THE NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES 265 



authorities at Buitenzorg recommended the planting of 

 Ficus, Castilloa, and Ceara and emitted an opinion that 

 Pard rubber (Hevea Brasiliensis) was ill-adapted to the 

 soil and climate of the island. The cultivation of Ficus 

 elastica was strongly advocated on the grounds that it 

 was a natural product of the Java forests. It is due to 

 this advice from the experts of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment that so large an area of Ficus, Castilloa and Ceard 

 trees are found in Java to-day. The cultivation of 

 Pard rubber was only begun seriously about 1905, when 

 the experiences of Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula 

 showed clearly its great superiority over all other species. 

 In a few districts a limited number of Hevea trees had 

 been planted before 1905, and the satisfactory develop- 

 ment of these proved that they could be successfully 

 cultivated, and that the opinion expressed by the 

 authorities at Buitenzorg in 1898 was entirely erro- 

 neous. In 1906-1908 arrangements were made to 

 obtain seed from the Klang district of Selangor, and 

 in those years a considerable number of coffee estates 

 were interplanted with Para trees. In 1909-1911 the 

 cultivated area was greatly extended in conjunction 

 with the planting of Robusta coffee as a catch crop. 



On an estate named Pasir Oetjing, near Bandoeng, 

 there are growing 120 trees planted from seeds collected 

 in the Amazon Valley in 1899, and sent to Paris to the 

 care of Mr. Godefroy-Lebeuf. After germination the 

 plants were shipped to Java to Mr. A. Bovis, who 

 planted them at the Pasir Oetjing estate. An account 

 of these trees was published in the Journal d? Agriculture 

 Tropicale of May 31, 1904, and it is claimed that they 

 belong to the black variety of the Hevea Brasiliensis, 



