This tree is a native of the forests of Trinidad and South America, and is ex ported in large quantities, via Trinidad, from the mainland. The tree affords one of the most useful hard-woods known. It is especially valuable for railway sleepers and for building purposes because of its durability. It grows to a large size, both in virgin forest and under cultivation. Its produce is of the nature of gutta-percha and melts in hot water. No attempt at cultivation on a large scale has yet been made. The tree produces a small edible fruit, deliciously sweet, which is sold largely in local markets when in season. The tree takes some thirty or more years to reach full maturity. The seed soon loses its vitality if allowed to become dry. (Hart.) Literature.
Parkin, Annals of Botany (1900 and 1901); War burg, French translation, Vilouchevitch, Plantes a Caoutchouc (1902) ; Seeligman, Le Caoutchouc (1896) ; Jumelle, Caoutchouc (1898) ; Ferguson, All About Rubber, Ceylon ; J. H. Hart, in West Indian Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 100, Rubber Planting in the West Indies (1901); H. Wright, Para Rubber, A. M. and J. Ferguson, Colombo, Ceylon (1905) ; D. Morris, Cantor Lectures, Society of Arts (1898) ; Dr. F. V. Romburgh, Les Plantes a Caoutchouc et a Gutta-percha ; S. Arden, Report on Hevea Brazilien sis ; IV. H. Johnston, The Cultivation and Prepara tion of Para Rubber ; Handbook of Commercial Products, Imperial Institute Series ; G. Thurston, India Rubber (Ficus elastica); Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States ; India Rubber World; India Rubber Journal; 0. F. Cook. The Culture of the Central American Rubber Tree, Bulletin No. 49, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture.
RYE. Secale cereale, Linn. Gramineee. Figs. 799 801, and Fig. 562.
Rye is one of the minor cereal grains, of relative unimportance in America as compared with wheat, corn or oats. The grain is used both for human and for stock-food, and the entire plant for soiling and, occasionally, as hay. It also finds a place as a cover-crop and green -manure, while the demand for the straw for bedding horses is considerable.
In botanical relationship, physiological charac ters, manner of growth and method of cultivation, rye is most closely comparable with wheat. The spikelets are two- to three-flowered, two of the flowers being perfect and three-stamened, the flow ering glumes long-awned. The straws are much taller and more slender in rye than in wheat, some times reaching a length of seven feet on rich soils ; hence, rye tends to droop or lodge more readily than wheat. The heads of rye are rather longer and
much more slender and compressed, and the glumes and appendages are so firmly attached that com paratively little chaff is formed in threshing. The individual grains on the head are partly exposed instead of being entirely enclosed within the glumes, as in wheat. They are also somewhat longer, more slender and more pointed at the end which is the point of attachment to the spike. The longitudinal crease or suture, which is so charac teristic of wheat, is very much less marked in rye. Rye is darker in color, with a slightly wavy or wrinkled surface and exceedingly hard and tough in texture, requiring more power to mill than any other grain.
Rye "shoots" the spike or head in the spring much sooner than winter wheat, but the time of maturity is usually not more than one week earlier. As the young plant lets emerge above ground they have a dis tinctly red tinge, which markedly distin guishes them from young wheat plants, and the fall growth is more spreading or decum bent than in wheat, while in spring, before heading, the leaves take on a grayish green that is different from other grains. The flow ering Blume is always awned or bearded, and the large anthers shed their pollen in great profusion, so that on bright, windy days it may sometimes be seen drifting across the field like puffs of thin yellow smoke. The leaves largely lose their vitality before the grain is mature, and, as in wheat, the stems probably perform the physiological function of leaves. Rye is a more hardy plant than wheat and is grown in more ex treme northern latitudes, and yet it seems more tolerant of hot weather also. It is probable that its zone of successful growth covers a wider range of climatic conditions than any other cereal.
History.
The culture of rve,while more than two thousand years old, is still not so ancient as that of wheat and barley. De Candolle states that its original home was between the Austrian Alps and the Caspian sea. The Greeks were not acquainted with it and Roman writers in the time of Pliny spoke of it as a new plant grown by the barbarian tribes which they had conquered. No rye remains are found in the middens of the Swiss lake-dwellers, while wheat, barley and spelt occur.