Rubber is produced from white milky liquid called latex, which oozes from cuts made in the trunk of the rubber tree. This tree originally grew in the jungles of Central and South America but although rubber was in great demand, it was in short supply because the trees grew wild. Eventually some rubber tree seeds were brought back and grown at the Botanical Gardens in Kew, England.
The young trees were distributed around the British Empire, and large plantations were established in countries such as India, Malaya and Sri Lanka. A huge international rubber trade quickly developed, and there is still a great demand for natural rubber even though synthetic substitutes are now widely used almost everywhere.
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