'74 



Tonkin it justifies the most sanguine expectations. The finest tree 

 outside Japan that the Editor of this Bulletin has ever seen was 

 one in Cornwall near Fowey. One would therefore hardly expect 

 that the tree would thrive in the tropics so close to the Equator. 

 However, several planters in the Peninsula are having a try with it 

 Seeds and plants were imported from Japan by the Botanic Gardens 

 this and last year, and arrived in excellent condition. Mr. LARKEN 

 notes that in Johor the seeds took a month to come up, but all are 

 starting. Of course Camphor plants have been in the Botanic 

 Gardens for many years but they have made very little ; ^ 

 being still bushes of no great size. The soil, however, has il<uibtlev 

 much to do with this as all the plants were planted in stiff clay. 

 They have never flowered or fruited. Perhaps these trees would 

 do better in our hill regions, where the soil is lighter and more 

 friable, we hardly think they will do much in the plains. 



H. N. R. 



A RUBBER FACTORY IN SINGAPORE. 



The Netherlands Gutta Percha Company (Limited) has lately 

 turned its attention to the manufacture of rubber tyres for carnages 

 "I kinds, and under Mr. Van RyN is enlarging its premises at 

 Passir Panjang in Singapore. Machinery has been obtained am 

 the work of making Carriage tyres has regularly commenced, m. 

 VAN Ryn manufactures tyres for carriages, rubber plates, vaW*> 

 and will eventually manufacture other rubber goods for local con- 

 sumption besides doing all kinds of refining work and other sue 

 businesses connected with rubber, for all of which he has a suitao. 

 plant. Some rubber scrap was supplied from the Botanic barae - 

 trees, as also some rubber clot, and from this he has turned out 

 tyres which are the admiration of all who see them, ? n V c 

 superior to the usual rubber tyre in use in the East which is, 

 understand, made chiefly of African rubber. ^ ^ 



The scrap says the manufacturer is extremely f uitab! f*?p-, 

 work and requires much less treatment than the ordinary hard r 

 rubber of the Amazons. The clot rubber, that is the' -rubber u ■ 



the latex cups and 



annot bemade into 



picturesque-looking biscuit* or sheet, seems as good if ' 

 than the scrap. 



There is a great field for such a factory in the East and ^ 

 unnecessary to point out the saving all round to planter, ma 

 turer and consumer, in avoiding the expense of having the 

 £ n \* omc *° be made up and returned here in the for* rfOTJ 

 Mr Van Ryn is proposing shortly to make a tour of the pi g 

 districts to make arrangements for purchasing 

 he factory, and planters may soon have a chance of driving 

 their estates on tyres of rubber grown by themselves. 



