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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
In the operation of collecting the juice several cuts are made through the bark of the tree, and either shells or clay vessels are attached to receive the exuding milky sap. When sufficient of this has been collected, the operation of drying it is performed as follows: A kind of
Fig. 1.—Hevea Guianensis (Flower and Foliage).
wooden bat, thinly covered over with clay, is dipped into a pail filled with the juice, and the bat, thus coated, is held over a fire, fed with certain wild nuts, which, in burning, give off abundance of aromatic smoke. Fig. 2 represents this operation, and you will see that a kind
