272 



Several planters have sent specimens of the leaf-fungus and it is 

 clear that it is common all over the Peninsula. Except in the case 

 of seedlings, it does not seem to do much harm, but it certainly 

 checks the growth of young plants and might do much harm in the 

 nurseries, if neglected. 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



ANALYSIS OP PARA RUBBER. 



M. P. Serre, French Vice-Consul at Batavia, writes in the 



Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale, April 30, p. 1x2: — 



Quite dry Para rubber from the Bukit Rajah Company and very 

 suitable for vulcanization sold at a little more than 7 francs a pound. 

 On analysis, it was found to contain 95*37 percent, caoutchouc, 3*02 

 per cent, resin, 1*24 percent, albuminoid matter, '37 per cent, mi- 

 neral matters. 



BARU: HIBISCUS TILIACEUS. 



An article on the fibre of this common tree here, appears in the 

 Indian Forester of June, 1905, p. 347, in which it appears that a 

 M. Le Fevre in Rangoon has made an attempt to introduce this 

 fibre into commerce. He is stated to have a secret method for work- 

 ing the fibre and made it up into rope, matting and gunny and also 

 dyed it of different colours. His product fetched from £20 to £35 

 per ton, and he obtained a concession to work the fibre in the To- 

 ringoo district, but the help he had been promised in the venture 

 was not forthcoming and he had to stop work. It is suggested that 

 Baru would do better than Jute in cases where the gunny bags 

 made from it have to stand on damp ground and that the Govern- 

 ment might grow the plant or buy it from cultivators and have it 

 worked into gunny bags in the jails. 



The plant was described in the paper on fibres in the Bulletin, 

 and its abundance on our rivers was noted. It grows very readily 

 in the edges of the tidal rivers, and in nipah swamps and would pro- 

 bably pay well if either planted or in many cases simply aided in its 

 growth by removing the other plants which grew among it and so 

 giving it room to spread. The natives who make a living by col- 

 lecting nipah leaves for cigarette papers might have their attention 

 called to this fibre, of which perhaps hundred of tons are wasting on 

 our river banks. — Ed. 



RED COCO-NUT BEETLE. 



In a paper in the Tropical Agriculturist, p. 153, Mr. W. JARDINE 

 treating of coco-nuts, states that in Ceylon it is rare for the Red coco- 

 nut beetle Rhyncophorus ferrugineus, to attack a tree over 10 or 12 

 feet tall, and suggests the reason for this is that it cannot fly higher. 



