136 



Report on the Caoutchouc Tree of Assam. 



[Feb. 



the minds of beginners. By the old school, the only one yet known on 

 this side of India, and which even in England has too many advocates* 

 each instance, almost, of anomalous form is at once elevated into a dis- 

 tinct or sui generis formation, as if nature in her wonderful workings 

 had no distinct plan. 



This was, and is, the great fault of the Linnsean School of Botany, 

 and it is continually causing curious and really, at this period, quite in- 

 excusable mistakes. If we turn over the pages of Roxburgh's Flora 

 Indica, which relate to this genus, we shall find that the fruit is describ- 

 ed before the flower — described in fact before it can possibly exist. 



That which Roxburgh called the fruit is the inflorescence, and con- 

 sists of a hollow, more or less closed receptacle, on which minute flowers 

 of different sexes are arranged. A receptacle on which a number of flowers 

 is situated, is by no means uncommon, and I may point out familiar in- 

 stances in the thistle, artichoke, dandelion, &c. in which the receptacle 

 may be said to be almost at its maximum of development. Frequent 

 instances of such enlarged receptacles occur in the natural order to 

 which the fig belongs, particularly in Dorstenia. 



In all these the receptacle is more or less flat ; were we to take one of 

 these flat receptacles and so dispose of it, that it shall become closed 

 except at its apex, we shall have an inflorescence similar to that of a fig 

 the scales found at the aperture of which are analogous to the scales 

 visible outside the heads of the beforementioned instances, and which, 

 as is well known, form the edible heart of the artichoke. A fig may 

 therefore be compared with the head of a compound flower, however 

 different it may appear at first sight to be*. 



The last point I have to notice with reference to these plants, is 

 that they are, more especially the peepul, frequently infested by some 

 parasites f. 



The juice is procured from transverse incisions made in the larger 

 root, which I have mentioned as being half exposed. The incision 

 reaches the wood, or even penetrates it, but the flow of the juice takes 

 place in these instances from the bark alone. 



Under the incision a hole is scooped out in the earth, in which a leaf> 

 folded up into the shape of a rude cap, is placed; for this purpose the 

 leaves of Phrynium capitatum of Linnaeus seem to be preferred. 



* A fig might be proved almost to be an artichoke. 

 + M. De Candolle reasoning on the supposition that no parasites existed on 

 trees furnished with milky juice, constructed an ingenious theory, which I have 

 long known to be invalidated in the instance of the jack-tree. 



