The Caontchouc trees of the Bhamo and Mogoung districts are estimated at 400,000. They thrive most in damp moist soil, and in thick forests, shady and cool. They grow to from 75 to 150 feet high, and their roots grow over the ground to some distance. They are tit to tap when from 6 to 10 years old, at which time they are 21 to 30 feet high, and 4i feet in girth.
In the Tenasserim Provinces, also, a species of Echites, an indigenous creeper, yields caoutchouc not at all inferior to that which is obtained from the elastic fig tree. The Agricultural and Horti cultural Society, in reporting on a specimen sent them by Major MacFarquhar of Tavoy, observed : With care in preparing, it would be equal to the best South American.' Caoutchouc is also pro curable from the Nerium grandiflora, a beautiful climbing shrub often met with in gardens. The Loranthi abound in Malabar; and a similar sub stance might readily be procured, as obtained from Urceola elastica in Penang and the Archi pelago, Ficus re]igiosa, F. Indica, Hippomane biglandulosa, Cecropia peltata, and the Jintawan of Borneo.
Castilloa, the Ule of South America, belongs to the Artocarpacem, and is one of the loftiest of the forest trees of tropical America. There are two known species, Castilloa elastica, Cerv., and C. Markhamia. Which yields the India rubber is at present (1876) disputed. The collectors are
called Hulero. C. Markhamia attains to 180 feet in height, with a diameter of 5 feet, and a yield of 100 lbs. of India rubber ; wood soft and spongy ; leaves 14 inches long and 7 broad.
Hevea Brasiliensis (Siphonia Brasiliana, KM.) grows in the valley of the Amazon. It is the Castilloas of South America. It is the most valuable of the India rubber trees, and furnishes the Para rubber. It was introduced into India in 1873, as it affords the best caoutchouc, exported from Para in Brazil. The juice is obtained by incisions cut through the bark ; it falls freely from any wound. The stiffening milky juice is . Plastered over bottle•shaned clay moulds, the clay being removed, when sufficiently coated, by wash ing. Other species of hevea yield juice abounding in caoutchouc of various qualities. It is dis solved by turpentine and spt. eth. sulphur. In Britain there are about twenty factories where this article is made into shoes, boots, capes, cushions, elastic bands.—Poole's Statistics of Com merce; Rohde, MSS. ; Boyle, Productive Resources of India, p. 76; Mason's Tenasserim ; Bonynge, America, p. 258; Reports, Exhibition of 1851; Eng. Cyc. ' • Trans. Royal As. Soc. ; Tomlinson, pp. 296-299 ; Captain Strayer, 1873 ; Markham, Peruv. Bark.