ON THE PLANT AFFORDING CEAEA INDIA-RUBBER. 823 



down the back) containing a single seed. Seed ten-sixteenths in. 

 long by seven-sixteenths in. wide, broadly oval in face, somewhat 

 compressed with biconvex surfaces and a blunt edge, ventral raphe 

 well marked and a (caruncle) prominent and bilobed, surface 

 smooth and polished greyish yellow or brownish variously mottled 

 and splashed with purplish black, testa very hard and thick with a 

 radiated structure ; cotyledons very thin, foliaceous, slightly cordate 

 at base, endosperm oily but solid . 



In drying for the herbarium the leaves and flowers quickly 

 separate at the articulations and fall away from the axis. 



Many enquiries were addressed to me with reference to the 

 requirements and best method of cultivation of the tree ; and the 

 following extracts are from ' Notes on some Trees yielding India- 

 Rubber,' which I prepared and had printed in March last for 

 distribution to the planters and others, along with the seed from 

 the Eoyal Botanic Gardens : — 



" 1. Locality, Soil, mid Climate.— Ceara is a coast town of Brazil 

 in lat. 4° S., and the flat country which runs back to the hills is 

 described by Mr. Cross as manifestly possessing ' a very dry and 

 climate for a considerable part of the year. This is evident from 

 the fact that mandiocca and other crops require to be irrigated. 

 The rainy season is said to begin in November and end m May or 

 June ; torrents of rain are then reported to fall for several days in 

 succession, after which the weather moderates for a brief space. 

 According to some statements there are occasional years m winch 

 hardly any rain falls. This assertion concurs with the aspect 

 presented by the country in general. The daily temperature on 

 board the ship ranged from 82° to 85° F., but inland it is often 

 probably 90°. The localities traversed by me nowhere seemed to 

 be elevated more than 200 feet above the sea.' At 1 acatuba, 

 about forty miles from Ceara, the actual place where the specimens 

 were obtained, 'the general forest was tolerably high, but the 

 sparse small foliage did not afford much shade from the fierce > rays 

 of the sun. The soil was in places a sort of soft sandstone oi 

 gravel which was bound up in the most extraordinary manner 

 Neither grass nor weeds grew among this underwood, and there 



was an entire absence of ferns, mosses, and other plants In 

 another place somewhat farther from the coast, the ^eUei, 

 shortly after entering the bush-like forest, • came on a large .tract 

 of land covered by immense masses of grey granite, some i of wb ach 

 might be fifty tons or more in weight These ^.^ J}^ en 

 where they lay, and were the resul of a volcam explosion^ 

 Rounded masses of the same rock also cropped out in many 



Places. . . . Many good-siaed rubber trees were S^™^ 



spaces between these granite masses . . . . • -^ bU T. } 

 was very dry, but no doubt some seedlings had sprung up, which, 

 owing to numerous thickets of shrubs were not percwreo.^ 



«2. Propagation and Plant ln ; ,.-Uv : Cross s directions are as 

 follows :-' Seeds are early produced if the faM i*n **■£* 

 They should be buried in brown sand, kept pretty f^™™™** 

 are indications of growth, when they may be planted out peima- 



