SUPPLY OF CAOUTCHOUC AND GUTTA PERCIIA 221 



twenty to thirty inches. Without injury to the tree, from fifty 

 to sixty pounds of caoutchouc may be tapped from it annually, 

 so that, even setting aside America, where the area of the 

 Siphonia elastica is still greater, the East alone would be able 

 to meet any demand. With regard to gutta percha, we may 

 safely reckon upon the same inexhaustible abundance, as the 

 rjipidly growing Icosandra has a very wide range, and planta- 

 tions of it, which might be multiplied to any extent all over 

 the Eastern Islands, have already been formed at Singapore. 



