74 



It is right to add that the plantations in Malaysia are partly of 

 Ficus elastic a > the rubber of which will not command as high a price 

 as that of the HeVea. All these plantations having been only made 

 within the last two or three years, it will be not before five years 

 that Asia can put enough rubber on the market, say 5,000 tons to 

 influence it. 



Till then and for some years after the Asiatic producers will 

 benefit by the very high prices which will allow them to recover 

 their capital to a large extent, to increase their plantations and to 

 perfect the manufacture whilst Amazonas which cannot employ the 

 same methods will see the era of prosperity for the last 20 years 

 disappear or at least decrease. Reading the Brazilian journals it 

 does not appear that in that country, chie fly interested in rubber, any 

 one has a notion of the great danger which Brazil and the other 

 countries of the basin of the Amazon only escape by a general im- 

 provement of their economic civilization and by doing what the 

 English are doing, that is to say, organizing plantations of Hevea, in 

 most suitable localities instead of merely exploiting the natural 

 forests situated thousands of miles away in the interior. 



P. CIBOT, 

 [Trans I.) 



THE CANKSR OF PARA RUBBER. 



In one of the circulars of the Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, Mr. 

 CARRUTIIERS gives an account of the canker in the trees in Ceylon. 

 The fungus causing the disease is a species of Nectria. In its at- 

 tack it does not appear to be very clearly conspicuous from the 

 outside. The external colour of the bark is in many cases different 

 from that of the healthy parts, as a rule a little darker, and the bark 

 surface is different in appearance. As the bark dies it is attacked by 

 boring insects which tunnel into even living parts and cause an 

 exudation of latex. This is not however a certain sign of the pre- 

 sence of canker as it happens in any case of death of wood or bark 

 from whatever cause. The tissue below the bark, however, is very 

 differently colored, of a dirty yellow or neutral tint and when the 

 fungus has got complete hold it is claret colored like the skin of a 

 mangosteen. Wherever the canker occurs, latex disappears. The 

 stem and branches are equally liable to attack, but the roots and 

 twigs are unaffected. 



The life history of the fungus is like that of all fungi of the kind. 

 The mycelian permeates the cells for some time destroying them, 

 and at a certain time produces spores of two kinds, the first goui- 

 diospores are whitish grey in mass and look like thick white mould, 

 Later at the same spot are produced the perfect fruits which resemble 

 grains of red pepper, sometimes forming a mass as big as a ten cent 

 piece. These produce spores which are readily disposed by wind 

 or perhaps carried about by insects. When the spores find a suitable 



