CHAPTER I. 



CAOUTCHOUC OR GUM-ELASTIC TREE. 



The Ficus elasticus. Its growth and description. The Euphorbicea tribe. The Massaranduba. 

 The Caoutchouc tree of Assam. Varieties of Caoutchouc, and its specific gravity. Dr. Ure's 

 analysis of the gum. Remarks on trees producing gums resembling Caoutchouc. 



A MORE specific and minute account, than we are able to give, 

 of the trees of South America and India, as well as other parts 

 of the globe, which produce the genuine gum-elastic, would be 

 highly interesting, as also an account of the peculiarities of the 

 various trees and plants which yield a sap, and some of them a 

 gum, that very nearly resemble gum-elastic in appearance, but 

 which do not possess its wonderful property of elasticity. 



From the accounts that are published, as well as the report 

 of travelers, it is evident that there is a marked difference be- 

 tween the trees of South America which yield the genuine gum- 

 elastic, and those of India, as well as a difference hereafter 

 noticed in the gum which they produce. 



We are informed by persons who have visited the regions 

 where India rubber trees abound, that they are much more ac- 

 cessible in India, and on the western coast of South America, 

 than they are in the dense forests of Brazil. 



It is obvious that the warlike and indolent, or peaceable and 

 industrious character of the natives of the different countries, 

 must also affect very much the cost of the gum in the different 

 countries where it is obtained. 



It is undoubtedly owing very much to influences of this kind, 

 that the gum from India and Borneo has heretofore been im- 

 ported, on the average, at less than half the cost of that from 

 Para. 



