Investigations are being made into the Ceylon Gutta-perchas, 

 ebonies and other subjects. The Laboratory here has been used 

 by numerous visitors, in addition to the stan° of the Department. 

 A scientific Journal, the "Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Peradeniya/' has been established for the publication of the tech- 

 nical and scientific part of the work of the Department. The 

 subordinate clerical and gardening staff has been re-organized with 

 an incremental system of pay, resulting in a slight saving. The 

 Department has assisted the Department of Public Instruction in 

 the starting of the new system of School Gardens, providing num- 

 bers of useful plants of the best varieties. 



NOTES. 



New Rubber in Saigon. 



A new source of supply for rubber has been found out by M. 

 Deiss, a PVench scientist at Saigon. The forests inland in that 

 quarter abound with lianas, creeping and twining plants which 

 grow to a large size. These lianas yield rubber out of the juice 

 from cutting in the bark (the usual mode of gathering) but not in 

 paying quantities. The fact that the bark, apart from the juice, 

 holds rubber, had long been known ; but nothing had been done 

 to turn this knowledge to profitable account. M. Deiss was struck 

 by this, and sought for means to get at the stores of rubber in the 

 bark. It is said that he has met with success. The bark is treat- 

 ed chemically, and undergoes sundry processes, including treat- 

 ment by currents of hot and cold water alternately. The result is 

 said to be the extraction of rubber of the best qualitv, which soon 

 thickens and hardens. It took repeated experiments to show the 

 right way to go to work. The outcome is that a syndicate of capi- 

 talists in France has undertaken to start in Cochin China and Ton- 

 quin, works for turning out rubber from bark on the new system. 



Rubber and the State in Brazil. 



The Bulletin de la Societe d' Etudes Coloniales (Brussels) re- 

 cently published the results of an official inquiry made under the 

 direction of the Belgian ministry of foreign affairs as to the official 

 measures taken in Brazil to foster its greater rubber industry. It 

 was found that the general government of the republic has passed 

 no laws relating to the industry. It is not regulated at all except 

 so far as the legislature of the several states have adopted mea- 

 sures. Seventeen of the twenty states produce rubber, the climate 

 being unfavourable to rubber culture onlv in the three southern 

 states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, and Parana. Most 

 of the small Atlantic coast states in the rubber zone, though 

 producing more or less caoutchouc, have made no attempt, as yet, 

 to conserve their rubber resources or to encourage or regulate its 

 production. These states include Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes, 

 Espirito Santo, Parahyba, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, and 

 Ceara. Most of the rubber states make the product contributed to 

 the finances by imposing a tax on rubber exports, but the states 



