ML 
41 
` Through the kindness of Mr. S. W. Silver, F.L.S.; to whose 
good offices in connection with e investigation of te caia 
Arroa of rubber this establishment is greatly indebted, we have 
been Sarana by the India-rubber, Gutta-percha, and Telegraph 
W mpany, Limited, of Silvertown, with an interesting 
repari ind 20th January, 1888, upon the properties of this new 
of rubber from British Guiana. We are informed that the 
sabéis ossessed “so many rapa i properties, that it would 
i a ity could be pl: i 
be well to ascertain whether a larger quantity l ed in 
our hand her experiment he present quantity is 
far to small to enable anyone to say whether it would be practic- 
aare B 
. “We note.the remark as to its being ‘discoloured by being 
washed in peaty water'; this treatment has in no way interfered 
with our being able to report bsc it. One i of it is coated 
with a brownish substance of a resinous character, and is ev idenuy 
produced either b ee > the rn itself, contained in 
this substance, or from some other 
* The substance, as it is, cannot $ worked E all with the present 
india-rubber appliances ; this is due to its adhesiveness. This 
introduces the serious difficulty of rem Bie orai rom it by any 
ordinary process of drying, which i is prid A with Hadisu Bie 
oval of the resin, the caoutchouc is recovered in a soft 
sticky condition, quite unfit for manipulating as india-rubber 
* When a substance of such promise is sent for examination, it 
is not only important that a larger dese d should be ststinblo, Sk 
t for 
req 
vegetable product by accident, from being able to fall back upon 
it, as it were, as opportunity presents itself.” 
So far, there appear good grounds for abe that if the plant 
from which the rubber was extracted exists in any quantity in the 
interior of Demerara, the collection of the rabber would bo, a very 
prominin 9 commercial under 
n with this inbisek it may be useful to d 
th 
In tio 
Him r^ "ihe fact that another species of Forsteronia Qe. 
Jloribu 
called in Jamaica milk-wythe or green-wythe, has 
long been ion to yield caoutchouc. In the Report of the 
Director of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, 1883, p. 17, it is 
stated that, *an indigenous plant, known as the ‘green withe' of 
Jamaica, yields excellent rubber, a specimen of which was sent to 
me by the Rev. E. Bassett Key. 
“This plant, probably a species of Echites [Forsteronia] is 
found only in the interior woods of Manchester and St. Elizabeth, 
and, so far, I have been unable to obtain specimens in flower 
or fruit." 
In the Report for the year 1884, pp. 46-47, it is further stated 
that the * —— plant, known as the * milk-withe,'" pat tg in 
the mounta of Manchester and St. a an 
excellent werd 
