273 



This is curious, as full grown trees up to any size are constantly 

 attacked and destroyed here, 60 feet and more tall. Indeed this 

 constitutes one of the greatest difficulties of dealing with the pest. 

 If it only attacked young plants it would be much more easy to deal 

 with. It does fly low very often and is commonly to be found in 

 base of stumps of sago palms which have been felled to extract the 

 flour. 



In our forests, the red beetle lives on the Bayas and Nibong palms, 

 Oncosperma, of which genus there is another species in Ceylon. I 

 have seen a Bayas tree felled by the coolies for the cabbage in the 

 forests of Bujong Malacca, in Perak, which was visited by a Rhyn- 

 cophorus in less than twenty minutes after the tree was cut up, so 

 quickly did it scent the cut-up tree. 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



RUBBER SALES. 



A quantity of Biscuit rubber made in the Botanic Gardens, Singa- 

 pore, was recently sold by HECHT LEVIS and KAHN. It was in two 

 lots, the larger consisted of fine white biscuits made with acetic acid 

 and dried with the aid of calcium chloride, and fetched ^^6/9^ per 

 lb. The other, a small lot made two years ago without acetic acid, 

 and smoked, consisted of thicker biscuits of a darker brown colour. 

 This lot fetched only \d. less per lb. It is unnecessary to state 

 that this little lot cost a good deal less in expense and trouble to 

 make, and its only defect seems to be its darker colour, there being 

 a fancy now for white biscuits. 



Smoking rubber is an easy and cheap method of drying it off, and 

 as the price is so little different from that prepared by a more elabo- 

 rate and expensive process, this old process may be very suitable 

 for small growers. — Ed. 



