Fig. 3. La Zacualpa Rubber Plantation and Laboratory. Chiapas, Mexico. 



A BOTANICAL STATION IN TROPICAL MEXICO. 



By Helen Olsson-Seffer. 



Friiitvalc, California. 



During the last few years it became evident to many of the 

 more up-to-date planters in Mexico that very little progress in 

 rubber culture could be looked for without the aid of scientific 

 investigation — especially with regard to methods of tapping and 

 preparing the latex for commercial purposes. Thus it was that 

 about a year ago one of the largest plantation companies in Mexico 

 engaged the services of Dr. Pehr Olsson-Sefifer as Director of a 

 botanical station and rubber laboratory, to be established on La 

 Zacualpa plantation, in the state of Chiapas. 



Rubber planting has been, and is, in the experimental stage, 

 but there is no reason to doubt the ultimate financial success of 

 the industry. The hundreds of problems connected with the 

 cultivation of the rubber tree, and the preparation of crude rubber, 

 cannot be satisfactorily solved without a thorough knowledge of 

 the nature of the plant itself, and for this reason the structure of 

 the tissues of the tree and its physiological behavior must be care- 



