May i, 1888.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 
783 
that the trees do not como iuto bearing for some years 
and they evidently requite to be planted in deep 
alluvial soils, and in sheltered situations. 
The germination of the seeds of Bertholletia in the 
wild bt«te, while enclosed in the wonderfully strong fruit 
case (which, by the way, serves as an admirable protec- 
tion against monkeys and other animals), was a matter 
which, for a long time, was involved in obscurity. This, 
however, has been cleared up by the observations of Mr. 
Barringbon Brown, F.G.S., in British Guiana. Briefly 
stated, the process is as follows : — " In each fruit case, 
or pericarp, when lying on the ground, there is a small 
hole at the point ;it which it was attached to the 
stalk. Through this, after the fruit has been lying 
for some mouths iu a moist situation, the shoot pro- 
duced by one of the germinating seeds is able to 
effect an exit. When this is done, it gradually increases 
in size, but still uses the fruit case which indeed 
protecis its roots and serves all the purposes of a 
naturul pot. The other seeds, uuable to find an 
outlet lor their sprouts to reach the light and air, 
ultimately perish, and their remains probably go to 
nourish the solitary plant which is destined to re- 
present the family. This latter, when it has grown to 
a certain size, bursts the shell in which its roots have 
hitherto been confined and grows up into a tree." 
Castilloa Kuuber of Central America. 
(Castilloa elctflica, (Jerv.) 
This is one of the earliest described of rubber yield- 
ing plants, but according to Sir Joseph Hooker (Trans. 
Liu. Society, Vol. 11., pt. 9, p. 209), it is probablo 
thai mure than one rubber-bearing species exists in 
Central America under (his name. 
The Ule of British Honduras and Nicaragua is no 
doubt Castilloa elastica of Cervantes, but what is 
known locally as Tunu and said to yield a " gutta- 
percha," is so far undetermined owing to the absence 
of gooil specimens of the leaves and flowers. The 
specios named Castilloa Markhamiana (Oollius, Keport 
on the Caoutchouc of Commerce, 1872, p. 12, t. 3) 
has been shown to belong to another genus, viz., 
Perebea (Genera Plantarum, Vol. III., p. 372). 
Plants of Castilloa have been widely distributed from 
Kew to various tropical colonics, and seed-beariug trees 
are now found in Ceylon, Singapore, Mauritius, 
Jamaica, Trinidad, and the west and the east coasts of 
tropical Africa. 
The original stock of Kew plants was obtained by 
Mr. R. Cross in 1875 for the India Office from the 
Isthmus of Panama, under the name of Caucho. 
The identity of the Ule of British Honduras with the 
(Jaucho of Darien appears to be not fully established. 
The points of difference so far noticed are, however, 
very alight. With regard to Ule, Sir Joseph Hooker 
mentions that " all the brauchlets are clothed densely 
with substrigose buff-coloured hairs; the leaves are 
srabrid above, and deusoly hirsute or hirsutely lomeu- 
totio beneath. On the other haud, Cress's iudigenous 
Specimens of Caucho, and those cultivated in Ceylon 
(derived from the same source), have the branchlets 
less clothed with hairs and the under surface of the 
loavos loss thickly tomontose." 
Tho above brief statement respecting the determin- 
ation of the rubber-yielding plants of Ceutral America 
will serve to show tho present position of our knowledge 
of the subject. 
The plants distributed from Kew, and now under 
cultivation in various tropical colonies, would be more 
correctly turmoil according to the place of origin 
I'm im Castilloa. This would distinguish them from 
the Ule of Mexico, British Honduras, and Nicaragua, 
mid sufficiently indicate their history. As regards 
tin' quality of rubber yielded by tho Darien Castilloa, 
the Ivow Keport (or Is* 1 ', p. 4y, gives an account 
of tho first minple of caoutchouc obtained from this 
plant in tho Old World. 
•'In Ootober the Director of the lioyul Botanic 
Gardens, lVrndoniva, Dr. Triuieu, torwarded to Kew 
a sample of tho rubber of Castilloa tUuHtti grown in 
the K\poriuii>utul Harden* nt llcimrittgoda, Ceylon. 
This was *ont ironi Kuw iu 1876 (.<•• Kew Keport, 
76, p. tf). Thu sample was submitted to 5, W. 
Silver, Esq., p. L. s , who very kindly reported upon 
it: — 'On working and drying a portion of this sample, 
the loss is 12'3 per cent; it is necessary to use warm 
water in washing this rubber ; it becomes, on drying, 
much darker and shortor than Para rubber. It has 
a bitter taste, which is not removed on washing. 
The unwashed sample yields P9 per cent. ash. the 
washed sample gives 12 per cent. The shortness of 
this rubber would restrict its use to some extent where 
tensile strength or tenacity is required.' It was valued, 
Dec. 8, 1882, as worth 2.>\ 9<l to 3s. per pouud." 
The collection and preparation of rubbers as a forest 
product has hitherto been almost exclusively in the 
hands of natives, whose only object has been to obtain 
as large a quantity as pos-ible of a marketable 
character, without any regnrd to the permanency of 
the industry or the quality of the article produced. Iu 
many localities the rubber trees have been so ruthlessly 
cut down or tapped, that they have been almost anni- 
hilated. In others, the preparation of the rubber is 
of so rude and unsatisfactory a character, that the 
waste must be enormous. Under these circumstances 
it is most important to extend knowledge of the sub- 
ject, and it is to bo hoped where rubber trees still 
exist under British influence, that careful steps will 
be taken to regulate the tapping or bleeding, and to 
re-plant areas already denuded of trees. 
In the special instance of the rubber industry at 
British Honduras we have been lately favoured with 
the following correspondence :— 
Colonial Office to Koyal Gardens, Kew, 
" Colonial Office, Downing Street, 
"Sir, 11th November 1887. 
" I an directed by Secretary Sir Henry Holland to 
transmit to you a memorandum on the cultivation and 
preparation of india-rubber, which has been prepared 
by Mr. Alvan Milson, who was formerly a district 
magistrate iu British Honduras, and has now been 
appointed to be a district Commissioner in the colony 
of Lagos. 
# # # 
"lam to request that the memorandum, which is 
sent in original, may be returned with your reply. 
"Iam, &c, 
" D. Morris, Esq., (Signed) John Bramston." 
Notes on Castilloa Rubber Tree of British 
Honduras, by Mr. Alvan Milson. 
There is but little to be added to the admirable ac- 
count given by Mr. Morris (now of Kew) of the 
Castilloa elastica in his book on the colouy of British 
Honduras ; but the cultivation and preparation of 
india-rubber is of daily increasing importance, and there 
is little doubt that information which in any way lessens 
tho difficulties at present encountered in dealiug with 
this article is worthy of statement and examination. 
Cultivation. — The details I am able to give with re- 
gard to the cultivation of the rubber tree are mainly 
founded on hearsay evidence, but many of them have 
also come under my own observation. The proseut 
methods may be clasified under two heads : — 
(i.) Cultivation as a shade tree or other crops, and 
(ii.) Cultivation for its own sake. 
(i.) Tho rubber tree is a tap-rooted tree, of small 
foliage area, a lover of deep, moist, clayey loam, well 
shaded by undergrowth, and appears to need surround- 
ing low nush to force it to its full height. 
Tho natural deductions from tho above facts are 
that while it does not exhaust the soil iu which tho 
surface the rooting crop underneath it limy bo planted, 
it gives but littlo shade uuless planted at very short 
distances Until it has attained sufficient dimensions 
to shade itfe/f (for it will not grow well if the sun 
nets at its trunk) and tho plants ben. at b its bra tic lit ••), 
it must bo protected by somo other .-hado trie, its 
natural habitat, like that of thu Jamaica pimento, 
l>. in. in old plantations among the under brush that 
so rapidly sp. ings up in humid soils. If plauted sufti- 
ciently closely to -.hade its own it -n'>. without which 
both tho growth and How of milk will be checked by 
the heat of the bum, it must of course ultimately damage 
thu crop beneath it, aud, iu tho case of cacao, when both 
crops come to maturity about tho same time, both 
crops would bo injured to in almost equal eitent. 
