27 
savagely destroyed ; hence bed diminution in the yield, as well as 
in the quality, because the natives have mixed other substances 
with the caoutchouc to increase the size and weight of the balls." 
Some further cep dum which has attracted a good deal of 
attention appeared in a letter from Mr. Abraham Kingdon which 
appeared in the Standard of. Dee 22, 1896. 
I call your attention to the iHd oe cf St. Mary’s, the 
southernmost part of Madagascar, from which district an iene ous 
amount of india-rubber has been eai during the last few years. 
The india-rubber is procured from an almost leafless shrub with 
a large bulbous root. The ertet] that this shrub produced 
india.rubber was made by a “fluke.” p to the time of the 
discovery, — gaged had only been procured from Landolphia, 
ich grows freely in all the low-lying peris of Madagascar, 
keas of the arid district of St. Mary's. One day, however, a 
young native (who did not beliove that shat a-rubber could be 
procured from anything but the rA) brought two balls 
of india-rnbber to Mr. Marchal, of Fort Dauphin. He said, 
have brought you two balls of something which looks like 
india.rubber ; but I do not think it can be india-rubber, because 
it was not procured from the vahy mes ae but if you bin 
buy some of it I will bring it to you om 
boys playing with these balls. They were en from the jaie 
of a shrub, Which è coagulates as soon as it is gems to the air." 
t five dollars (one pound) per hundred Ibs., M archal 
aecepted t e rubber w ro in such large 
ee that Mr. Mar as very soon cleared out of goods 
rubber is now sold at Fort Dauphin at forty-five and fifty dollars 
per hundred lbs. Unfortunately the natives destroy the shrub in 
the operation of collecting the india-rubber ; for, in order to take 
the milk from the bulb, they root up the shrub. 
For the most recent information Kew is indebted to the follow- 
ing communication from the Foreign Office : 
FOREIGN OFFICE TO ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
SIR, Foreign Office, September 3, eh 
I AM directed by the Secretary of of State for Foreign Affairs 
transmit to you the accompanying copy of an article e d 
from the Dépéche pde tease respecting the Bey mi of India- 
rubber in Madagascar. 
The Director, .- ed cQ E H. VILLIERS. 
Royal Ghandi, Kow! ps E ORE SIC i 
