198 GIBBS. 



fruit. The sugur sap then begins to flow more or less freely. This process is 

 the same as described in Simmond's Tropical Agriculture.*' 



Molisch" calls attention to the necessity of producing a wound tissue by 

 hammering the flower stalk. 



SAP FLOW. 



Semler °' remarks r^arding the flow of sugar sap, that each flower stalk will 

 flow 2 to 4 liters daily for 2 to 5 months. 



Molisch*^ failed to obtain a yield as great as this from the two trees tapped 

 by him. One started with a flow of about 100 cubic centimeters daily, reached 

 a maximum of 2.830 liters in four days, and in eleven days after 18.05 liters 

 had been obtained it ceased to flow. The second tree yielded 29.915 liters in 

 thirteen days, the maximum being 5.400 liters obtained on the sixth day. 



I have made no extensive investigations of the sap flow, but found 

 a tree at Nagcaiian, Province of Laguna, from which sap was being 

 obtained by the natives, which gave 2 liters in eight hoiirs during the 

 night. The natives stated that the tree w~as at that time not producing 

 so well as it had some days previously. 



Two flower stalks on two diiEerent trees at the Barrio of Sabang near 

 Lucena, Province of Tayabas, were tapped under my direction by two 

 natives who had experience in the work. These palms gave sap for only 

 25 d&js. Since only a few samples were collected at irregular intervals, 

 no conclusions can be drawn regarding the total flow. The maximum 

 was at the rate of over 2 liters per day. 



COMPOSITION OF THE SAP. 



With P. Agcaoiu:. 



The analyses of the samples are tabulated as follows : 



^ Watt. Ibid., 303. One of the spadices is, on the first appearance of fruit, 

 beaten on three successive days with a small stick with the view of determining 

 the sap to the wounded part. The spadix is then cut a little way from its root 

 (base) and the liquid which pours out is received in pots of earthenware, in 

 bamboos, or other vessels. The Gomuti palm is fit to yield toddy when nine or 

 ten years old, and continues to yield it for two years, at the average rate of 

 three quarts a day. 



^ Sitzungsber. Akad. d. Wiss. math.-nat. Klasse, Wien (1898), 107, 1265. 



"Die tropische Agrikultur, Wismar (1897), 1, 720. 



" Loc. cit. 



