151 
Mr. Ropert Tnowsow to INDIA OFFICE. 
Bogota, Rape of bern 
Jul 
My Lorp 
I HAYE the honour to submit the following rena relative to 
a species of india-rubber tree indigenous to this country, it 
y, it having 
occurred to me that the introduction of the velti vali of this species 
would be attended with important reap to India 
This rubber is is  khown in commerce as “ Colombia pea ee " n has 
— 
.€ 
5 
ES 
mn 
e 
B 
. tf 
4 
— 
u- 
s 
e . 
E 
E 
E] 
"^ 
3 
o 
kei 
this 
botanically described, but it is Euphorbiaceous, and is closely allied to 
the genus Hevea, the Pará rubber plant. 
I have established in this country during the last five years a planta- 
tion of this rubber consisting of about t 70,000 trees, “this bein ng, I 
believe, as yet the only plantation made of this sort. Under cultivation 
this tree thrives admirably,'growing with great rapidity, and averaging 
about five feet a year. 
Crops are obtainable in from six to eight van but a tree five years 
old yields as much as 1 Ib. of rubber. It is a large forest tree, the 
trunks attaining six and seven feet in ciécimadé mi Four arrotas 
00 lbs.) of rubber ave been extracted from a single tree, but the 
average yield is far 
All the walle du "South American rubber plants, viz., the Pará, 
Castilloas, and Ceará have been introduced into India. Bu ti the species 
under consideration is not, I believe, known in India. 
The important consideration as regards this species, apart from its 
intrinsic value, is that it grows at great elevations on " Colombian 
Andes, viz. at from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea; hence in a 
salubrious mountain climate a condition of cultivation ofi prime import- 
'ance in the — of the planters of India and Cejlon, for the planters 
advantag 
of rubber are described Mr. Gustav Mann, an authority on Indian 
products, thus “the heat is about 98° in the "shade in Upper Assam. 
* Under these conditions, which are of excessive moisture, even anie 
* inundations during a portion of the year, caoutchouc trees o 
" govetvies thrive best.’ The Ceará rubber, however, grows in hot 
arid reg 
Rus. to i wholesale destruction of this tree (but few now ean 
by the rubber collectors, I explored, some five years ago, the 
wherein it abounded in order to examine the soil, climatie an e 
conditions affecting its growth. It may be mentioned that its area 
distributio: on has been peculiarly limited to a small - secti ion €— E. i 
amounted to many hun on — 
It is very difficult to propagate the tree from cuttings ; s benee L I have 
had to resort, during my supervision of the oer 
om seed, which, pir were always pron 
diffieulty 
