2 42 
SYRINGE TREE. 
being green, while the inferior is cinereous. There 
is a variety of this tree, consisting chiefly in the 
leaves being smaller, of a more pointed oval, and 
very thin. 
The syringe tree, which has long been celebrated 
for its elastic resin, or caoutchouc, has been de- 
scribed by M. de la Condamine in a memoir, ac- 
companied with a figure of the leaves and fruit, in 
the Recueil de V Academie des Sciences for the year 
1751, from which we learn that this academician 
found a considerable number of these trees in the 
forests of South America, to the north of Quito, 
where the natives of the country have given them 
the name of heve. When the tree is wounded, 
there exudes from the incision a white liquor, like 
milk, which gradually hardens in the air; of this 
the inhabitants make their flambeaux, which are 
about an inch and a half in diameter and two feet 
long. These flambeaux burn very well without any 
wick, and give a clear bright light ; they exhale, 
during their consumption, a particular, but not dis- 
agreeable, smell, and one of them, we are assured, 
will continue to burn for twelve hours. In the pro- 
vince of Quito, they prepare their linen and canvass 
with this resin, so as to make it answer all the pur- 
poses of our oil-cloth. 
Along the banks of the river Amazon, where 
this tree is not uncommon, the natives form the 
resin into rude figures of fruit, birds, and objects of 
different kinds. They likewise make their boots of 
