TAPPING 73 



In Ceylon the tree at Henaratgoda known as No. 2, 

 and planted in 1876, has a circumference of 137 inches 

 at 3 feet from the ground. It is considered one of 

 the finest in the East, and it is interesting to com- 

 pare this specimen with trees in Brazil. The girth of 

 forest-grown rubber-trees varies to a marked degree in 

 different localities of the Amazon Valley. For mature 

 trees it ranges from 50 to 200 inches in circumference 

 measured at a height of 3 feet from the base of the 

 trunk. Occasional examples occur of the girth attain- 

 ing such colossal dimensions as 300 inches. It is safe 

 to consider the average girth of estrada trees in tapping 

 as 100 inches or thereabouts, and the average height 

 100 feet approximately. The age of the trees is extremely 

 difficult to gauge with any degree of accuracy, owing to 

 the absence of all reliable records in this direction. In 

 the Madeira districts and elsewhere many trees are 

 found that have been tapped for sixty years past, there- 

 fore they are probably not less than eighty years old ; 

 but the growth and development is so far influenced by 

 surrounding conditions of locality, light, air, soil, and ex- 

 posure, that size cannot be regarded as a criterion of age. 



So far as planted trees are concerned, the indications 

 are that the growth in the Amazon Valley is distinctly 

 less rapid than in Malaysia, or even in Ceylon, where 

 the development is much slower than in the Federated 

 Malay States, the Straits Settlements, Java, or Sumatra. 

 Rubber-trees in the gardens of the Museo Goeldi at 

 Para, carefully cared for during the last fifteen years, are 

 no greater in girth or height than those of seven years 

 old in many of the Malay plantations. In clearings 

 where plants have been set out, they are in even a more 



