623 



Picus elastica, Roxb. Hort. Beng. (1814) p. C5. 



A large evergreen tree 100 ft. and upwards, sometimes in 

 the early stages growing as an epiphyte ; developing strong 

 aerial roots from the branches and buttress like roots near the 

 base. Leaves elliptic, acuminate, shining, dark green above, 

 lighter beneath, blade upwards of 10 or 12 in., 2)etiole about 

 1-2 in., stipules large (about 6 in,) colour somewhat pink. Figs 

 ^bout I in. long, sessile in the axils of the leaves, greenish-yellow 

 Avhen ripe. Seeds (achenes) small, each fig contains about 

 75 and in a lb. there are about 270,000 (Kew Bull. 1891, p, 100), 



///.—Wight, Ic. PL Ind. Or. ii. t. 663; L'Hort. Universel, 

 Paris, vi, (1845) p. 108; Griffith, Ic. PI. Asiatic, t. 59, f. F. 

 {development of organs) ; Gard. Chron. Sept. 19th, 1874, p. 359, 

 1 76; Sauvaigo, Les Cult. Medit. p. 62, f. 27 ; King, Ficus, Ann. 

 Bot. Gard. Calcutta, i. t. 54 ; Tropenpfl. 1899, p. 423: Revue Cult, 

 CoL viii. 1901, p. 332; Tropenpfl. 1905, p. 441 (trees 5 years 

 old at Tabalong, Borneo); India Rubber Journ. March 12th, 

 1906, p. 301 (Rambong tree, 48 yards in circumference) ; Indian 

 Forest Bull. No. 4, 1906, t. 1 (natural grown tree, about 120 ft. 

 high), t. 2 (plantation tree, 55 ft. high, about 15 years old) and 

 in Agric- Journ. India, i. 1906, t. 27; BoU. Ort. Bot. Palermo, 

 V. 1906, t. 1 ; Yves Henry, Caoutchouc Afr. oceid. t. 8 (young 

 plant) ; L'Agricv prat, pays chauds, viii. 1908, part 1, p. 97 

 <young plant); Bull Agric. Congo Beige, i, 1910, p. 256, t. 88 

 (in plantation, Eala), ii. 1911, p. 509, f, 241 (at Boma). 



Vernac, names. — Rambong, Karet (W. Java, Watty Manson) ; 

 Hatte-nooge (Ceylon, Thivaites) ; Rambong (Sumatra^ Witt) ; 

 Oetah V Rambong (Malay, Fox^ Murton) ; Nyaung Kj^etpaung 

 (Burma, 5ra7i/:?i5).— Assam Rubber, India-Rubber Fig. : Indian 



Caoutchouc- 

 dative of Assam; cultivated in India. Ceylon^ Java, Su-p 

 matra. West Africa and other parts of Tropical Africa, Egypt, 

 Sevchelles, &c. West Indies. 



-*■'■" 



This is the main source of Assam Rubber, chiefly from wild 

 plants and before the introduction of Para Rubber also the mo^jt 

 important source of rubber from Java and Sumatra, whence at 

 the present day the greater part of the trade supplies come, from 

 l3oth wild and cultivated trees— samples in the Kew Museum of 

 ^' Java Rubber,'' Penang Rubber" (Figgis & Co., 1898), '' Pama- 

 noekan BciUs," Java (Inter, Rubber Exhib, London; 1911) 



r 



*' Ordinary Block Rambong," Delhi Moeda Estate, Sumatra 

 (Inter, Rubber Exhib. London, 1908) and ** Laminated Ram- 

 bong " (Ibid.) &c. Plantations were estabhshed in Java 1872 

 s>nd in Assam, 1874 (Watt, Comm. Prod, India, p. 652). Kew 

 has been instrumental in distributing the plant to the tropical 

 Colonies and it is probable that it may now be found more or 

 less widelv spread in the Tropics generally. Seed was sent to 

 Lagos direct from India in 1890 (Kew BulL 1891, p. 97)* In 

 1905 it was being planted at the Onitsha Plantations and 

 reported to be doing well (p. 37 of this work) and in 1908 reported 



