Picture Details
Dried banyan sap
Partner:
Kew GardensImage reference:
EBC43049Origin:
Berar, Madhya Pradesh, IndiaDonor / Date:
Paris Exhibition, 1900Description:
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Milky sap from the banyan tree makes an inferior rubber material. A better quality rubber, "India rubber" was tapped from the closely related Ficus elastica. It was originally in the collection of the Indian Museum in London, formed by the East India Company in 1801 to display artefacts, natural history specimens and illustrations from the Indian subcontinent. The Museum was closed in 1879 and its collections dispersed among the London Museums and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This sample was then displayed at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 by the Divisional Forest Officer of British India. The sap was collected in Berar when Berar was a province in British India, today it is part of Madhya Pradesh.
