The Story of Rubber
Rubber is the coagulated sap of more than 300 varieties of tropical trees and vines—the Landolphia of Africa, the Ficus of the Malay Peninsula, the Guayule shrub of Mexico and the Castilloa of South America, Central America and Southern Mexico are all important rubber producers, but far more important than all of the others together is the Hevea, a native of Brazil.
Hevea trees are scattered through the dense forests of practically every part of the Amazon Basin, a territory more than two-thirds as large as the United States.
How was Rubber First Used?
Down in Brazil, several hundred miles up the Amazon River, there stood a great forest of trees and in this forest—the same as in forests of today—were birds and animals and bugs and beetles, etc. All trees are protected by nature; some are protected from bugs eating their leaves, by other bugs eating up these bugs; other trees are protected by having a thorny or bristly bark.
Indians Playing With a Rubber Ball When Columbus Came in Sight
Courtesy of the United States Rubber Co.