•SB' X PROCEEDINGS ‘OX IEEE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
land. It varies in size very greatly and sometimes 
reaches 30 to 36 inches in diameter and rises to a height 
sometimes amounting to 50 or 55 feet below the branches. 
The milk or sap obtained from this tree has tli9 appear- 
ance and consistency of thick cream and when fresh is 
almost without smell and has no action whatever on 
Test paper. On keeping for some time it acquires a sour 
smell, changes color, gradually becoming brown, and has a 
strongly acid reaction. The formation of this acid is 
most likely due to the oxidizing action of the air, as a sample 
of the juice kept hermetically sealed in a bottle for some 
months did not exhibit any change. 
To obtain the juice from the tree we have two piece' ses. 
The first is by simply tapping the standing tree. This i3 
done by the workman making a number of diagonal cuts 
in the bark, the cuts being made from left to right and 
reversely alternately, so that they meet at a point ; the 
bark between the two cuts is then slightly raised. This 
cutting is continued as high as the workman can reach 
and consequently only saves a very small proportion of 
the juice of the whole tree. The juice runs out from 
each cut and is carried either by means of a fresh leaf or 
of a slip of copper into the wooden vessel placed to re- 
ceive it By this method of tapping, a tree has rarely 
been known to yield more than 3 lbs of the dried gum, 
more often yielding between 1 and 3 lbs. The other 
method by which the milk can be obtained is by felling 
the tree and cutting annular incisions in the bark about 
every 15 inches and placing under each incision a wooden 
vessel to collect the juice as it runs out. By this method 
a far larger quantity of the juice can be obtained from 
each tree; an average good sized tree will yield 2G lbs of 
