276 -POSEST TREES. 



being of slow growth, it is possibly close-grained and 

 more durable than the timber of most fig trees. 



Cultivation —The Java fig and its variety describ- 

 ed above are easily propagated from layers, which 

 should be taken off during the rainy season. A 

 deep loose soil suits the species admirably, and 

 swampy ground is soon dried by it. This is due to 

 the root-limbs rising progressively above the surface, 

 so that in the course of a few years the ground level 

 is raised sufficiently to facilitate natural drainage. 

 Plant in large pits at 50 feet apart. On poor gravelly 

 soils, the tree makes Httle progress. Local 

 efforts to raise seedlings have not met with success, 

 but the directions given for sowing seed under the 

 next species should apply more or less successfuUy 

 to all the figs, 

 544 Ficus elastica, Eosb. 



Fig.-King Fie PL 45, 64 ; Wight. Ic. t. 663. 



"ReteTcence^— Brand. Fm: Fl. 417; Kurz. For. 



Fl. 444; Bid. of Econ. Prod, of Ind. 



The India rubber tree. Cultivated in the Lal- 

 Bagh and sparsely in some of the coffee districts. 

 Indigenous to the base of the Eastern Himalaya, 

 the Khasi Hills, Assam, Burmah, and the Malayan 

 region. A handsome evergreen tree of 40 — 60 feet. 

 With or without aerial roots according to locality. 

 Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, coriaceous, rigid, 

 shining, oblong to elliptic, with an acute apex ; 

 venation exceptionally fine and regular, average 

 blade, in a full grown tree, 2f x 7 in. In vigorous 

 saplings, the leaf is much larger. Stipules' very 

 large at the tips of the shoots, caducous. Fruit in 

 sessile pairs over the leaf scars, oblong, pale yellow, 

 the size of a large pea. 



Timber of no value. Weight 43 lb. per cubic foot. 

 The India rubber of commerce is prepared from the 

 milk-sap of this speciee. 



