20 ON THE COMMERCIAL KINDS OF INDIA-RUBBER. 
baskets, similar to Assam, and has a very bright red-mottled appear- 
ance. The price of good Singapore india-rubber is about 1s. 6d. per Ib. 
Of the kinds mentioned above, Java, Singapore, and Penang are 
very much alike in character. They are, together with Assam, of a 
firm texture, bright polished appearance, and of a mottled colour, 
ranging often in one sample from very dark brown toa light yellowish- 
white. Some account for this appearance by saying that it is ob- 
tained from several different trees; this is certainly the case with 
gutta-percha, and a gentleman who has spent ten years in the Straits 
says, it is what he has always been given to understand. 
Roxburgh mentions several other plants producing caoutchoue ; 
among others is the Willughbeia edulis, Roxb., found in the forests of 
Chittagong and Silhet, where it is called Lath am. It is a large 
climbing plant, and when wounded discharges copiously a very pure 
viscid juice, which soon, by exposure to the air, changes into an indif- 
ferent caoutchouc. (Roxb. Fl. Ind., vol. ii. p. 57.) 
Large quantities of india-rubber are said to exist in China; I have 
not heard of any direct shipments. If we receive it at all, it is vid 
Singapore. 
III. AFRICAN KINDS OF INDIA-RUBBER. 
Mauritius india-rubber is of a white and pinky colour, without the 
mottled appearance observable in other kinds. It very rarely comes 
to England. o not think it is a native india-rubber, but comes 
from Madagascar, where two species, viz. Vahea gummifera and F. 
Madagascarensis, are found. 
Dr. C. Meller, in his account of an expedition to Madagascar (read 
before the Linnean Society, December, 1862), says of the natives, ** To 
procure india-rubber they are less careful, merely making incisions, 
and allowing the sap to flow into a hole at the root of atree. They 
procure their india-rubber from a trailing and climbing plant, whose 
Order I am unacquainted with. It has thick aina leaves, pear- 
shaped and sized fruit ; the native name is ‘ Vauginia.’ The Ficus elas- 
tica is found along the seaboard route, and a Theophrasta; but I am 
not aware that the Malagasy have recourse to them." Miquel (Flor 
Ind. Bat., vol. iii.) mentions Madagascar as one of the habitats of 
Willughbeia edulis, Roxb. 
fri 
rican rubber comes over in casks from the west coast of Africa in 
