H7 



week. Few if any of these are cultivated by the exporters, most of 

 whom say they obtained the plants from Klang. One man was 

 recently charged with fraudulent possession of 13,000 plants, but 

 was acquitted as the evidence wanted was in the Native States and 

 not procurable. It seems probable that the nurseries are raided by 

 night, the plants pulled up and taken by native boats to Singa- 

 pore so as to avoid their being seen on board a steamer leaving for 

 Singapore, and then sold to the exporters for shipment. 



At one time it was proposed to prevent the export of rubber 

 seedlings from the Malay Peninsula, except to British Colonies — it 

 is regrettable that this was not carried into effect as the supply of 

 plants is by no means large enough for our own requirements, and 

 it would then have been possible to check these robberies. 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



THE WATER-HYACINTH. 



ElCHORNIA CRASSIPES. 



This beautiful aquatic was introduced here some four or five years 

 ago and has now become a very popular plant among the Chinese. 

 It is usually cultivated for ornament, in a jar of water with char- 

 coal and stones when it will flower if it is allowed sufficient light. 

 The leaves have a swollen fleshy petiole and a round short blade. 

 In too shady a place the petiole gets much longer and less swollen 

 and the whole leaf is much larger. In this state it does not flower 

 so well. It grows by offsets from the base and with surprising 

 rapidity, and will fill up a pond very quickly, if the place suits it. 

 From this habit it has proved a great nuisance in Florida and 

 Australia choking up the rivers so that steamers could not pass. In 

 Brazil it usually grows in damp water meadows which are almost 

 dry at times but when flooded the suckers of the plant drift off by 

 the aid of then swollen petioles and are carried far off by the water 

 and deposited at other spots where it grows again. It is grown 

 here in some quantity also by the Chinese, in ponds as they grow 

 Pistia Stratiotes, and other plants for feeding pigs. The flower- 

 spikes are hawked about in large quantities in Singapore for sale 

 and have become quite a feature in the streets. They are very 

 beautiful and certainly suggest a spike of large pink hyacinths but 

 they are unfortunately but of short duration lasting but a day. 

 Flowers are very seldom sold in the streets of Singapore, and in- 

 deed this is the first time that I have ever seen them sold in this 

 way. 



H. N. RIDLEY. 



NOTE ON AN OLD RUBBER STUMP. 



Among the Para rubber trees in the Botanic Gardens stands an 

 old stump of a tree, 9 feet tall and 3' 11" in girth. It met with an 



