of the Amazon, and yielding the caoutchouc
of Para. The trees are from fifty to sixty
feet high, and from two to two and a half
feet in diameter, of a grey and thin bark,
and a white light wood. The leaves are
green above, and ash colour beneath; the
greenish–coloured flowers in small loose
bunches; the fruit is as large as a walnut,
and the seeds are the size of a filbert,
shining and mottled with brown upon grey,
like castor–oil seeds; pleasant to eat and not
hurtful.

Second. The Hancornia speciosa; found
about Pernambuco, Oliuda, and Bahia; the
size of an ordinary apple tree, and not unlike
a weeping birch in appearance. The fruit
is like an Orleans plum, yellow streaked
with red and of delicious flavour. This kind
yields the Pernambuco caoutchouc, and is of
the same natural order as that which
contains the periwinkle and all the rest of the
Apocynaceous, or dogbane tribe.

Third. Ficus elastica, one, of the nettle
tribe; rising into a tree as large as an English
sycamore, with a wood so light and porous
as to be fit only for fuel or charcoal. The
natives use the fresh milk for lining the
inside of their fluid–bearing vessels, and
make the caoutchouc itself into candles and
flambeaux.

Fourth. Urceola elastica; a kind of jungle
vine, discovered in seventeen hundred and
ninety–eight in Prince of Wales's Island by
Mr. James Howison. He and a party were
cutting their way through a jungle, when
they found that their cutlasses, which had
cleaved through a kind of vine, became
covered with milk which, drying, left on
them a substance like American caoutchouc,
"The vine was as thick as a man's arm, with
a strong, cracked, ash–coloured bark. It had
joints at a small distance from each other;
often sent out roots, seldom branches; ran
along the ground to a great length, and at
last rose upon the highest trees into the open
air." It has clusters of small greenish flowers
like a lilac, and is one of the dogbanes, the
same as the Hancornia. These are the chiefs
of all the rest.

Caoutchouc is obtained by making incisions
in the various trees; the first about a man's
height from the ground, and catching the
milk in little clay bowls that hold about a
tumblerful. These bowls are filled in three
hours if the tree is fruitful. When this first
cutting ceases to run, another is made lower
down, and so on, until the tree is exhausted.
The Indians then pour the milk into larger
vessels,and light a fire of the Urucari or Inaja
nuts, which yield a thick oily smoke said to
be of great value in the process. They have
clay moulds of bottles, animals, &c., which
they dip into the milk and hold over the
smoke till dry, repeating this until the rubber
is of sufficient thickness, when they take it
off the mould, and the native manufacture is
at an end. A tree must have two years
respite after these tappings and cuttings
before attacked again; but another, though
an illegal manner of obtaining the milk is, by
binding the tree at the top and bottom with
willow twigs, and drawing off all the juice at
one incision. This is forbidden, because
invariably fatal.Other things have been tried
for the smoking process, and various woods
and nuts have been tested; but the Indians
all prefer the Urucari nuts, the smoke of
which they say alone can make manufactured
caoutchouc as it should be—soft, silky, elastic,
and clean.

      A COURT WITHOUT APPEAL.

THOSE who admire everything that belongs
to the age of chivalry and romance, admire
The Courts of Love most. The world is
full of the jingle and clatter of Courts of
Divorce, of Probate, of Chancery, and all the
rest of it. Of course they are necessary,
but they are necessary because man is
selfish, and spiteful, and stupid,—so different
from what he was. Bring back the times
when they were not; when the highest
court was the Court of Love; when there
were no juries of city shopkeepers, but
conclaves of earnest and impartial dames
and maidens; when, instead of bullying
barristers, there were gentle and quick–
witted lady–pleaders; when stately matrons
were the most honoured judges.

Everything about modern courts is is
keeping: dismal, dingy, dirty. Everything
about those mediæval courts was in keeping,
too: bright, sparkling, tender. The session
commenced in the gay Spring time; the
branches of an elm tree, just covered with
young leaves, formed a fitting roof; the
beautiful flowers and merry birds, within
sight and hearing, harmonised with the
proceedings; the ladies who held office in the
court were dressed in nature's colour, green;
The president, sometimes a knight, but
oftener a lady, had to be well versed in the
forms of chivalry, and experienced in the
precepts and practices of love. The names of
four illustrious judges are handed down:
Queen Eleanor, wife of the French Louis
the Seventh, and afterwards of the English
Henry the Second; Viscountess Ermengarde
of Narbonne; the Countess of Champagne;
and the Countess of Flanders. Most noted
among the males were Richard the Lion–
hearted, and Alfonso of Arragon.

Thirty–one articles were the basis of all the
court's proceedings, as well as rules for
guidance in private life. Here are some of
them translated out of André's fourteenth
century Latin:—

    No one can love who is not driven by the force of
love.
    He who hastens not cannot love.
    Love never dwells in the house of avarice.
    Love is always increasing or diminishing.