1838.] Report on the Caoutchouc Tree of Assam. 133 



As we have reason for supposing that they are equally abundant 

 throughout the districts of Chdrdwdr, some approximation to their real 

 number may be formed. Thus taking the length of the belt of forests 

 in this district to be 30 miles, and its average breadth 8, we may form 

 so many sections, each of the diameter of 100 yards, 50 yards being 

 the utmost extent to which one is able to see on either side owing to the 

 extreme thickness of the jangal. In the above thirty miles 528 sections 

 will be formed, and the total number of trees, taking 80 as the average 

 of each section, will be 42,240, and however overestimated this may 

 subsequently prove to be, it is evident that the tree is very abundant, 

 since, even in the infancy of the scheme, 300 maunds of juice have been 

 collected in 30 days. 



Nothing definitive can be stated of the probable number of trees in 

 the whole valley. It is known to exist about Godlpdra and at Borhath, 

 On the south side of the valley, and I think that it will be found to exist 

 along both sides, wherever a belt of Turdi* exists. I have no doubt 

 but that Assam alone will, when the value of the juice becomes more 

 generally known to the natives, be able to meet all demands. 



The tree likewise exists in plenty on the Khdsiya mountains, on 

 which it occasionally ascends as high as 4500 feet. Mr. Royle, in his 

 Illustrations, p. 336 says, that it does not extend beyond Pandua, Jainti- 

 pur and Chirr a Punji, but this statement is apparently made on no 

 other grounds than that of its not having been then found elsewhere. 



The geographical range of the tree, as far as has been hitherto ascer- 

 tained, may be stated to be between 25° 10' and 27° 20' north latitude, 

 and between 90° 40' and 95° 30' east longitude. Throughout this space 

 it will be found in the densely-wooded tracts, so prevalent along the bases 

 of hills, and perhaps on their faces up to an average elevation of 22,500 

 feet. 



The attention of the public was, it appears, first directed to this 

 tree by the celebrated Dr. Roxburgh, a man worthy of the estimation 

 he was held in by government, both on account of his extensive strictly 

 botanical knowledge as well as of that of vegetable statistics. 



The manner in which this discovery was made was given as follows : 

 " Towards the close of 1810, Mr. Matthew Richard Smith of Sylhet 

 sent me a vessel there called a turong filled with honey in the very state 

 in which it had been brought from the Pan&ua or Jaintipur mountains, 

 north of Sylhet. The vessel was a common, or rather coarse basket in 

 the shape of a four-cornered, wide-mouthed bottle, made of split ratans, 



* Lieut. Vetch has since ascertained that the tree is as abundant in the dis* 

 trict of Naudtvdr, as iu that of Ch&rdwar.' 



