133 
INDIA OFFICE to ROYAL GARDENS, KEW, 
India Office, Whitehall, S.W. 
January 26, 1889. 
SIR, 
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to 
forward, for your information, a copy of a correspondence on the 
subject of a proposal made by Mr. Robert Thomson, of Bogota, in 
connection with the introduction to India of the species of Hevea 
Vien which produces the rubber known as the * Colombia 
ir, 
will observe that the Government of India are desirous 
o e 
first instance, and ask you to be so good as to favour me 
with any remarks you may wish to make on the subject. 
I have, ete 
"T 
(Signed) J. A. GODLEY. 
The Director, 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Mr. ROBERT THOMSON to INDIA OFFICE. 
Bogota, Republic of Colombia, 
July 23rd, 1888. 
My LORD, 
I HAVE the honour to regu. the following remarks relative to 
a ne of aegri Sit e indigenous to this country, it having 
rred to me that the ANAE pati on of the cultivation of this 
nap pees oi be attended with important results to India. 
This rubber is known in commerce as “Colombia Virgen." It 
u 
has been acing chie fly oe the United States, and next to the 
Para rubber it has soe acd the best prices in the market. But the 
ara rubber undergoes elaborate preparation for the market, 
Whereas the Colombia Virgen is simply drie d in the sun and by 
rubber 
I have mee in this country PM - last five years a 
[emer of — rubber consisting of about 70,000 — this 
eing ie ihe only S ahtakion: en of tbis sort. 
rapidity, and averaging about five feet a year. 
Crops are eo able in from six to eight years, but a tree five 
years old yields as much as 1 lb. of rubber. It is a large forest 
tree, the trunks attaining six and seven feet in Soe Paea 
Four arrotas (100 1bs.) of rubber pare been extracted from a single 
tree, but the average yield is far les 
All the well-known South acsi rubber plants, fit te 
Para, Castilloas, and Ceara have been introduced ihto India 
the species under consideration is not, I believe, or in 
The important consideration as regards this species, apart from 
its intrinsic value, is that it grows at great pameran on the 
