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The World's Commercial Products 



rapid. The rubber is of good quality, and comes 

 on the market in " lumps " and in other forms. The 

 collection and exportation of this rubber, now so 

 important an industry in many parts of the west 

 coast, is quite a modern development. As noted in 

 the Colonial Report on Lagos for 1905, " Merchants 

 took up the idea with enthusiasm. With startling 

 suddenness the easy-going native awoke to the fact 

 that wealth abounded in the forest round him and 

 learnt for the first time that in sitting under his 

 own fig tree he had been unconsciously reposing in 

 the shade of the family bank." 



The cultivation of this rubber tree is being under- 

 taken in West Africa, and it has also been introduced 

 into other parts of the world, growing, for instance, 

 very well in parts of the West Indies. 



CEARA RUBBER, OR MANICOBA 



Ceara rubber is obtained from a tree of medium 

 size known botanically as Manihot Glaziovii, belong- 

 ing to the Spurge Order (Euphorbiaceae). It is a 

 very close relation of the cassava plant (M. utilis- 

 sima), from which tapioca, amongst other products 

 is made. The cassava plant also has a milky juice but 

 it does not yield rubber, and it is interesting to find 

 two such closely related plants, one yielding a valu- 

 able foodstuff and the other rubber. A native of 

 Brazil, the Ceara rubber plant was brought into 

 notice in 1876, when seeds and plants were collected 

 in Brazil by Mr. Cross and transmitted to the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew. In the following year 

 plants were distributed from Kew to India, Ceylon, 

 and other colonies. The plant has been introduced 

 into many parts of the tropics, for, like most of the 

 other rubber plants, it only thrives in hot countries, 

 and now it is grown in such widely separated 

 countries as India, Ceylon, Queensland, West Africa, 

 Zanzibar, Uganda, Natal, the West Indies, as well 

 as in its original home. 



It grows with tremendous rapidity, plants raised 

 from seed often reaching ten or more feet within one 

 year and thirty feet by the end of the second year. Once seen, the trees are easily recognised 

 by their spreading habit, their five-lobed, curiously bluish-grey leaves, and the bark, which 

 peels off in thin sheets or strips, like that of a silver birch. The plant will thrive in places 

 absolutely unsuited to most cultivated plants. Rocky and stony soils, of poor quality 

 and 'in arid districts, present no obstacles to it, and although, setting aside Central America, 

 but little is done with the plant at present, it is not improbable that in time it will be grown 

 to a considerable extent on lands which are not suited to other rubber plants. 



Trees raised from seed Can be tapped when about four to six years old. The thin outer layers 

 of bark are usually removed, and either the whole surface scraped sufficiently deep to allow 

 the latex to escape, or incisions made here and there with a knife. The latex is very liquid, 



By permission of Messrs. Maclaren & Co., Shoe Lane 

 TREE RECOVERING AFTER TAPPING 



