91 
twenty-six thousand pounds net profit. The same kind of india- 
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 ; ER in order to take 
the milk from the bulb, they root up the shru 
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, en 3, 1898. 
I AM directed by the Secretary of State € Foreign Affairs to 
transmit to you the accompanying copy of a en extracted 
from the Depeche Coloniale respecting the $éitivation of India- 
rubber in Madagascar. 
I am, &e., 
The Director, (Signed) F. H. VILLIERS. 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
EXTRACT from the Depeche Coloniale, August 28, 1898. 
The Exploitation of India-rubber in Madagascar. 
The cape ae for the eultivation of india-rubber in 
Madagascar are numerous, especially on the coast and lower levels 
of the binis: 
It may be expected that the efforts which may be made in this 
coeton will fully succeed if, in establishing plantations, the 
Hane perly studied. The best known rubber-trees are : "e Hevea, 
Manihot, Castilloa, Landolphia, Willughbeia and Ficu ; 
Besides the =. s met igne ee the epos of mt 
south, there exists t with on the east side of the Island 
which the natives Aita labia. This tree, which furnishes 
an abundant and much-prized latex, appears destined to a an 
important role in the future. There are two varieties one, 
the most important, with large leaves, the other with small pubem 
They belong to the familv of the ove een held Alstonie®. 
The barabanja is abundant in the region comprised between 
Vohemar and the Bay of Antongil. The tree is r found wild up to 
an altitude of 1,300 to 1,600 feet. It prefers the glades and borders 
f forests, and may attain to a height of 50 feet, with a cireum- 
ference of 5 feet. Specimens of this size are, however, rare, for, 
about the age of eight or kive years, the natives make excessive 
incisions, and very often even cut down the tree in order to gather 
the latex 
The tree propagates itself readily from suckers, and it is 
to this that the Bnet abundance of the tree is due. Very fine 
specimens are reported fr "m the neighbourhood of Antalaha, 
Sahambava and -acvinacdrien 
The cultivation of neret trees has already been tried in 
different parts of the are The preference seems to have been 
given to plants of Hevea, from Para, which appears likely to er» 
satisfactory results, 
