This paper is primarily concerned with decomposition of the major contributory factors for the transplantation of natural rubber from Brazil to the South-East Asian colonies of Europe during 1850 to 1910. The analysis is contextualized to capture and reconstruct the missing links in the debate on the process of transfer of rubber from its natural habitat in the Amazon basin to South-East Asia. The conventional wisdom on the theme has been focused on the three region-specific factors, viz organization of rubber production, supply of labour and plant diseases. However, a centralized system of research and development support provided by the colonial powers of Europe through a network of Botanical Gardens had been pivotal in providing a sustainable platform for transplantation of rubber from the Amazon basin. The unrivalled role of colonial Botany evolved by the network of Botanical Gardens is underlined by the commercialization of plantation rubber within two decades of the Wickham rubber mission in constrast to the stagnation of the interlocked wild rubber extraction system for about a century. In sum, R and D inputs provided by the colonial powers had been the centripetal force leading to the dynamic growth of a cost competitive Asian plantation rubber and gradual exit of the wild rubber from the world market.