EUPH0KBIA('K7l<:. 228 



f/se. — The K Ipecacuanhiv is seldom used cuinmercially. 'i'rue ipecaeu- 

 auha is olttaiiied I it 'in Cephaelis (see Cephaelis of Kubiacea-, p. 1«)2). 



H£V£A, Aul). Calyx .Vtoothed, valvate ; petals wanting; stamens 

 5 to 10, united, forming a tube; anthers extrorse ; styles 'i in number, 

 short and emarginatc; inflorescence a raceme, made up of a number 

 of few-flowered cymes ; pistillate flowers above, and the staminate ones 

 below ; ovary ovoid, 8-celled ; capsule large ; exocarp somewhat fleshy, 

 endocarp slightly woody ; seeds large, oblong, smooth ; testa dry and 

 brittle. Large trees, with 3»foliate leaves. 



H. Braziliensis, Mill. (Caoutchouc.) Trunk 50 to 60 feet high ; bark rough, 

 grayish-l)rowii ; branchiug uear the top; branches and branclilets covered with 

 a rough bark, the brauchlets disfigured with tumors or swellings. Leaves on 

 long petioles, branching at the end into three parts, each division terminated 

 with a fleshy evergreen obovate-acuminate leaflet, dark-green above and light 

 beneath ; seeds oval and spotted. 



There are 18 genera and 44 species of 

 plants from which the gum elastic of 

 commerce is obtained, mostly large trees. 

 The most important of those that yield 

 the largest quantity of the best quality 

 are, first, the Hevea Braziliensis, order 

 Euphorbiaceae ; Ficus elastica, order Urti- 

 caceae ; and Castilloa elastica, order 

 Urticaceoe. 



At the exposition at Philadelphia 

 in 1876, a gum was exhibited procured 

 from an undescribed plant of the Com- 

 positee, found in Durango, Mexico. 



Geography. — The hevea is a native of 

 the region of South America drained by Euphorbia Ipecacuanh.« (Spurge), 

 the Amazon and its tributaries. The 



Jiciis is distributed over southern Asia, middle Africa, and northern Australia. 

 These, as well as the other trees and vines tliat yield the gum-elastic, are 

 tropical or .strictly subtropical plants. The castilloas are found on the Pacific 

 slope in northern South America, and extend into rentral America. Castilloa 

 elastica was sent from America in 1875 to Kew Gardens, England, and thence 

 to India, and in 1876 Hevea Braziliensis reached India by the same route, 

 and is thriving there and upon the i.sland of Ceylon. 



Eti/mologi/. — The meaning of hevea is obscure. Braziliensis, the specific 

 name, denotes the country where it is indigenous ; elastica is from the Latin 

 elasticiis, elastic or pliable. The name India rubber has been applied to this 

 substance l)ecause early in its history it was used to erase or ntb out pencil 

 marks, an<l as it was l)rouglit from the West Indies it was called India rubber. 

 Gum elastic, anotlier popular name, means "pliable gum." Caoutrhour is the 

 native South American name. 



Historij. — In 149.3 tlie Spaniards, on the second voyage of Columbus, saw 

 the natives of Haiti amusing themselves witli ela.stic balls wliieh they threw 

 and caught. More than a century after that (in 1615) Torquemada published 

 an account of the New World and its ])ro(Uuts. in whicli he says the natives 

 smear the juice of a tree over their bodies, and when it coagulates, they scrape 



