Rubber 



287 



Sheet Rubber. This is prepared in the same way as biscuit rubber, but in rectangular 

 instead of circular receptacles. There are certain difficulties in handling and -transporting these 

 thin sheets, and recently a plan has been devised of pressing sheets or biscuits into blocks 

 with satisfactory results. . • 



Crepe Rubber is another modern commercial form of plantation rubber;: The latex is 

 coagulated " in bulk " instead of in separate small receptacles. A large irregular mass of rubber 

 is obtained which is passed thro.ugh a > washings machine and obtained finally, in long thin 

 ribands, perforated .with small holes, and roughly resembling crepe in texture. 



Worm Rubber is also coagulated in bulk, pressed -into thin sheets, which arexut up by large 

 shears into irregular more or less- .worm-like pieces. 



Lace Rubber is very similar to crepe, rubber. All these last three forms can be made very 

 •expeditiously by the aid of- machinery and have the great "advantage of drying much more 

 rapidly than the solid, sheets or biscuits. 



Plantation Para rubber is in art active experimental stage, and producer and buyer are 

 •co-operating to rind the most ; advantageous method of preparation. A step towards this end 

 was the important rubber exhibition -held in Ceylon in 1906. 







CENTRAL AMERICAN, CASTILLOA, OR PANAMA' 



Central American rubber; is. one of the generally accepted names for the produce of Castilloa 

 ■elastica, a large i tree - : of the Nettle Order (Urticaceae) , occurring wild 'in Mexico, Guatemala, 

 Costa Rica, Honduras,. Nicaragua, and on the western' side of the Andes. as far south as Peru 

 and Bolivia. . The plant has been known to science longer'than any of the other rubber-yielding 

 plants, and was first described- by, Cervantes at a meeting of the Royal Botanic Garden of 

 Mexico in July, 1794, arid Copies; of his original published description, with *a figure of the 

 foliage and flowers of the plant,- are still in existence, although now very rare. The rubber 



By permission of Messrs. Maclaren, Shoe Lane 



FICUS ELASTICA ; SHOWING ROOTS FEEDING ON DEAD WOOD 



