460 FETCH : 



Thwaites retired in 1880 at the age of sixty-eight, and was 

 succeeded by Dr. Trimen, Trimen's report for that year states 

 that a new nursery for the propagation of Hevea had been 

 formed at Henaratgoda, and 662 cuttings had been distributed. 

 For the further history of Henaratgoda we are restricted almost 

 entirely to the facts published in the annual reports, eked out 

 a little by the quarterly reports (MSS.) of the Conductor, for 

 although Trimen kept detailed records of all operations carried 

 on in the Gardens, his diaries relating to Henaratgoda, to 

 which he makes frequent reference, are not now available. 



From the records prior to 1881 it would appear that Hevea 

 had been successfully propagated by cuttings, and that plants 

 had been raised in sufficient number to provide stocks for 

 other countries. But from Trimen's diary for January, 1881, 

 we learn that he was then endeavouring to get cuttings of 

 both Hevea and Castilloa to strike by means of a hot-bed at 

 Peradeniya, having apparently discovered that propagation 

 by cuttings in the ordinary way of the East was not to be 

 depended upon. In a letter dated October 24, 1881, Trimen 

 wrote : " Propagation of the tree {i.e., Hevea) from cuttings 

 has proved extremely difficult, and out of many thousand 

 attempts a very small number have succeeded. Thus, the 

 number of plants in these Gardens has scarcely increased. 

 My own experience in this matter is the same as that of my prede- 

 cessor (italics mine— T. P.), and of Major Seaton in Burma, to 

 which part of India a large number of plants was sent from 



Ceylon I have been over the trees here and at 



Henaratgoda , and I find about 50 stocks of the 



original trees which can be spared." 



In Trimen's summary of the History of Hevea in Ceylon, 

 published in the Kew Bulletin, 1898, pp. 254-257, he stated 

 that on his arrival in February, 1880, he found at Henaratgoda 

 about 300 of the original seedlings, tall, slender trees four years 

 old, the talk'st about 30 feet high, and at Peradeniya about 

 20 trees, smaller and less luxuriant in growth. That is to say, 

 in about three and a half years 1,500 plants had disappeared, 

 if the original numbers are correct. There is no reason to 

 doubt Trimen's figures, though the loss is abnormally large. 

 Makmg every aliowanco for deaths, destruction by hares, &c., 



