* 
15 
SUMMARY. 
The result of experience so far gained in the experimental 
cultivation of the Ceara rubber plant may be summarised as 
follows : 
e.plani is readily propagate. ere from lucas and Miei o: 
Seeds are abundantly produced most every part of the 
orld where the plant has is p cred They iuc be 
bye feci lants when only three to five years old. There is 
therefore the great advantage that a large area could be planted 
within a Pe MM: short perio Sowing the seeds in the 
position where they are to grow permanently is universally 
adopted in Brazil. It is get if adopted Pipp waote this plan 
yona greatly reduce the cost of establishing plantation 
2. e Ceara rubber plant is very hardy, a a fast zm wer, es 
from Raters and fungoid attacks, requires little or no attention 
when once established and thrives in poor, dry and rocky Soild 
unsuited to almost any other crop. It is evident, however, that 
the yield of a few trees cannot be remunerative and only large 
areas ^s hope to make the industry a paying one 
ae roduces a good class of rubber, second only when well 
ded D the best Para rubber. For this there is a steady and 
it may be possible to increase the yield hitherto recorded ; while 
with skilful treatment the permanent trees may be tapped twice 
yearly and last in a productive state for 15 to 20 years. 
4. In spite therefore of the apparent want of success which 
so far has attended experiments with Ceara rubber plants in 
Ceylon and other countries, the increasing importance e of rubber 
as an article in large demand in all c vilized Kien at good 
prices, cone a reconsideration of the merits of this interesting 
plant. In many of our colonies possessing a dry climate and a 
poor stony soil, it is uin that large areas could be profitably 
occupied "with oum rubber trees so grown as to provide annual 
crops for tappin 
DXCIIL—MANILA HEMP IN BRITISH 
NORTH BORNEO. 
(Musa textilis, Nees.) 
Information respecting the important cordage fibre obtained 
from Musa textilis, the whole supply of which comes from the 
Philippine Islands, was given in e Kew Bulletin for April, 1887 
1-3). More recent information was published on the same 
subject in the number of the | ee Bulletin, devoted t o an account 
of the “ Species and Principal Varieties of Musa,” for August 1894 
(pp. 248 and 289, 290, with a fig de A “fa rther brief note 
Sppered i in the following M id Bulletin, 1895, p p. 208). 
he request of Kew B. Pryer, who is engaged in 
agricultural enterprise in doe "North Borneo, has been a 
