PREFACE. 



This work, which is issued at the request of a wide 

 circle of friends interested in Tropical Agriculture, is 

 intended as a handbook and guide to the selection, 

 planting, and exploitation of those species of rubber- 

 yielding trees which lend themselves to successful 

 alienation in countries and climates other than those 

 to which they are indigenous. I have avoided as far 

 as possible the use of technical terms, endeavouring, 

 however, at the same time to present to the eye of 

 the scientific a faithful picture of the already far- 

 reaching and momentous results of perhaps the most 

 remarkable instance of successful plant emigration 

 the world has ever known. 



I am much indebted to the officials of the Ceylon 

 Experimental Gardens for the facilities freely offered 

 for examining and photographing many of the 

 subjects herein produced, and also to those planters 

 and friends, whose name is legion, who have on every 

 occasion given a welcome and ready access to estates 

 and properties which in the course of a long itinerary 

 I had visited for investigation and experiment. 



I have only to add that the majority of these essays 

 have already appeared in The Rubber World during 

 the latter part of 1910 and the early months of 191 1. 



WILLIAM WICHERLEY. 



Kandy, Ceylon: March igu. 



