse of centuries has been insufficient to 
bend. But there is no path leading to the splendor of those luminous heights ; 
