INDIA IM'I'.l'.KIl KIC 



INDIA- 

 FICUS 



RUBBER 

 ELASTICA 



Asuam 



an, for example, near Calicut and Malabar, as also on the Nilgiri hill* (Barliar). 



S p.-. i knit; ! \porionco gained in Bangalor. Cameron (Ropt. Govt. Bot. Oard., 



't, upp. ii. in.. I iii.) says thin plant in intermediate between Para and 



Ceara, requiring m-ithrr th tropical humidity of the former nor the open and 



comparatively dry conditions of the latter. It is, in fact, a tree for the coffee 



ll accordingly recommends it for the moist regions of the hills, and 



i for the plateau of Mysore. [Cf. Morris, Cantor Lect. I.e. 761-5 ; 



not. Oard. Ceylon, 1898, ser. i., 96-104 ; 1903, 125-9 ; Cook, Journ. 



Soc. Ind., 1904, 30-43 ; Bull. Imp. Intt., 1903, 160-7 ; 1904, 32-8 ; 



Agri*t., 1905, xxv., 160-5, 199-200; Board of Trade Journ., 1905, 134-6; 



'IVhirch, I.e. 1008-9 ; Wright, Rubber Cult, in Brit. Empire, 1907, 20-1 ; Herbert 



Wright, Cocoa, 1907, 78-9 ; Rubber Exper. in Bomb., in Agri. Journ. Ind., 1907, 



ii., pt. i., 81 ; Knr Hull., 1907, 103. 



Chonemorpha macrophylla, o. Don. : APOCYNACEJB. A large climbing shrub mot 

 with in North and East Bengal and the moist tropical forests of India generally 

 from K i imaon to Travancore. Recommended as worthy of trial as a new source 

 of rubber, but from experience gained at Buitenzorg the subject does not seem 

 oncouraging. [Cf. Kew Bull., 1896, 186; Manson, I.e. 4; Bull. Imp. Inst., 

 1IMU. 160.] 



Cryptostegla grandlflora, R. Br. ; ASCLBPIADACEJZ. An extensive climber, fairly 



r. 'Minion on the western and southern tracts of India, and is stated to have 



been repeatedly cultivated with a view to the utilisation of both its milky 



and beautiful fibre. So long ago as 1893 the rubber prepared from it 



reported on in England as "hardly equal to Ceara rubber from Brazil, 



although its general qualities are very encouraging." [Cf. B.E.P., Comm. 



. 1898, No. 2; Ind. For., 1898, xxiv., 429; Dunstan, Offlc. Repts., 1903-4; 



Wright, I.e. 28.] 



Ecdysanthera mlcrantha, A. DC.; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 488; APOCY- 

 K. A large climbing shrub common in the Darjeeling Himalaya at 3,000 to 

 5,000 feet, also in Assam, Sylhet. the Khasia hills and Burma. In Burma it is 

 known as nwedo. 



Recently a sample of the milk of this plant was furnished by the Conservator 

 of Forests, Tenasserim, Burma, to the Reporter on Economic Products to the 

 Government of India, with a view to obtain particulars as to the value of the 

 caoutchouc and suggestions for a method of coagulation to be adopted with 

 the milk. It was ultimately examined by Dunstan, who gave the analysis as 

 caoutchouc 84-1 per cent., resin 11-5 per cent., and insoluble matter 4-4 per 

 cent., with ash 1-3 per cent. The rubber was pronounced of a good quality. 

 i<'urther analysis will be necessary, the report continues, before the above results 

 can be accepted as representative, but if furnished in quality corresponding 

 with the sample analysed, it would be readily saleable. 



Ficus elastica, Roxb. ; Fl Br. Ind., v., 508-9 ; King, Ann. 

 Bot. Gard. Gale., 1888, i., pt. i., 45, t. 54 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 

 641-3 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 603 ; Manson, I.e. (reprinted as Comm. Circ., 

 1901, No. 4, 6) ; Hooper, Rept. Labor. Ind. Mus. (Indust. Sec.), 1903-4, 

 26; Reinhorz, Agri. Ledg., 1904, No. 4; Bald, Cult, of Ficus elastica, 

 1906 ; Coventry in the Forest Butt. Ind., 1906, No. 4 ; Mann, Assam Rubber 

 and its Commercial Prospects, in Agri. Journ. Ind., i., pt. iv., 390-8 ; Kew 

 Mus. Guide, 1907, No. 1, 195 ; URTICACE^:. The India-rubber Fig, Indian 

 Caoutchouc Tree, the bor, attah bor, kagiri ranket, lesu, yok bawadi, 

 nyaung kyet paung, etc. The Karet rubber of West Java a name which 

 Manson points out may have been derived from the Burmese kayet (kyet). 



A gigantic tree having its leaves and shoots perfectly glabrous, and 

 which usually sends down from its branches numerous aerial roots. It 

 frequently germinates naturally from droppings of birds, and is conse- 

 quently often at first epiphytic. When under these circumstances it 

 chances to become attached to another tree it grows slowly for the first 

 six to ten years, and when its roots have reached the ground it usually kills 

 the foster plant. It then grows more rapidly^and becomes an immense 

 and very lofty tree (from 100 to 200 feet in height). It is met with on 



651 



D.E.P., 

 iv., 343, 

 362. 



D.E.P., 

 ii., 626 ; 

 iv., 844. 



D.E.P., 

 iii.,350 ; 

 iv.,344-60. 

 India- 

 rubber. 



K i" t i: -iM .T. 



Often 



