267 



we reflect on the immense variety of plants in 

 the equinoctial regions, that are capable of fur- 

 nishing* caoutchouc, it is to be regretted, that 

 this substance, so eminently useful, is not found 

 among us at a lower price. Without cultivating 

 trees with a milky sap, a sufficient quantity 

 of caoutchouc might be collected in the mis- 

 sions of the Oroonoko alone for the consump- 

 tion of civilized Europe*. In the kingdom of 



* We saw in Guyana, beside the jacio and the curvana, 

 two other trees, that yield caoutchouc in abundance ; on the 

 banks of the Atabapo, the guamaqui with jatropha leaves, 

 (perhaps the bagassa of Aublet, pi. 376) j and at Maypures 

 the time. Researches on plants that are useful in physic or 

 the arts are of such general interest, that I venture to record 

 them in this work. I published in my third volume, chap, 

 vi, p. 31, the results of my experiments on the cinchona, and 

 other plants possessing the febrifuge principle. I shall here 

 give a sketch of the plants of the two hemispheres, which are 

 capable of furnishing caoutchouc more or less abundantly ; 

 <euphorbiace<£j heveaguyanensis (siphonia caoutchouc), commi- 

 phora madagascariensis, excaecaria agallocha, hura crepitans, 

 mabea piriri, omphalia diandra, euphorbia purpurea, sapium 

 aucuparium, plukenetia verrucosa : urticem ; cecropia peltata, 

 artocarpus integrifolia, several species of ficus (f. religiosa, f. 

 anthelmintica, f. toxicaria), ambora tambourissa, bagassaguy- 

 annensis, brosimum alicastrum :apocynece; urceolaelastica,va- 

 hea madagascariensis, some species of asclepias : campanulacece 

 lobelia caoutchouc (Nov. Gen.,\o\. iii, p. 304.) I might have 

 added several papaveracece and sapotece, for there is no milky 

 plant, that does not contain some trace of caoutchouc. It is 

 said, that Mr. Benjamin Barton Smith has extracted at 



