11 
liorse-stalls. The following description of certain trees in the Malay Archipelago 
will directly apply to our fig :—- 
Others, again, and these are very characteristic, send out towards the base flat and wing-like 
projections. These projections are thin slabs radiating from the main trunk, from which they stand out 
like buttresses of a Gothic cathedral. They rise to various heights on the tree, from 5 or 6 to 20 or 30 
feet. They often divide as they approach the ground, and sometimes twist and curve along the surface for 
a considerable distance, forming elevated and greatly compressed roots. These buttresses are sometimes so 
large that the spaces between them, if roofed over, would form huts capable of containing several persons. 
Their use is evidently to give the tree an extended base, and to assist the subterranean roots in maintaining 
in an erect position so lofty a column, crowned by a broad and massive head of branches and foliage.—- 
(“Tropical Nature and other Essays,” Wallace, page 31.) 
Timber.—The timber is soft, brittle, and spongy ; it is, however, sometimes 
used for packing-cases. It is light in colour as well as in weight, and although 
sometimes it shows a pretty grain, it would be waste of labour to spend much time 
upon it. A well-seasoned slab of this wood had a weight which corresponds to 
28 lb. 8 oz. per cubic foot. 
Exudations.— This fig, like others of: the genus, exudes a juice when the 
bark is wounded. It is neither a gum or a resin, but belongs to what may be called 
the “ India-rubber Group.” It consists of a dried milky juice or latex (of which 
examples are afforded by other natural orders common enough in Australia, e.g., 
Eaphorbiacece and Asclepiadacece) . For information in regard to the physiology of 
the subject see the text-books, such as Botany , by Sachs (Vines), pp. 85, 91, &c. 
It is put to no useful purpose as regards our native species. It has formed the 
subject of De la Hue’s and Muller’s chemical investigation.* 
The official catalogue of New South Wales exhibits (Paris, 1855) contains 
the following information in regard to this particular specimen :— 
Perforated waxy substance, exuded from the bark of the native fig, Ficus ferruginea (an obsolete 
name, and the substance is attributed by Sir William Macarthur to F. rubiginosa), exhibited by 
W. Stephenson, Esq., surgeon, from the Manning River. A remarkable substance, possessing the 
properties of gutta-percha and bird-lime combined, and which can be obtained in the Colony in any 
quantity. It softens by heat like gutta-percha, and like that substance can be moulded into any shape 
while warm, which it retains when cold, but becomes brittle. When very hot it is so strongly adhesive 
that it cannot be touched by anything without sticking most obstinately to it. 
Mr. P. L. Simmonds said of the specimen :— 
An elastic gum-resin from an Australian Ficus was shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 in the 
New South Wales collection, in small tears of a dingy appearance, which might prove useful. A large 
portion dissolves in warm linseed oil, but spirits of wine does not act readily upon it. By mastication it 
becomes tenacious, and bleaches thoroughly. 
Prom the above and from statements in the original paper, there is no doubt 
that the substance acted upon was picked already dried from the trees, and, on 
*Rue (W. De la) and Muller (H.)—“ On the resin of Ficus rubiginosa and a new homologue of Benzylic Alcohol/’ 
Phil. Trans., Vol. 150, 43 (1860). Journ. Chem. Soc., xv, 62 (1862). Watt’s Diet., ii, 646, and v, 645. (Sycocerylie acid, 
&c.) see Grudin, xvii, 43, for fuller bibliography. An exhaustive chemical research on a sample of dried latex from the 
Manning River. A resin, called by the authors Sycoretin, is found in it, and this resin and its derivatives are described 
at length. 
