Rubber. 37 
quite possible that the juices were from another hya-hya. The Arawaks call almost 
any tree that furnishes some sort of gum, “ hya-hya,” and, asa rule, have no idea 
of its value or otherwise. In the North West District, thanks to Mr. Young, 
they seem now to be taking a more intelligent interest in rubber-producing trees. 
With regard to Mr. Young’s efforts in this direction I would most strongly 
advisehim . . . . to plant in addition to the sapium sp. some of the well- 
known commercial rubber trees, such as Hevea brasiliensis. . . . . The 
whole question concerning the value of the rubber-producing trees of the 
colony is one well worthy of careful investigation. Valuable information would 
be forthcoming could some painstaking and energetic officer with some knowledge 
of plants and soils, be specially commissioned to investigate the question.” 
It will thus be seen that the question of the rubber trees of the colony practi- 
cally was in abeyance from 1886 to 1906. In consequence of this report I was 
ordered to make an expedition to the upper reaches of the Pomeroon and Waini 
rivers during the months of June, July and August of 1906. In paragraph 8 of the 
report forwarded to the acting Director of the Department of Science and Agri- 
culture I reported as under : 
“This expedition has settled the question as to whether there are valuable 
rubber-producing trees in the colony—the answer being in the affirmative. 
There are several species of sapium growing scattered here and there in our forest 
which yield an abundance of latex forming good and valuable rubber. Another 
point of great importance which has been settled, is, that Mr. Henri Jumelle 
: . —an authority on rubber trees—is wrong when in his Plantes @ Caout- 
chouc (p. 15) he speaks of Sapium Jenmani as being spoilt by the quantity of 
resin contained in the latex, giving a useless product. This is not so—the 
S. Jenmani I found in the upper Pomeroon yields commercial rubber. It is 
evident that, either by aboriginals or others, with the latex of this sapium had 
been mixed the milk obtained from several of our native ficus plants, such as 
* Dukalaballi,’ ete. - 
“Now my experience was that these ficus yielded norubberat all but only a 
poor quality resin, and if mixed with the latex of any valuable rubber tree would 
naturally result in a useless product being obtained. These ficus are much more 
easily found and would, therefore, be readily tapped by Indians and others for 
adulterating purposes.” 
In the last few years more information in connection with the Sapiums has 
been obtained, though probably there is still a great deal to be learnt concerning 
this genus. For one thing, the tree which just a few years ago was considered 
to be S. aucwparium we now know, thanks to Mr. A. W. Bartlett, B.Se., B.A., 
ex-Government Botanist, to be S. Helmsleyana. 8S. biglandulosum yields no 
rubber and is found growing commonly on our coastlands and in Georgetown 
itself. There is no doubt, however, but that there are, if not distinct species, 
several varieties of sapiwms throughout the colony. The so-called S. Jenmani, 
which yields rubber, and is found growing on certain creeks of the Essequibo 
river, such as Arraquah creek, etc., do not, in many instances, closely resemble 
S. Jenmani and I have seen large numbers of Sapiwms, on Liberty Island, the 
leaves of which are certainly unlike the true Jenmani, and was shown balls of 
