76 



tions in China, came to the conclusion that the Black Sea would be an 

 excellent place for rubber cultivation and a group of Capitalists have 

 met to organise an enterprise for this purpose. Where are the 

 different rubber plantations of China and what rubber is cultivated 

 there ? 



Somehow the " frosty Caucasus " does not seem altogether an 

 ideal place for Hevea Braziliensis, but where will not people try to 

 grow rubber now-a-days ? 



Dieback. 



We have received the number of the Annals of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens Peradeniya for September, 1910, Vol. IV., part VIL, contain- 

 ing a long article on Lasiodiplodia by Mr. T. Fetch. He reduces several 

 described species including DipJodia rapax to Botryodiplodia Theohromae 

 the die back of Cacao or at least suggests that it is indential. This 

 he says is extremely widespread, but has caused comparatively little 

 damage and it is impossible to resist the conclusion that in the 

 majority of instances it is only saprophytic. 



This hardly agrees with Diplodia rapax which I have never seen 

 as a saprophyte nor as he says of Botryodiplodia have I ever seen it on 

 fruits of Hevea nor in any case has it appeared on healthy stems of 

 Hevea left lying in a laboratory verandah. He had, however; ap- 

 parently not seen the investigations on the fungus made here and 

 published in the Report (Bulletin, August, IQIO). There can be no 

 doubt that whether Diplodia rapax is or is not identical with the 

 Botryodiplodia of Cacao or not, it is here a parasite and a bad one. — Ed. 



A New Rubber Journal. 



Les Annales des Planteurs de Caoutchouc de ITndo Chine is a 

 new publication of which the first number appeared in January, 

 printed at Saigon. It contains articles on planting rubber and the 

 Bulletins of the Rubber Planters' Association of Cochin China. The 

 editor states that if the growth of Hevea in Cochin China is not as 

 good as in Malaya, it is quite equal to that of Ceylon, and certainly 

 better than that of Java and Sumatra. — Ed. 



RUBBER. 



Rubber : — 1908, a year of depression in the rubber trade of Brazil, 

 was followed by a year in which prices rose to a level which had never 

 before been attained, the value of the rubber exports in 1909 being 

 18,926,061 Is., as compared with 11,784,637 Is. in 1908 and 13,594,018/5. 

 in 1907. 



The increase in the quantity exported, however, in no way corre- 

 sponds with this large increase in the value of exports, and were it^not 

 for the greater exports of lower-graded rubbers, chiefly manicoba, the 

 amount of rubber sent by Brazil to the world's markets would have 

 been actually less in 1909 than in the two previous years. Export* 



