76 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. iv. 



and are not easy to propagate, except by seeds. The 

 willughbeias, on the other hand, grow quickly, and may 

 be easily and rapidly increased by vegetative as well as 

 by seminal modes of propagation, hence the latter are 

 more especially deserving of the attention of our Govern- 

 ment in India, where they might reasonably be expected 

 to thrive. 



No doubt there are yet many thousands of tons of 

 these products existmg in Bornean woods, but as the 

 trees are killed by the collectors without a thought of 

 replacement, the supply will recede further and further 

 from the markets, and so prices must of necessity rise as 

 the supply fails, or as the collection of it becomes more 

 laborious. 



The demand for caoutchouc from Borneo is a very 

 recent one, yet in many districts the supply is prac- 

 tically exhausted. In Assam, Java, and also in Aus- 

 tralia, rubber is supphed by Ficus elastica, which is 

 cultivated for the purpose. There are many milk -yield- 

 ing species of ficus in the Bornean forests which might 

 possibly afford a supply in remunerative quantities as the 

 result of careful experiments. The Malayan representa- 

 tives of the bread-fruit family also deserve examination, 

 as excellent rubber is yielded by Castilloa elastica, a 

 South-American plant of this order. 



