July 1, i899.J 
THE ROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
23 
ablv find the trees yield much better in the Straits 
or "America. CastiVoa milk tiows very much more 
freely and does not soon coagulate, so that the same 
objection i^oes not .ipply to it. Practici-lly the whole 
of the milk from a tree can be collected without any 
difficulty from coagulation beginning in it. 
The practical corollary of these remarks, so far as 
Ceylon is concerned, is ihis. Para rubber will do 
fairly well at low elevations in certain districts, though 
pi-obabiy at the best it will never do so well as in the 
Straits Settienieuts or America. Owing to the intro- 
duction of the machine methods it will in future be 
necessary to collect the milk in vessels. Now, the 
Para rubber tree when tapped at a girth of 2 feet, as 
recommended in the previous Circular, does not lend 
itself to this condition, much of the rubber dries on 
the tree. It will thus be necessary for planters cither . 
to content theinselvcs with the old process, thus 
getting a loner average price for their product, or to 
wait till the trees get lo_a larger size, say in fifteen 
years on the average. It follows from this that pri- 
vate planters here will hardly find it worth while to 
establish plantations of Para rubber only. Probably the 
best thing to do will be to plant out the tree among tea 
or other products at considerable distances apart. 
The trees will then giow to a large size in less time 
than if kept in plantations of rubber only, and 
their rubber will, form a useful minor product. The 
tree is a handsome tree when well grown apart from 
others, and might well b.^ used as shade for roads or 
as an ornamental tiee. 
Those who intend to make plmtatious of rubber 
only would do better to use Castilloa, which yields 
much more fluid and easily collected milk, but even 
here no return can be got in much less than eight 
years. This tree may also be planted out as a bye 
produot on estates, and will probably be found in the 
end the more profitable of the two. Ceylon seems 
an unfavourable country for yield, though highly 
favourable for growth, of rubber trees. Consequently, 
only the very best localities should be chosen for 
planting. 
BoT.\NV.— Casij'Woa is a genus of the family Sloracce 
(often included in Uiiicaceic), and belongs to that 
section of the family whicli includes the jak and 
breadfruit (Artocar/ma), the upas (Antian'j,-), the 
milk tree (Brosimum), and the mauy plants of 
the genus Fir.u^, which include ammg others the 
Bo and the Assam rubber (/'". chistica). The genus 
has two or three species. Of these the most iinpcr- 
taut is C. eliiiilica, Cervantes, the Ule of the Spaniards, 
which is found wild in Mexico from lat. 21° south- 
wu-ds, in Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Costa 
Rica, and Nicaragua: it also appears to occur in 
nwth western South America. It grows to a large 
tree having been measured of 180 feet in height and 
1.5 feet iQ girth. The growth is rapid. When young 
the tree grows rapidly upwards, and forms a number 
of short lateral branches, vv'hich after a time drop off, 
being delached from the trunk by a peculiar joint, 
whose surface resembles a piece of cor.al. The bark is 
rather soft and thick. The leaves are large and oblong. 
The flowers are borne when the tree has reached some 
considerable size and has begun to form permanent 
branches. Thsy are monoecious, male and female on 
tire same branch, enclosed or embedded in atop-like 
common recentable, which is covered externally with 
small leavesr This subsequently forms a some- 
what fleshy fruit, containing numerous small seeds 
about J inch in diameter, with white papery seed-coats. 
Be.sides this species there is a second, the Caucho of the 
Spaniards, found nea.r Darien (Panama) and elsewhere. 
This is 'the tree which we -have in Ceylon, and it 
appears probable that it is a different species, C. 
MarWiamiana, Markham (not Collins), but the point 
requires further study. In its native country this 
forms an important source of rubber. It appears to 
be a sm.aller tree than the true C elasticti. The 
details of the description of these species may be 
found in the paper by Hooker mentioned in the list 
of literature below. 
History in Ceylon.— The Castilloa rubber was in- 
troduced into the colony about the same time as the 
Para, and through the same agency. A Wardian ■ 
case of plants arrived in 1876 from the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, and the plants were put out at Henaratgoda 
and Peradeniya. They grew well at both places, 
but especially at Henaratgoda, and were increased 
by cuttings. They began to flower in 1881, and in 
the following year a few seeds were ripened. About 
1886 the growth became less rapid, and since then 
has been very slight, the soil in the gardens being - 
shallow, and at Henaratgoda not well drained at a 
little depth. A large number of young plants were 
sent to India and many were planted in Ceylon, hot, 
compared with Ceara and Para rubbers, Castilloa is 
very rare in the Colony, and very few estates possess 
any appreciable number of trees. Samples of rubber 
prepared here have been sent home for valuation, and 
have received very favourable reports. 
Climate anb Soil. — The tree ranges, as we have 
seen, over a large tract of countrv, but the conditions 
for its successful growth seem much the s.ame every- 
where. It inhabits a warm, steamy climate, like that 
of the loweountry of south-west Ceylon, and is very 
rarely found above l.')00 feet. The most common 
situations are in alluvial soil at the sides of valleys 
or on low ridges. It needs deep soil, with plenty of 
water, but does not thrive where the soil is swampy, nor 
in places where there is not good drainage at the roots. 
It is probably partly for this reason that the growth at 
Henaratgola so soon became slow, for the land 
there is flat and only twenty feet above the level of 
the sea. At Peradenya it is on better drained land, 
but the soil is very shallow. 
The tree prefers a steamy climate, but will do 
where this is interrupted by a dry season of two 
or three months, as in soutli-west Ceylon. It grows 
best where the tempsratura never falls below sixty 
degrees at any time. 
The most promising localities for the cultivation of 
this tree would probably be found in the neighbour- 
hood of Rambukkana, Kitulgala, Balangoda, and other 
districts in the foot hills of the south-west, and 
perhaps also in similar districts of the Bintenna. 
country to the east of the mountain range, and in 
lower Madulsima, Passara, Monaragalla ifec. It should 
be planted in sheltered places near streams, but 
with good drainage at the root. To plant above 
2,00D feet is not advisable, and it v/ould be better 
to plant below 1,000. The rainfall should not- 
be below seventy inches, and s'lould be well 
distributed. The tree affects drier localities on the 
v;hole than Para rubber, and so the two cultivations 
need not interfere with one another, as the Para tree 
will grovv" in the wetter places. 
The tree grows best in a deep, w.arm, loamy soil. 
In its native country it is said to send its roots very 
deeply into the soil, and not to be a surface feeeder. 
In the gardens at Henaratgoda, however, it sends out 
great roots at the base like the Assam rubber {Ficus 
elaslica), growing out to considerable distances along 
the surface and projecting above it. One root was 
measured running along the surface for 30 yards, and 
where it finally became invisible it was three inches in 
thickness. This phenomenon at Henaratgoda may be 
largely due to the quality or lack of drainage of the 
lower soil, bui it seems common in other places where 
the tree -s grown in the Colony, and will limit its 
use as a shai_ 3 tree, for which purpose it hai often 
beeii recotnmb:; ued in other countries. If used as 
shade, it would perhfips do better with tea than with 
most of our other cultivated crops. In better soil and 
position than what has hitherto been tried, however, 
it may very likely strike deep roots, in which case 
other crops could be more easily cultivated between 
the rubber trees, e plantains or even cacao. 
CuE,Tiv.i.TioN. — The seed should be sown as soon as 
obtained in a well-prepared nursery. They should be 
sown an inch deep, and about 8 inches apart, and 
lightly covered with a little vegetable mould. They 
must bo kept lightly shaded, and watered when the 
surface of the ground is dry. In ten or twelve months 
the young p!anl:s will be 2 feet high and ready for 
planting out. 
Cuttings may also be taken ; those from lateral 
branches do not grow well> and have a tendency to 
