RUBBER 271 



to learn that great patience and perseverance were needed 

 on the part of those who brought the seeds to England. 



' The credit of initiating the cultivation of rubber in British 

 territory belongs to the late Marquess of Salisbury, then 

 Secretary of State for India. With the object of obtaining 

 seeds or plants for the purpose of introducing the industry into 

 India, Lord Salisbury communicated with Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 the Director of Kew Gardens. . . . The British Government 

 authorized the dispatch of an expedition to the Amazons 

 to procure seeds and plants for cultivation in India, and 

 in 1873 Mr. James Collins (afterwards Government Botanist 

 at Singapore) went to Brazil and obtained some hundreds of 

 seeds of Para rubber. . . . From the seeds sent by him about 

 a dozen plants were raised at Kew. Six were sent to Calcutta, 

 but they died.' l 



At last, in 1876, a commission was given by the authorities 

 at Kew to Mr. Wickham for the ' introduction of the tree 

 which produced the true Para 2 rubber of commerce '. 



Mr. Wickham was himself at that time engaged in cultivat- 

 ing Hevea brasiliensis at Santarem, near the junction of the 

 Tapajos and Amazon Rivers, and in his book (On the Plantation, 

 Cultivation, and Growing of Para Indian Rubber) he gives 

 a fascinating account of how he successfully overcame every 

 difficulty that stood in his way. 



All around were the great hot forests, and in them, growing 

 in glorious profusion, were the wonderful Hevea trees. The 

 season for the ripening of their seeds was drawing near, and 

 if they were not gathered now a whole year must elapse before 

 anything further could be done. But it was useless to gather 

 them, for the problem still remained, how to convey them 

 quickly to England. 



Just at that time the S.S. Amazonas, the first of the new 

 Inman Line of steamers, had come up the river, and Mr. Wick- 

 ham and a few other planters were invited to dinner on board. 

 They passed a pleasant evening and the steamer proceeded 

 on her way up the river. 



1 C. Malcolm Gumming, Rubber Planting in Malaya. 



2 Para is a state in Brazil, and one of its ports is also called Pard. 



