THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 133 



inside of their water-pots, and making the caoutchouc 

 itself into candles. A kind of junglevine (urceola elas- 

 tica), of the Prince of Wales Island, is the main repre- 

 sentative of this class in that remote portion of our 

 globe. Caoutchouc is obtained in the following man- 

 ner : with a sharp instrument straight and sloping inci- 

 sions are made one above the other, the first about a 

 man's height from the ground, which penetrate beneath 

 the bark. At the foot of the incision a vessel made of 

 clay, and holding about a tumblerful, is placed to re- 

 ceive all the sap ; these bowls are filled in about three 

 hours, if the tree is good, and from this the milk is 

 poured into a calabash at the foot of the tree. The sap 

 is liquid, and generally white at the time of extraction ; 

 the brown color with which we are familiar is imparted 

 to it by foreign matter, which is mixed up with it, and 

 it is still further darkened by the fires of Urucari nuts, 

 which yield a thick oily smoke and are said to be of great 

 value in the process. The Indians have clay moulds 

 of bottles, animals, etc., which they dip into the milk 

 and hold over the smoke till dry, repeating this until 

 the rubber is of sufficient thickness, when they take 

 it off the mould and the native manufacture is at an 

 end. The caoutchouc is suspended in the albumen 

 of the sap, like cream in milk. In order to separate 

 the caoutchouc from the other matter, the whole is 

 put in three or four times its bulk of water, and the 

 valuable material rising to the surface is removed on 

 the following day. 



All the countries that produce caoutchouc are 

 within the Torrid Zone; these are chiefly South 



