REPOET ON THE CAOUTCHOUC OP COMMERCE. 
25 
Collection and Preparation. 
The plant is cut into small pieces from a few inches to two or 
three feet in length, and the milk allowed to flow into jars or 
buckets, the flow being hastened at times by applying heat to one 
end of the billet. When a sufficiency of milk has been collected, 
salt is added to it, by which means the particles of Caoutchouc arc 
made to coalesce together, and the outside being acted on first 
encloses little cells or pockets of fluid. 
Borneo Caoutchouc is white, soft, porous or spongy, generally 
wet, the pores being filled with salt water and whey. When old it 
changes colour to a dull pink or fed, alid frequently contains a 
saline incrustation on the inside. 
3. Asiatic and African Sources op Supply. 
Willughbeia edulis } Roxb., cor. pi. iii . ; t. 280, ib. El. Ind., 
Ed. 1832, y. 2, p. 57. D.C. Prod., viii., 321. Ver. Lnti-am. 
Geographic Distribution. — Chittagong, Silhet, Madagascar, 
Mauritius. Cult, in Java. 
Remarks. — A climbing shrub. 
W. Martabanica, Wall, pi. As. Bar., iii., p. 45, t. 272. 
Geographic Distribution. — Martaban, Chittagong. 
Remarks. — “ Juice copious. India rubber collected.” 
(MS. note in Herb. Ind., Hook, fil, and Thomson.) 
W. Javanica , Blum., bijdr. tot. fl. ned. Ind., p. 1024. 
Geographic Distribution.— -Woods in Java. 
W. celebica , Blum., 1. c. 
W. ? coriacea , Wall., list n. 1620, pi. As. Rar., 3, p. 45. 
Geographic Distribution. — Singapore . 
Remarks. — Twining plant. 
General Remarks. — Of these species we have only record of two 
species, TF. edulis and W. Martabanjca, having Caoutchouc pre- 
pared from them, but I have mentioned the others in order to 
direct attention to this point. Dr. Roxburgh found W edulis in 
Chittagong and Silhet, and describes it as a climbing plant. which 
when, wounded yielded a pure viscid juice, when soon on exposure 
changed to Caoutchouc. This plant is worthy of attention. 
Species of Willughbeice have also been recorded from Rangoon, 
Malacca, Khasia Hills, and Ceylon. 
