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as adhesive as glue, and of about the consistency and colour of 

 putty. To get the juice, the Fijians break off the leaves from 

 the branches, and collect it as it flows from the petioles and 

 the wounds on the branches caused by the breaking off of 

 the leaves. The branches are next broken off the trees, and 

 each branch is broken up into pieces from G inches to a foot 

 long. 



As fast as the pieces are broken, first one end of them is 

 placed in the mouth, then the other, till the mouth is full of 

 crude caoutchouc. Several mouthfuls are collected together 

 and squeezed into a round mass or ball. This method of col- 

 lecting the juice, with the ruthless manner of breaking the 

 trees, somewhat surprised me when I first saw it done. Since 

 then repeated trials in all parts of Fiji have convinced me that 

 the sap or juice does not flow freely by wounding the bark on 

 the trunk of the tree in any way whatever. This is the reason 

 for breaking the branches. The youngest branches of the tree 

 contain most juice. When the old or firm wooded branches 

 are broken very little sap flows from them. When the young 

 branches are broken the sap flows rapidly for a few seconds. 

 It soon coagulates when exposed to the air, and the wound 

 has to be freshened to cause the sap to flow anew. When 

 the branches are broken into pieces of about a foot in 

 length the juice flows from the ends and the pieces are drained 

 almost entirely. A little more may be obtained by breaking 

 the pieces in the middle, but very little. The juice flows 

 from between the bark and the wood, and from the pith, or 

 from between the pith and the wood. 



The coagulated juice would seem to have some attraction for 

 the juice in a semi-liquid condition. If a portion of the 

 coagulated juice be applied to the semi-liquid juice adhering 

 to the ends of a broken branch, the slightest touch makes them 

 join firmly. The adhesion is so perfect that the portions will 

 not be separated, and a slight pull takes the semi-coagulated 

 juice clean out of the many fissures or cracks in the ends of 

 the broken branch. To obtain crude caoutchouc from this tree 

 the juice has simply to be collected and worked with the fin- 

 gers. It requires no other preparation. The juice congeals 

 so rapidly that when collected in dry weather it requires little 

 if any drying. The caoutchouc may be sent to market in balls, 

 or it may be pressed in moulds into long thin pieces, 1 or 

 2 inches broad and an inch in thickness (more or less) as may 

 be required. Samples of it have been sent to England, and 



