C 167 j 

 XIV. 



A BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF 



Urceola Elastica, or Caout-chouc Vine 

 of Sumatra and Pullo-pinang; 



WITH AN 



Account of the Properties of its infpiffated Juice, 

 compared with thofe of the 



American Caout-chouc. 

 By WILLIAM ROXBURGH, M. D. 



FOR the difcovery of this ufeful vine, we are, I 

 believe, indebted to Mr. Howison, late Surgeon 

 at Pullo-pinang; but it would appear he had no op- 

 portunity of determining its botanical character. To 

 Doctor Charles Campbell, of Fort Marlborough, we 

 owe the gratification arifing from a knowledge thereof. 



About twelve months ago I received from that gen-, 

 tleman, by means of Mr. Fleming, very complete 

 fpecimens, in full foliage, flower, and fruit. From 

 thefe I was enabled to reduce it to its clafs and order 

 in the hinnaan Syftem. It forms a new genus in the 

 clafs Pentandria, and order Monogynia, and comes in 

 immediately after Taberntemontana, confequently be- 

 longs to the thirtieth natural order, or clafs called 

 Contort* by Linnaeus in his natural method of claflifi- 

 cation or arrangement. One of the qualities of the 

 plants of this order is, their yielding, on being cut, a 

 juice which is generally milky, and for the molt part 

 deemed of a poifonous nature. 



The generic name, Urceola, which I have given to 

 this plant, is from the ftrudhire of the corol, and the 

 fpecific name from the quality of its thickened juice. 



So 



