30 
Nelumbium speciosum in Egypt.—From the most reliable sources 
of information it appears that this plant was introduced into 
Kgypt, from India, about 500 B.C. and disappeared, probably, 
in the tenth century of the Christian era. But there e exists some 
doubt concerning its disappearance, because a passage in Savary’s 
Lettres sur l'Egypte (1778), though somewhat vague, hardly 
admits of any other construction than that Savary saw the rivers 
near Damietta covered with this majestic flower. Sir George 
Birdwood sent seeds abs it to Kew last November, with the 
information that hi$ son has re-discovered the plant growing 
n in the Desert Provinces of Egypt, and had since culti- 
th 
ee views of the plant growing in the Cairo garden 
ate cag anied the seeds. dec Birdwood describes the flowers as 
hite and orange, ‘eset h he means, probably, that the petals 
are white and the oe orange. This variety is by no means 
so common as the pink one, supposed to be the one formerly 
oe wn in Egypt. Roxburgh describes Su d (Flora Indica, 
p. 647) and there is a coloured figure of it in the Roxburgh 
collecti ion of drawings. bunt MAUS that he had bas 
both the pink and white varieties on the coast of Coromandel, and 
Seite Collett informs us that he has met with the white one 
in 
Landolphia Perieri.—The following information Au 
that Madagascar india-rubber in a recent nu r of the . 
upon 
Bulletin (1899, pp. 35-39). It is borrowed from thea: potens 
cations by M. Henri Jumelle, the first to the Académie des 
QUEM Paris (Comptes-rendus, exxix., pp. 349-351), the others . 
to the Revue des Cultures Coloniales (v., pp. 104-109 an4 154, 155). 
Landolphia Perieri is a rather slender liane of the forests in 
Madagascar lying between the watershed and the north-west 
coast. Its stem attains 6 inches in thickness, but slowly, and the 
majority of stems met with are much smaller. The natives who 
apply the names of *Piralaby' Eu Vahealahy’ to the plant, 
make rubber from it by cutting these stems into lengths, collecting 
the latex which drips from the ends and coagulating it with 
lemon juice or with bruised fruits of the tamarind. The latex is 
thin and watery, so that a whole day's work results M ger 
N "little more than a pound of rubber selling on the spot 
63d.-9d. The small return for the labour has caused the de aiu 
to forsake their occupation for gold-mining. 
M. Jumelle notes that better pr would ensure a better 
price. Coagulated by being boiled or allowed to dry, the rubber 
is dark and of poor quality (cf. K. B. 1892, p. 70) ; but a numiber 
of voc iss precipitate a pinky-white caoutchoue. These re 
agents notably acids—sulphuric, acetic, or citric—or solio; 
amongst the latter are common salt and Chili saltpetre. 
It has not been wipe for the Sakalavas to interfere with 
i 
the root ; and after the m has been ent to the soil a number of — 
shoots spring up Mon in two to three years € possibly, pra? 
again, | 
— 
