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INDIA-KTJBBER PLANTS. 



In the praiseworthy endeavors to introduce new industries into the 

 Southern States, requests are made for economic plants of many kinds 

 that are strictly tropical productions, and among these may be placed 

 the India-rubber-bearing trees. 



Various plants afford caoutchouc, the elastic gummy substance bet- 

 ter known as India rubber, but as far as it is known it is solely pro- 

 duced by plants of tropical climates. In the East Indies it is collected 

 from Urceola elastica ; from several species of Ficus, mainly from Ficus 

 elastica, and from a few other species, natives of the East Indies and 

 western tropical Africa. 



South American rubber is also extracted from plants of different 

 genera. The best is said to be obtained from Hevea brabiliensis, a native 

 of the Para forests, considered to be distinct from the Sophonia elastica, 

 which furnishes the largest portion of the rubber entering into the 

 commerce of that country. The sand-box tree, Hura crepitans, yields 

 a milky juice which is similarly converted into caoutchouc by evapora- 

 tion. These plants belong to the natural order Euplwrbiacece, a large 

 family of plants, mostly yielding a milky juice, containing acrid and 

 poisonous properties. 



Mexican rubber is extracted from a native tree, the Castilloa elastica, 

 which grows abundantly near the Gulf coast. This plant is botanically 

 allied to the rubber producing Ficus of the East Indies. 



A new elastic gum has recently been produced in Mexico, which is 

 said to be derived from a native herbaceous plant allied to the family 

 of asters. This plant would probably succeed in the Southern States. 



These are strictly tropical trees, for which we have no suitable cli- 

 mate ; but attention might profitably be directed to the gum-producing 

 Mesquite tree of Texas, Algarobia glandulosa, which yields a nonelastic 

 gum of the nature and possessing all the essential qualities of gum. 

 arabic. 



CITEOK. 



CITRUS MEDICA. 



The thick rind of the citron is valued for the purpose of candying 

 or preserving in sugar for use in confectionery, etc. Growers of citrous 

 fruits in California and Florida have repeatedly requested information 

 as to the method of preparation and manufacture of this condiment. As 

 contributing to this information, the following extract from an authen- 

 tic source is offered : 



In all the countries I have mentioned above as contributing the raw fruit for this 

 industry, it is treated in the same manner for the over-sea passage. The fruit is simply 

 halved and placed in hogsheads or large casks filled with a fairly strong solution of 

 brine, the fruit being halved merely to insure thorough preservation of the rind by 

 an equal saturation of the interior as well as the exterior surface. In these casks it 

 arrives at the doors of the manufactory. 



