448 
MISSION TO ASHANTEE. 
polishing and cleaning various articles of household furniture, and 
feel like emery paper. At the same time he gave me what they 
are very fond of chewing, a delicate little mimosa, {Abrus preca- 
torius. Linn.) the taste of which resembles liquorice. 
A beautiful red pod, the blossom of which was out of season, 
contains small black seeds, in taste exactly resembling the car- 
damom. The natives of this place, and also of the interior, are 
very fond of them. In Booroom the plant is called Booroomma, 
and at Gaboon, Entoondo. 
The Caoutchouc is to be met with here ; the natives describe it 
as the product of one tree only,* the olamboo; their method of 
collecting it is curious. After the incision is made in the tree, 
whence it oozes like a glutinous milk, they spread it over their 
arms and breasts with a knife, (having first shaved themselves, that 
the hair of the skin may not be torn up when it is taken off,) in 
the form of a plaister. It is either rolled up in balls to play with, 
or stretched over the heads of drums; they do not seem to apply 
it to any other use. 
They make their torches from the wood (odjoo) of which they 
form their canoes, the resinous parts are broken in small pieces, 
and tied closely in very long leaves ; the smaller end is fixed to an 
* " India rubber is obtained from the milky juice of different plants in hot countries. 
The chief of these are, the Jatropha elastica and Urceola elastica. The juice is applied 
in successive coatings on a mould of clay, and dried by the fire or in the sun, and when 
of a sufficient thickness the mould is crushed and the pieces shaken out." Nicholson. 
" It has been discovered that caoutchouc is not exclusively the produce of the Heven 
caoutchouc, but that it is furnished by several other plants. We know it to be obtained 
in large quantities from the Jatropha elastica of South America, and V\\ Roxburgh has 
given us a description of an Indian plant (Urceola elastica) «hich affords a juice that 
when thickened has all the properties of the caoutchouc. We moreover know that the 
jnilky exudations of the Jack tree (Artocarpus integrifolia) the Banyan tree (Ficus 
Indica) and also that of the Arasum tree (Ficus religiosa) possess nearly similar quahties." 
AinsUe's Materia Medica of Hindoostan. 
