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at least used in the Straits, (where the plant used to be very common 
in gardens) for making the recognition marks in cattle, cuts being 
made in the animal’s skin and this latex put into the wounds, causing 
a permanent elevated mark. Attempts to utilize the latex of Tiru- 
calli as a source of gutta-percha, or a similar substance, were made 
in the early eighties, if not before, but without any success, and the 
danger of collecting the latex appears also to have deterred experi- 
menters from continuing researches in this direction. Dr. Riddell 
(Watts Dictionary) says “ that the milk when it hardens after boiling 
becomes brittle, whilst warm it is as ductile as gutta-percha.” 
Attempts have also been made to utilize the latex of several other 
Euphorbias of this type but no satisfactory result was obtained, but 
further chemical experiments might make it possible to use these also. 
The excitement caused by the great development of cultivation of 
Para lubbei in the East set people, especially those living in countries 
where Hevea will not grow, searching for anything that produced any 
form ofrubber, some of their discoveries but only a very few, such as 
Guayule, did really prove a success, at least for a time. In many 
other cases in spite of enthusiastic commendation, the plants proved 
practically or completely a failure. We remember the future of 
Tonkin was to depend on Bleekrodea tonkinensis, rubber trees in the 
form of the Chinese Euconia were to be planted all over Europe, 
Cryptostega Parameria were to make the fortunes of the dwellers in 
Assam, and Erangipamie ( Plumiena ) and J atropha-urens were to form 
the cultivation of parts of Brazil. The Sapimns, too, in British 
Guiana were to become a substitute for Hevea braziliensis . All these 
plants are practically abandoned and forgotten now. They utterly 
failed to do what laboratory experiments suggested they could. They 
grew too slowly, or yielded too little or in some cases gave no rubber 
at all, or the rubber when it was procured was nearly or quite 
worthless. We have now a new source of rubber come to the front, a 
very well known old friend the Milkhedge of India, Euphorbia Tirucallis . 
concerning which we give the following extract from the Financial 
News taken from the Straits Times. To those who know the tree in 
the East Indies the size of the plants in the reports 10-48 inches 
through sounds almost incredible, and the number averaging 60 to 
the acre also seems enormous. It is a big plant when it is a foot 
through in India and that only at the base. Welwitsch describes it 
in Londa in the forests as 8 to 12 feet high with the trunk 6 to 8 in. 
in diameter, 8 to 12 feet high, the older brancheslleafless, the younger 
ones with linear leaves. In other parts of Angola he describes it as a 
low-shrub two feet high. The trunk has a grey, somewhat rough 
bark. It usually branches much about 3 or 4 feet from the ground, 
the branches are cylindric jointed smooth, succulent, and green, with 
at first a few very small narrow leaves about half an inch long. ’ The 
flowers are rarely if ever produced here, they are very small and yel- 
low. It is very readily grown from cuttings. It will be interesting 
to see the results of this venture,- Ed. 
