Balata and the Balata Industry. 221 
spread. They extend quite down to the estuaries of the 
rivers ; and even along the coast region small trees and 
saplings springing up are found. In Georgetown and its 
neighbourhood this form is spontaneous, but all the 
specimens I have seen there are comparatively young 
trees as yet and small. The trees on the coast lands and 
about Georgetown I have been able to identify as a 
form of touckpong both by specimens obtained for me by 
Mr. IM Thurn on the Pomeroon, where I originally be- 
came acquainted with the typical tree, and by the speci- 
mens I gathered on the Canje. Though very plentiful 
and generally and widely diffused, the typical tree is no- 
where gregarious, but grows dispersed, a tree here and 
there. It yields true india-rubber, as distinct from balata 
and gutta-percha. I had not the satisfaction to see a tree 
tapped in my presence, but the collectors informed me 
that its production of milk is about the same as that of 
the bullet-tree. It has a similarly thick bark, but the 
wood is soft and not esteemed by the wood-cutters as of 
value. The growth is exceedingly rapid ; so that it 
would be one of the best of the caoutchouc trees to cul- 
tivate for rubber. Both varieties flower in March and 
produce a plentiful crop of seed in April and May. By 
offering a reward to the Indians who reside near him on 
the Pomeroon Mr. IM THURN succeeded in getting fruit- 
ing specimens of the typical tree for me. Unfortunately 
the flowering season was just past when they brought 
them. However, of the coast region variety I chanced 
to get a few spikes of flower from a tree in town, and 
these Professor OLIVER, the keeper of the Kew Her- 
barium, has identified as one of the varieties of Sapium 
biglandulosutn, M. Arg, of which there are seven- 
