442 



means of the prostrate primary trunk. Again specially good tree 

 which have met with such an accident can be saved as has been 

 clone with a smaller sized tree in the Botanic Gardens, which pro- 

 duced an extraordinary flow of latex, but was unfortunately knocked 



over by another tree falling upon it. 



The closeness of the large trunks produced will' also be noticed 

 in the photograph. The original tree had it not fallen would cer- 

 tainly not by this time have given so large^an area of tapping bark, 

 nor would it have been possible to have got single trees of the size of 

 these stems on the same area of ground as the stems are, in the time 

 in which these have taken to attain their present development. So 

 that it will be seen that these layered trees besides being interest- 

 ing as a curiosity may be also of some practical utility. — Editor, 



EXPERIMENTAL RUBBER TAPPING AT THE 

 BOTANIC GARDENS, SINGAPORE. 



{Continued .) 



The tables of three experiments of tapping by different methods 

 have ahead)- been published and experiment IV is now put up. 

 This experiment concerns the herring-bone mode of tapping only 

 on trees tried of different sizes and shews the difference between 

 tapping daily and on alternate days, and between morning and 

 evening tapping. The result, although not absolutely so, confirms 

 the opinion of the advantage of alternate over daily tappings and 

 of morning over evening tappings. The exception occurs between 

 No. I (daily) and No. Ill (alternate clays) the small difference in 

 this instance being in favour of daily tappings. With No. II and 

 No. IV the difference in favour of tapping on alternate days will 

 be noted and also the difference in the aggregate girth of the trees 

 as favouring alternate days. 



With large trees 3 feet and upwards the tappings were far from 

 exhaustive and the scars were only moderate but they were stopped 

 at the eighteenth tapping for the sake of uniformity. By referring 

 to the tables attaehed for Nos. 2, 5 and 4, it will be seen that the 

 eighteenth tapping in all the groups was normal and in some 

 only slightly below maximum yield. 



The Rubber has been prepared in the form of "biscuit" and 

 contains a low percentage of moisture, probably under 2 per cent. 



'I he result of the fourth experiment is as follows: — 



