317 
A new expedition to Tibet is in preparation. It will be headed 
by Lieutenant Kozlov, who accompanied Roborovski in his last 
journey. 
Hoping es you will generously pardon me for trespassing on 
your kindnes 
I remain, etc., 
(Signed) E. BRETSCHNEIDER. 
Lonicera hildebrandiana.—This large-flowered er, was 
disco ge ed in Upper Burma, in 1878, by General Sir nry 
Collett, K.C.B., F.L.S., and described in the Journal of the 
med Society (Vol. XXVIII. , p. 664) as E bona undas 8 shrub, 
with large, dark, glossy leaves and fine crimson flowers seven inches 
ong, and is by far the largest of any known species of honey- 
suckle.” Seeds of it were TR forwarded to Kew, in 1894, by 
Mr. A. H. Hildebrand, C.I.E., Superintendent and Political Officer 
of the Southern Shan States, after whom the plant is named, and 
plants raised from them were noa distributed. It proved too 
tender for cultivation in the open air at Kew ; on the other hand, 
it has grown vigorously under RET, treatmen t, but has not 
yet flowered. Mr. F. W. Moore, the able Keeper of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Heg however, been more successful, 
be 
from S dus in April last Mes Mr. Hildebrand said: * I am sorry 
that are unable to flower the large honeysuckle and rose 
(Rosa 2b tea). The bother is à si ight to behold just now in my 
garden, and strikes the densest in horticultural matters with 
astonishment. It is a mass of flowers, white when they open, 
and of a lovely gold when far spent. It flowers on last year’s 
wood. ed at "the roots is what both rose and honeysuckle 
require." 
The oldest India-rubber Plantation in the World.—The following 
is an extract from the Indian Forester (vol, xxiv., pp. 160-161) :— 
The oldest caoutchouc plantation in ip taba is pate one 
existing in the west of Java, in the pr e of Kra nong. A 
cultivation of this plant was no longer lucrative, he planted some 
of the land up with Ficus elastica. The coffee plantations cem 
already been more or less cleared of forest growth, so that 
planting of Ficus elastica cost less than thirty shillings per ines. 
The soil of these coffee gardens had become useless for other 
