96 



INDIAN RUBBER TREE. 



INDIAN RUBBER TREE. 



unable to procure the leaves on which they prin- 

 cipally feed. Various are the purposes to which 

 the Indian rubber is now applied ; from a lady's 

 watch-guard, to the cable of a ship ; and hence it 

 it has become an important article of commerce. 

 Although its valuable qualities have remained so 

 long unknown in Europe, the ancient Indian kings 

 of South America knew how to apply them many 

 ages since. 



There is a tree growing in the hot country, thus 

 quaintly writes a Spanish writer in the sixteenth 



