FICUS ELASTICA. Rozb.
Kusnir, . . . . BENG. Indian rubber tree.. Eso. Elastic fig tree, . ENG. Kasnir, . . . SYLHZT.
Caoutchouo tree, . The Indian caoutchouc tree inhabits Assam, Khassya, British Burma, the Pundua and the Juntipur mountains, which bound the province of Sylliet on the north, where it grows to the size of a European sycamore. It is chiefly found in the chasms of rocks and over the declivities of mountains, among decomposed rocky and vegetable matter. It produces when wounded a great abundance of milk, which yields about one-third of its weight of caoutchouc. It grows with great rapidity. A tree is described as -being 25 feet high, with the trunk a foot in diameter, when only four years old. Another to 112 feet, with 100 aerial roots, in 32 years. Its juice is used by the natives of Synet to smear the inside of split rattan baskets, which are thus rendered water tight. Old trees yield a richer juice than young ones. The milk is extracted by incisions made across the bark, down to the wood, at a distance of about a foot from each other, all round the trunk or branch, up to the top of the tree, and the higher the more abundant is the fluid said to be. After one operation the tree requires a fortnight's rest, when it may be again repeated. When the juice is exposed to the air, it separates spontaneously into a firm elastic substance, and a fetid whey-like coloured liquid. Fifty ounces
of pure milky juice taken from trees in August yielded exactly 15i ounces of clean washed caout chouc of the finest quality, perfectly soluble in the essential oil of cajaput. This tree abounds in Assam, but the Outer Himalaya at Punkabari is its western liinit. It penetrates amongst the mountains as far as the Tista valley in Sikkim, but is of small size. It may be distinguished from a distance of several miles by its immense and dense lofty crown. Dr. Griffiths gives the dimensions Of one of the largest as follows : Circumference of main trunk, 74 feet , ditto of main trunk and supports, 120 feet ; ditto of area covered by the branches, 610 feet ; estimated height, 100 feet. The geographical range of the tree, so far as has been hitherto ascertained, may be stated to be between lat. 25° 10' and 27° 20' N., and long. 90° 40' and 95° 30' E. Throughout this space it is found in the densely wooded tracts so prevalent along the bases of the hills, and perhaps on their faces, up to an average elevation of 2250 feet. Since 1873 it has been largely, cultivated in Assam and Burma.F. von Mueller ; The Universal Review ; Roxb.; Hooker, Him. Jour.