THE WORK OF THE FOEEST DEPARTMENT IN INDIA. 39 



The dhaura tree, Anogeissus lati folia, yields a whitish- 

 yellow gum used extensively for sizing paper- and calico 

 printing. It makes up into a poor mucilage. 



Bauhinia retusa, a tree of North- West and Central India, 

 yields a clear yellow to reddish coloured gum with a bright 

 fracture. It is collected in considerable quantities in the outer 

 Himalaya, being used for medicinal purposes. Professor 

 Dunstan in a report gives its viscosity as eight times that of 

 gum arable. 



Odina Wodier (jhingan or mohin) yields a copious gum 

 used in fixing whitewash, sizing paper and in medicine. It i& 

 a common tree of the deciduous forests of India. 



Cochlospermum Gossypium yields the " katira " gum of 

 commerce; it exudes from the tree in long whitish corrugated 

 streams, and is used by shoe-makers, in medicine, and as a poor 

 substitute for gum tragacanth. 



Buchanania latifolia, a tree found throughout India and 

 Burma, yields large quantities of gum, making up into a fair 

 mucilage which deserves further attention. 



Gardenia lucida yields a hard opaque yellow to greenish- 

 brown gum-resin used in cutaneous diseases, while that of 

 Gardenia gummifera is used for similar purposes and is 

 also edible. 



{g) India rubber. 



The only indigenous rubber tree of importance is Ficus 

 elastica, a large evergreen tree found wild in the moist forests 

 of the outer Eastern Himalaya, Assam and Upper Burma, 

 chiefly in the Hukong Valley. In order to supplement the 

 natural supplies, plantations on a fairly extensive scale have been 

 made by the Forest Department in Assam. With the advent of 

 plantations of Para (Hevea) rubber, however, it was found that 

 the Assam plantations could not compete financially with them, 

 mainly for the reason that it takes some 12 to 14 years for Ficus 

 elastica to come into bearing as against 4 to 6 years for Hevea, 

 while age for age the yield of Ficus plantations cannot compare 

 with that of Hevea plantations. 



