Roots of an India Rubber Tree at Peradeniya, Ceylon
This tree grows to a heighth of 120 feet and has a large spreading head. A channel is cut in the bark with a cutlass for the milk to flow and is caught in gourds. The average yield is three pints of milk. Which is dried in hollow wooden trays. When sufficiantly dry it is removed in strips and hung upon lins to harden.
Date: Late 1800’s
Photographer/Publisher: –
Location: Paredenya, Ceylon
This India-rubber trees (Ficus elastica) planted around 1833
You can view some attractive paintings of scenes from Ceylon on the website of Maryanne North’s (Kew) Gallery.
I believe she was the daughter of Governor Fredrick North. Extract from the website given below:-
“Things to look out for
There are two touch-screen monitors in place at the centre of the Gallery, allowing visitors to zoom in on 50 of the paintings and read extracts from Marianne’s memoirs. In the artist’s studio, visitors can view a set of ‘then and now’ photos. These show how the landscapes in four paintings – in Jamaica, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Tasmania – have dramatically changed in the intervening years.”