388 



safely tapped before g years, one tapped at 7 years' age gave 4 oz. 

 rubber, but the shock of too heavy tapping nearly killed it. Two 

 more tapped more carefully at 9 years' old gave one and two 

 ounces respectively. While Para rubber a year older gave lib. foz. 

 The rubber obtained contained 8.67 p.c. resin, and 89.33 caoutchouc 

 as against 3.25-3 90 resin and 95.96-95.53 p.c. caoutchouc in Para. 



Under these circumstances Funtumia is hardly likely again to 

 play an important part in the world's rubber supply. 



Mr. JOHNSON points out in conclusion that rubber plants are 

 not nearly so plentiful in Africa as was generally supposed, and 

 gives a table showing the enormous decrease in rubber export 

 from West Africa from 1898 to 1902, viz., from 94*301 cwts. in 

 1898 to 18*486 in 1902. — Editor. 



RUBBER SOILS. 



A circular issued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, July, 

 1905, deals with Para Rubber, chiefly from a chemical point of view. 

 A series of analyses of soils and of fresh and decaying leaves, 

 twigs, etc., being given. The article is by Messrs. WRIGHT and 

 BRUCE, and is interesting and instructive. The authors point out 

 that the drain on the soil by taking away the latex is not great but 

 that though the loss is small yet it should be taken into consider- 

 ation after a number of years and an attempt made to replace the 

 mineral matter and nitrogen. Though this may be admitted it 

 forms a very trivial loss of food-material compared with the losses 

 of sweeping away the leaves and twigs and removing the weeds 

 which have grown beneath. Indeed the loss by the removal of the 

 seeds would probably be far greater than that caused by the removal 

 of the latex. 



The authors further say, " We are at present of the opinion that 

 manuring at the young stage would help on the young plants and 

 prove to be beneficial." This cautious opinion was justified as long 

 ago as November, 1903, in the Bulletin with an illustrative photo- 

 graph, (published later). It seems a pity that the authors do not 

 keep au courant with rubber literature. 



They continue " We would strongly recommend that the fallen 

 leaves be buried with lime or basic slag in trenches or round the 

 trees at a distance of from 4 to 6 feet from the trunk." I should 

 venture to dissuade planters in the Malay Peninsula at least from 

 doing anything of the kind. In the paper above referred lime was 

 shown to be, if used in quantity at least, injurious to the tree. 

 But more serious is the damage that would be caused by cutting 

 through the roots of the tree at a distance of from four to six feet 

 from the trunk. Para rubber in the Peninsula roots very high, and 

 such treatment would be most injurious not only checking the 

 growth of the roots, but allowing a possibility of their injury on the 

 cut ends by inroads of fungi. By all means let the leaves and 

 small twigs rot on the ground and feed the plant, as is done in the 



