170 
years old at our disposal. So far two are tapped. No. l gave 
5 lbs. ; No. 2,54 lbs. The tapping is conducted with a view of - 
petiing another yield next year from the same trees. 
The year’s crop of cuttings will be about 7,000 only. We are 
still nsaan with seed. 
Yours truly, 
(Signed) Tiilos A. FLOYER. 
Cairo, June 12, 1899. 
DEAR hang WILLIAM, 
three trees, Een teu ker I p vm last ink 
I have ra out pes spring nearly 3,000 Ficus, and hope in due 
time a rubber industry may be sta rted 
Yours truly, 
(Signed) ERNEST A. FLOYER. 
XXXV.—INDIA-RUBBER: BRITISH SOLOMON 
ISLANDS. 
[K.B., 1897, pp. 419, 420.] 
“During the pee visit to the Protectorate I made several 
hipaa P de with a v w to the produ ction of india-r rubber, the 
Ficus. I regret to say that my experiments were unsuccessful. 
was, however, shown by one of the Aola traders, who had d just 
returned from British New Guinea, some samples of rubber now 
being procured there by the natives. The man who showed me 
the samples said that he had seen the same tree as that from 
which they were produced growing in the Solomons, and from 
his description it appears to be also a species of Ficus. The natives 
of New Guinea, the trader told me, allowed the sap ‘of the tree to 
run over their arme and body and when it was sufficiently solid 
removed it and rolled it up into lumps. The lumps were rather 
larger than a cricket ball "S n ,Was worth to the New Guinea 
traders from 2s. 6d. to 38. per Ib 
XXXVI—CASTILLOA RUBBER OF CENTRAL 
AMERICA 
(Castilloa elastica, Cerv.) 
[K.B., 1887, Dec., pp. 13-16.] 
This is one of the earliest described of rubber-yielding plants, 
but according to Sir Joseph Hooker (Trans. Linn. Societ ty, Vol H., 
pt. 9, p. 209), it is probable that more than one rubber-beari 
species exists in Central America under this nàme. 
