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Tlie following is an extract from the reply of the Director:— 
The problem which the Department of Mines and Agi'iculture has before it is precisely similar to 
that which baffled the Government of Lagos in the case of Ficus Vogelii, and I am in possession of no 
further information upon it. There is no general method known for separating the caoutchouc from the 
“ milk ” in which it is mechanically suspended. The methods in practical use vary in different countries 
and with different kinds of trees from which the milk is drawn. Samples of milk have been repeatedly 
sent to this country for further investigation of the problem—How best to produce “ coagulation ” ? But 
this can only be advantageously studied on “fresh samples.” When they reach this country they have 
ordinarily undergone so much alteration that no practical results are attainable. 
The following is an extract from the report of the India-rubber, Gutta¬ 
percha, and Telegraph Works Company of Silvertown, on the samples enclosed in 
the Minister’s letter to the Director of Kew :— 
No. 1 was contained in a wide-mouthed bottle, and was in the form of a solid ; a sample we return 
as requested. It yielded about 7 per cent, of the substance closely resembling india-rubber, and about 
73 per cent, resin. It is probably of no use as a source of india-rubber. 
No. 2 came to hand in the form of a milky liquid, and yielded, after being evaporated to dryness, 
7 per cent, of a substance similar to caoutchouc and 89 per cent, of resins. We send you a sample of the 
dried juice. This was simply evaporated in a dry vessel without heat, which would be the best way of 
obtaining it, should it be hereafter found to have a commercial value. 
We also send samples of the resins extracted by alcohol. 
In the above report we have not been able to give you an estimate of the value of these materials, 
as it is impossible to do so with such small samples ; we should require at least 28 lb. of each. 
Experiments at the Hamma Garden near Algiers, to obtain a coagulable latex 
from F. macrophylla have been abandoned, only negative results having heen obtained. 
{Rev. des Ctdt. Coloniales, 20th September, 1901, page 188.) F. rubiginosa yields 
a similar juice, and it seems to me that it is waste of time and money to further 
attempt to obtain india-rubber, on a commercial scale, from either of the trees in 
question. 
I am of opinion that the Asiatic Ficus elastica is the only species of fig 
which, if planted in the warmer coast districts of New South Wales, promises to be 
commercially important as a source of india-rubber in this State. 
Roots. —Everyone has noticed the long, slender, aerial roots that hang from 
the branches, and which are more abundant and robust in warm, moist localities. 
In Lord Ilowe Island a fig looked upon by some botanists as specifically identical 
with our Port Jackson fig is called the banyan, as its aerial roots descend to the 
ground and form secondary stems, just as in the case of the well-known hanyan of 
India. 
On the Northern rivers these fig-trees often begin life on the moist hark of 
O r) 
another tree, and their aerial root system attains great development. It is a common 
thing to see a huge tree being completely enveloped in the aerial roots of a fig, 
which finally smother the host tree out of existence so completely that it would not 
be known that the fig is taking the position of another unless the process of 
strangling had been observed. 
