68 



useful for not only these seedlings but those of many other plants. 

 1 le applied to a Chinese towkay brickmaker to make the tiles as des- 

 cribed and the Chinaman suggested, " Why not buy cheap tin rain- 

 water piping of the required circumference, 6 inches, and get any 

 tinsmith to cut the pipes across to any length required for a pot (i2 

 inches) and then split them into equal halves, or tin guttering may 

 be used if obtainable." Being in the nursery daily watering must 

 be done and having the lower end open and resting on potsheds the 

 imperviousness of the sidewalls of tin will not affect the plant by 

 want of evaporation and causing water logging.. 



As explained in the previous paper the tilepots are buried in beds 

 so that the question of the sun's rays scorching the roots, tin being a 

 ready conductor of heat, does not come in. The idea appealed to 

 me immensely as it reduces the cost in breakage, compared with 

 tiles and tin piping is cheap especially if bought in quantity. 



The idea certainly seems a good one, and would certainly be 

 cheaper in the long run than tiles. 



Speaking of the germination of Casuarina seed, Mr. HUDSON 

 writes, " I put in Casuarina seed on the I2th of this month and be- 

 hold, in 5 days they had sprouted." — Editor. 



RUBBER PESTS. 



A planter sends a number of leaves of seedling rubbers badly 

 attacked with the fungus described in Bulletin III, 8 p. 308. It 

 has attacked a whole nursery of seedlings, and has pretty nearly 

 destroyed the plants. I find also this year a number of plants I had 

 planted out too early badly infesled. In cases of nursery infection 

 it seems desirable as soon as the disease is seen, to remove all in- 

 fected plants and especially fallen leaves. If only one or two leaves 

 on a plant are attacked these could be pulled off and burnt, (Para 

 rubber stands the loss of its leaves very well), and then disinfecting 

 with Bordeaux mixture, the plants and nursery beds should get rid of j 

 the pest. Plants in too damp a spot, or sickly ones which have been 

 injured seem to suffer most. All I can see in the spot where my 

 seedlings are worst attacked are small plants not more than 6-12 

 inches tall. Bigger plants have fine clean leaves, but these may have 

 survived an attack when young or not been attacked at all and so 

 made good growth. 



Mr. LlTTLE, who has a rubber plantation in Singapore, brought a 

 large number of that abominable animal; the Coffee locust, Cyrtan- 

 thacris varia, which had apparently been chewing the tips of his 

 Para rubber leaves much to their detriment. This large yellow and 

 green locust with its bright pink hind wings has been described .in 

 'Bulletin. 



It does not seem very particular as to what it eats, any leaves 

 soft enough will do for it, and it soon makes rags of Canna and 

 Dracaena leaves. Fortunately it is easy to catch ; children can catch 



