134 Report on the Caoutchouc Tree of Assam, [Feb. 



several species of which grow in abundance amongst the abovemen- 

 tioned mountains, and contained about two gallons. Mr. Smith observed 

 that the inside of the vessel, was smeared over with the juice of a tree 

 which grows on the mountains. I was therefore more anxious to examine 

 the nature of this lining than the quality of the honey. The turong 

 was therefore emptied and washed out, when to my gratification I found 

 it very perfectly lined with a thin coat of caoutchouc*." Dr. Roxburgh 

 then mentions one or two facts, which are consonant with the views of 

 modern vegetable physiology, viz. " that old trees afford a better and more 

 indecomposable juice than young ones, and that during the cold season 

 the juice is better but more scanty than in the hot. It is extracted by 

 incisions across the bark down to the wood, at a distance of about a foot 

 from one another, all round the trunk or branch up to the top of the 

 tree ; and the higher, the more abundant is the fluid said to be. After one 

 operation, the same tree requires about a fortnight's rest, when it may 

 be again repeatedf ." The only description hitherto given of the tree is 

 that of Dr. Roxburgh ; it was drawn up from young specimens, but 

 it is quite sufficient to enable one to recognise the plant. I subjoin a 

 sketch of the only flowering branch I have hitherto met with. The roots 

 of this really noble tree spread out in every direction on reaching the 

 ground, and the larger ones are half uncovered : they occasionally assume 

 the appearance of buttresses, but never to such an extent as those of 

 some other trees. The nature of the trunk of this and some other spe- 

 cies of the same genus is so extraordinary that it may not be amiss to 

 make a few remarks on its structure. It differs in the first place from 

 the ordinary form of trunk by its sculptural appearance, and it is from 

 this that its extremely picturesque appearance arises. 



The appearance arises entirely from the tendency of these trees to 

 throw out roots both from the main trunk as well as from the branches, 

 and from the extreme tendency these have to cohere with the trunk or 

 with each other. If the roots are thrown out from or very near the 

 main trunk, they ordinarily run down its surface, and cohere with it 

 firmly and hence the sculptured appearance ; if, as happens in some, they 

 are thrown out from the branches at such a distance from the trunk 

 that they do not come in contact with it, they pass down to the earth, 

 and form what I call supports. These attain their maximum of deve- 

 lopments in the banian and render the growth of the tree quite indefinite. 

 These supports appear never to produce leaf, bearing branches, so long, 

 at least, as they remain attached to the tree. They are generally per- 



* Roxburgh's Flora Tndica, Vol. III. p. 543. 

 t Roxburgh's Flora Indica, Vol. III. p. 544. 



