May 



[904.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



269 



EXPERIMENT GARDEN, PERADENIVA. 

 [Ccara rubber in foreground.] 



tea plantations that now filled the valleys, and encroached 

 often on the steep hill and mountain sides. The soil, where it 

 was in evidence, had a reddish look, and would not suggest 

 fertility were it not for the luxuriant growth it produced. 



After a journey, full of intense interest, we reached Peraden- 

 iya station, and alighting from the train found Director Willis 

 awaiting .ne. One of his coolies took my luggage in charge. 



while his master and I walked up the broad shaded road that 

 runs by the beautiful entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens. 

 A few minutes brought us to the Willis bungalow, a very pretty 

 two story house, set on a little eminence, and hemmed in with 

 foliage plants, flowers, and magnificent shade trees. As the 

 new governor of Ceylon, Sir Henry Blake, had requested the 

 presence of my host in Colombo, he turned me over for the 

 moment to Mr. J. B. Carruthers, F.L.S., the mycologist and 

 assistant director. Mr. Carruthers, by the way, had but just 

 returned from a month's visit to various Hevea plantations, 

 where he had been studying the canker that had appeared 

 upon some of the He~<>ea trees. He was of the opinion that the 

 alertness of the planters in discovering the disease in its first 

 stages, and calling for expert advice, would result in its extinc- 

 tion before serious harm came to the trees. 



PERAOENIYA GARDEN. 



[Mr. Carruthers inoculating a young Hevea with Canker fungus. 



December, 1903.] 



DENDROCALAMUS QIQANTEUS." 



[Giant bamboos in the Peradeniya Gardens, showing the young shoots, 



and a section ot one.] 



The disease, although new to the Hevea as far as known, has 

 long been an enemy to apple trees, cacao, tea, etc., and fre- 

 quently kills the tree or shrub upon which it grows. Mr. Car- 

 ruthers, when first it appeared, examined portions of diseased 

 trees, and recognized the fungus as a species of nectria. He 

 then visited both the government plantations of Hevea and the 

 larger private plantations. In one district, Kalatura, he found 

 only one tree in 200 affected, but on the Edengoda estate, 20 

 per cent, of the trees were diseased; while at Yatiporua there 

 were 40 per cent. The appearance of the fungus on the trees 

 is a swelling or roughening of portions of the tree trunk or 

 branches. If the outer bark is cut off, the tissue beneath shows 

 at first a neutral tint, and later a brownish or claret color. When 

 the fruit of the fungus ripens it is a very minute red dot which 

 is carried by the wind, by water, or by tree insects, to a moist 



