AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 



No. 4.] APRIL, 1906. [Vol. V. 



H. WRIGHT S PARA RUBBER. 



( Review.) 



Though this book was published some time ago, the edition was 

 so small that it is only within a few days ago that we were able 

 to procure a copy; hence any delay in noticing it. The book was 

 wanted as there was no other book on the subject at all up to 

 date but Mr. JOHNSTON'S work. Since then a great deal of pro- 

 gress has been made in every thing connected with the work of 

 growing and making rubber. And now that Mr. WRIGHT'S excel- 

 lent little work is out of print and that much more is known about 

 rubber we shall hope to see another and larger edition soon on 

 the market. The work deals chiefly with rubber in Ceylon, and 

 perhaps too little with the rubber country par excellence, viz. } the 

 Malay Peninsula. It commences with a short history of the intro- 

 duction of rubber into Ceylon in which it is said that India and 

 the Straits have received a considerable number of Ceylon rubber 

 seeds and plants the first consignments dating from 1877, wnen 

 cuttings from one year-old trees were sent from Peradeniya. The 

 plant however, only arrived at Kew in November, 1876, and then 

 had to be propagated before 100 plants could be sent to Ceylon. 

 It is only a matter of historical interest but it is clear from the 

 archives of the Botanic Gardens and Murton's reports, that these 

 cuttings were not received or were dead. No mention of them 

 at all is made anywhere, and it is clear from Sir HUGH Low's 

 letters that no living cuttings were in his possession in 1879, nor 

 any plants but those brought by MURTON and received from Kew 

 direct. Many years later seeds were received from Ceylon how- 

 ever, but by that time the original trees in the Botanic Gardens 

 at Singapore had fruited. This is only a historical matter as stated 

 before and the full history of the introduction of rubber into the 

 Straits and Malay Peninsula has been published in the Bulletin 

 previously. 



The physiology of the plant next is dealt with, and the important 

 question of the function of the latex the author seems to have 



