CAOUTCHOUC TREE OF ASSAM. 



193 



and Dhumria, the country being low and highly cultivated, presents 

 generally the appearance of one sheet of rice. In this march I 

 observed one or two instances of the absolute enclosure of Dicoty- 

 ledonous trunks by Fici. This enclosure arises entirely from the 

 excessive tendency to cohesion between the roots and radicles of 

 some of the species of this genus. With these, an expert gardener 

 might produce any form he likes ; the tendency exists in all to 

 throwing out additional roots ; in few only to excess. In the gene- 

 rality it is limited to the trunk and often to its base. Nobody can 

 understand this genus who cannot study it from living specimens. 



Cardiopterus is very common along the foot of these hills : it 

 abounds with milky juice, and in habit and some other points ap- 

 proaches nearer to Chenopodiacese than Sapindacese. 



December 7th. — Returned from Jeypore, whither I had been to 

 report on the Caoutchouc trees.* 



These trees appear to be limited to the belt of jungle or toorai 

 which commences towards the foot of the Aka and Duphla hills, and 

 which in the part in which I examined them is about 8 miles wide. 

 They are said to be found likewise among the neighbouring villages, 

 but I saw no instance of this. They occur solitarily, or at most in 

 groups of two or three. They appear to be more frequent t'o wards 

 the immediate base of the hills, and to prefer the drier parts of those 

 humid and dense forests called toorai. They are frequently of vast 

 size, and by this as well as their dense head, may be at once recog- 

 nised even at a distance of a few miles. Some idea of their size may 

 be formed from the following measurements of a large one : 



Circumference of main trunk, 74 feet. 



Ditto, including the supports, 120 ,, 



Ditto, of space covered by crown branches,. . 620 ,, 



Height, ditto ditto, 80 to 100 „ 



The roots spread out in every direction on reaching the ground ; 

 the larger running along the surface, their upper portion being 

 uncovered : occasionally they assume the form of buttresses, but 

 never to such a marked degree as occurs in some other trees, such as 

 the Simool, Herietiera, etc. The supports are only thrown out 

 towards the base of the principal branches, not as in the banian at 

 indefinite distances. The trunk is a compound one, formed entirely 

 by the mutual cohesion of roots ; not as in almost all other trees by 



* See Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol.— Feb. 1838. 



2 c 



