160 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



with a view of promoting public instruction. Te give some idea of 

 the vastly increasing extent, to which " Rubber " is now required, it 

 may be stated, that at Wetzell's factories in Miinden and Hildesheim 

 alone during 1884 were produced 100,000 Ibs. of surgical articles; 

 100,000 Ibs. valves, buffers and washers; 150,000 Ibs. hose and belting; 

 200,000 Ibs. insertion-sheets and tucks-packings; 250,000 dozens of 

 fancy-colored balls, irrespective of other rubber-articles ; this factory, 

 which exists since 1868, employing 600 workmen, and is operating 

 with machinery equal to 300 horses-power. Ficus Vogelii (Miquel) 

 yields Rubber in West- Africa. 



Ficus Indica, Linne". 



The Banyan-tree of India, famed for its enormous expansion and 

 air-roots. Although not strictly an utilitarian tree, it is admitted here 

 as one of the most shady trees, adapted for warm and moist regions. 

 At the age of 100 years one individual tree will shade and occupy 

 about one and a half acres, and rest on 150 stems or more, the main- 

 stems often with a circumference of 50 feet, the secondary stems 

 with a diameter of several feet. At Melbourne the tree suffers 

 somewhat from the night-frosts. 



Ficus infectoria, Willdenow. 



India, ascending to 5,000 feet. Probably hardy where frosts are 

 only slight, and then adapted for street-planting. Brandis and 

 Stewart found its growth quicker than that of Siris or Albizzia procera. 

 F. religiosa (Linne) ascends to the same height, and is of quick growth 

 in moiat climates. It bears well the clime of Beloochistan. It is one 

 of the trees, on which the lac insect largely exists. The fruits of some 

 huge Himalayan species for instance, F. virgata, F. glomerata 

 (Roxburgh) and F. Roxburghii (Wallich) are edible. 



Ficus macrophylla, Desfontaines.* 



The Moreton-Bay Fig-tree, which is indigenous through a great part 

 of East- Australia. Perhaps the grandest of Australian avenue-trees, 

 and among the very best to be planted, although in poor dry soil its 

 growth is slow. In the latitude of Melbourne it is quite hardy in the 

 lowland. The foliage may occasionally be injured by grasshoppers. 

 Easily raised from seed, the smallness of which admits of their very 

 easy transmission to remote places. Average-growth in height at 

 Port Phillip, 30 feet in 20 years. 



Ficus rubiginosa, Desfontaines. - 



New South Wales. One of the most hardy of all Fig-trees, and 

 very eligible among evergreen shade-trees, particularly for promenades. 

 It is estimated, that the genus Ficus comprises about 600 species, many 

 occurring in cool mountain-regions of tropical countries. The number 

 of those, which would endure a temperate clime, is probably not small. 



Ficus Sycomorus, Linne". 



The Sycomore-Figtree. Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia. Copiously 

 planted along the roadsides of Egypt. The evergreen shady crown, 



