ON THE COMMERCIAL KINDS OF INDIA-RUBBER. 15 
found in South America, when its uses and properties became known, 
led to its discovery in many parts of the East Indies and the Archi- 
pelago. James Howison, a surgeon in Prince of Wales’s Island, seems 
to be the first who discovered it there. In the ‘ Asiatic Researches ’ 
(vol. v. 1798) is a paper by him on this subject. He calls the tree 
“an elastic Gum Vine,” and says that the tree has branches, some- 
times 200 paces long. The Malays taste the juice to find which 
is the elastic variety. The usual manner of drawing off the milk 
was tapping, it taking a person two days to collect one quart. But 
the quickest way was by cutting the “Vine” into lengths of about 
two feet. "The oldest vines produced the best caoutchoue, frequently 
yielding two-thirds of the milk’s weight in caoutchouc. As to the ex- 
periments he made, he says that he made moulds of wax of different 
articles, as gloves, etc., and dipped them in the liquid caoutchouc. 
He also had the satisfaction of making himself a complete suit of 
waterproof clothing, by spreading fresh caoutchouc on cloth with a 
` ruler and hanging it out to dry, —the mere exposure to the atmosphere 
rendering it firm immediately. Roxburgh, being in India, directed 
his attention to the subject, named Howison's plant Urceola elastica, 
and describes it as “a native of the islands of Penang and Sumatra, 
etc., and the Malayan countries. Stem woody, climbing over trees, 
etc., to a very great extent; young shoots twining and a little hairy ; 
bark of the old woody parts thick, dark-coloured, and considerably 
uneven, a little scabrous. The wood is white, light, and porous." 
In describing a ball of india-rubber before him, he says, ‘Its colour 
on the outside is that of American caoutchouc; when fresh cut into, 
a light brown colour, till the action of the air darkens it ; throughout, 
there are numerous small cells filled with a portion of the light brown 
watery liquid.” 
In the * Singapore Local Reporter ' of August 7, 1853 (Kew Journ. 
Bot., vol. v. p. 157), the following (relating to the produce of Urceola 
elastica, Roxb.), appeared :— 
“ This gum, the produce of creepers known in that part of Borneo under 
the names of Serapit, Petabo, and Menungan, is nothing else than the watery 
milk-like sap of these creepers, which by a simple process, in the addition of a 
little salt-water, takes the consistency and all the peculiarities of real india- 
rubber, being at first snow white, but by exposure to the air changing slowly 
to a dirty yellow and afterwards brown colour. 'The serapit produces the 
most common, the petabo the best, the menungan the greatest quantity of sap. 
