206 



[Sept. 1906. 



GUMS, RESINS, SAPS AND EXUDATIONS. 



The Introduction of Castilloa Elastica to the East. 



By Ivor Etherington. 

 While first place is given by planters in the East to the Para rubber, 

 Hevea brasiliensis, the Central American rubber tree, Castilloa elastica, cannot be 

 altogether ignored. In Southern India it seems to have found favour more 

 than in Ceylon, although in the island it is doing well in the Matale and Passara 

 districts, but does not appear to thrive at low elevations not far inland from 

 the sea. 



In the West Indies, according to reports published by the Botanical Depart- 

 ments of the various islands, Castilloa is favoured as a shade tree for cacao ; 

 and in Venezuela it has been successfully used in sucli mixed plantations. In Mexico, 

 where planting is going on extensively, it is the Castilloa tree that is almost 

 entirely cultivated. So that as a plantation product Castilloa is second favourite. 



The introduction of this rubber tree to the East is an interesting and some 

 what romantic history, rivalling the story of the introduction of the Hevea, which 

 Wickham successfully accomplished after many difficulties had been overcome. 

 The tree is indigenous to most of the countries of Central America, and in 

 Mexico is called ule by the natives. It received its botanical name after a Spanish 

 botanist, Don Juan Del Castillo, who died in Mexico in 1795. It was due to the 

 initiative of Sir Clements Markham in the first place that rubber was at all tried as 

 a plantation product, and in 1870 this explorer, civil servant and botanist, " came to 

 the conclusion that it was necessary to do for the India rubber or caoutchouc- 

 yielding trees what had already been done with such happy results for the cinchona 

 tree." Markham regarded India as the most suitable part of the British Empire for 

 commencing operations in rubber planting ; and a detailed report on the subject 

 drawn up by the Curator of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum, Mr. J. Collins, 

 stated that the Heveas and Castilloa of America being superior to Ficus elastica 

 (Rambong) these trees should be introduced to the East. 



" The collection of Castilloa plants for introduction into India was a very 

 difficult service, for the trees grow in wild and unhealthy forests, with no means of 

 transport and no facilities of any kind. In Mr. Cross I found a man with all the 

 requisite qualifications for undertaking it. He is an excellent gardener, possessed of 

 great energy and determination, is acquainted with the language, and has had much 

 experience in South American travelling." * 



Robert Cross left England on May 2nd, 1875 and arrived at Panama on the 

 26th, for he was instructed to obtain his plants on the isthmus. He journeyed by 

 canoe up the River Chagres, and in his account of his expedition mentions innumer- 

 able hardships he had to endure and obstacles to be overcome in this pioneering 

 forest work. 



"The district investigated by me and where the plants were collected," he 

 wrote, " was reached by ascending for some distance the River Chagres and then 

 travelling for several miles through a stately forest into the heart of the isthmus. 

 The trees seen exceeded in height and dimensions those met with in the wooded 

 districts of the Amazon. An undergrowth of a thorny wild pine-apple (Bromelia), 

 10 feet in height, everywhere formed extensive thickets. Large powerful snakes 



* C. Markham's Peruvian Bark. 



