INDIA-RUBBER OR CAOUTCHOUC. 15 



cuttings, which were propagated so rapidly that in 1876 

 they were ready for distribution to the West Coast of Africa, 

 Ceylon, and Java. From the two latter places satisfactory 

 reports have been received. Dr. Trimen, reporting from 

 Ceylon in 1880, says : " Our largest trees at Heneratgoda 

 have now a circumference of nearly 17 inches at a yard from 

 the ground, and the trees are beginning to take their true 

 form." Again, in October, 1882, Dr. Trimen writes : " We 

 have some sturdy little seedlings of Castilloa coming on 

 from seed. Only three fruits ripened in June, and the 

 fifteen seeds from these were sown at once, and germinated 

 in fifteen days. The rubber from Castilloa strikes me as 

 the most satisfactory sort growing here, the proportion of 

 caoutchouc in the milk being larger than in any of the 

 others." 



Of CEARA-rubber, plants and seeds were brought home 

 by Mr. Cross to the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1876. The 

 botanical name of this valuable rubber-plant was unknown 

 up to this period. 



Under the name of Hevm guyanensis, a plant had been 

 in cultivation in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, 

 Regent's Park, as well as at Buitenzorg, Java, and at 

 Mauritius, which was proved in 1877 at Kew to be 

 Mani/iot Glaziovii, the same species brought home by 

 Mr. Cross as the Ceara-rubber plant. These plants were 

 rapidly propagated at Kew, and quantities were sent to 

 Singapore, Calcutta, and Ceylon, and in 1878 to the Con- 

 servator of Forests in Madras. From this period the dis- 

 tribution of Ceara-rubber plants was proceeded with 

 rapidly from most of the Colonial Botanic Gardens, which 

 had received their first consignments from Kew. So im- 

 portant and successful has the spread of this species become 

 that the insertion here of a few extracts on the subject, 

 from the reports of the officers in charge of the several 

 gardens to which they were originally sent, may be desirable. 



