186 A 
a 
: 
hear have been received from Liverpool of dee eg ee of this 
article are far from favourable ; the price went o 2. TE 
per Ib., but has fallen again, and it would appear that i per lb. 
is about. the price obtainable in England in ordinary times. 
idea of the great value of he article having got abroad here, the 
price rose to an absurd figure, having during t this last season 
varied from 8,000 reis, or los. to 26,000 reis, or 52s. per 15 kilos., 
or 33 Ibs. The method employed in the e preparation of the rubber 
is very primitive, and, I think, may easily account for the article 
not being well received; if the milk were treated in a more 
careful manner, there seems no reason why the rubber should not 
lumps of rubber are then placed in the sun, after which it is sent 
to the market; from this defective mode of preparation a great 
loss of weight afterwards occurs, frequently as much as 40 to 50 
per cent., some say even more.” (1880, pp. 47, 48.) 
A quantity of good seeds of Ene plant (Hancornia speciosa) 
were sent to Kew by Mr. C. Craven, of aay nambuco, and we 
distributed among the oe. Bolas Sea :—Brisbane, | 
Calcutta, Ceylon, Demerara, Sin re, Juv , and Jamaica. The 
o 
seeds sown at Kew germinated tecly, bur owing to damp the 
plantlets all perished. Apparently this plant prefers a dry 
atmosphere and a sandy soil. (1882, p. 24.) 
The following detailed account of the plant, and of the rubber _ 
obtained from it, is translated from a paper by Professor O. — 
Warburg, in Der Tropenflanzer, Zeitschrift für Tropische Land- — 
wirthschaft, iii., p. 147 :— 
* Mangabeira rubber is the product of Hancornia speciosa, à 
tree of the Natural Order Apocynacex, found in those dry 
regions of Brazil which lie to the south of the — of the 
Amazon. It occurs on the so-called Campos cerrados, in the 
Provinces of Pernambuco, Bahia, Goyaz, Minas Sone, Matto Grosso 
I 
and Sao ulo n rovinces of Ba and Pernambuco 
the rubber is chiefly obtained. The tree is abundant in the 
Provinces of Goya inas Geraes, and, according to Edwall,* 
in such amount as a Fae PRIME plant of their Campos 
o be = 
cerrados. In the eed ing Province of São Paulo, the range —— 
of Hancornia crosses its nn limi the Rio Grande, and  . 
o the n the 
native campo, it can be grown in a more moist climate to à - 
luxuriant extent. Towards the west it spreads through Matto E 
Grosso to the eui aue of e 
In Paraguay, at Jacuati, to iha south-east of Concepcion, Balansa 
has collected a plant which, if not iem same, is a very near kt 
Pe l| 
 .* Gustavo Edwall, * Die Mangabeira,” in Deutsche Zeitung 8. Paulo, No. 99, 
