264 



burnum crack ; and thus is effected naturally^ 

 what the art of man performs to collect in abun- 

 dance the milky juices of the hevea, the castil- 

 loa, and the caoutchouc fig-tree. Aublet relates, 

 that the Galibis and the Garipons of Cayenne 

 begin by making a deep incision at the foot of 

 the trunk, so as to penetrate into the wood; 

 soon after they join with this horizontal notch 

 others both perpendicular and oblique, reaching 

 from the top of the trunk nearly to the roots. 

 All these incisions conduct the milky juice to- 

 wards one point, where the vase of clay is placed, 

 in which the caoutchouc is to be deposited. We 

 saw the Indians of Carichana operate nearly in 

 the same manner. 



If, as I suppose, the accumulation and over- 

 flowing of the milk in the jacw and the curvana 

 be a pathologic phenomenon, it must sometimes 

 take place at the extremity of the longest roots, 

 for we found masses of dapicho of two feet in 

 diameter, and four inches thick, eight feet dis- 

 tant from the trunks. Sometimes you dig in 

 vain at the foot of dead trees, at others the da- 

 picho is found beneath the hevea or jacio still 

 green. The substance is white, corky, fragile, 

 and resembles by it's laminated structure and 

 undulating edge the boletus igniarius. The da- 

 picho perhaps takes a long time to form ; it is 

 probably a juice thickened by a particular dis- 

 position of the vegetable organs, diffused and 



