3»5 



Singapore Botanic Gardens towards the end of 1885 and planted 

 out at the beginning of 1886. No particular attention was paid to 

 these trees at the time more than to the many other economic and 

 ornamental plants that were planted in this Garden that year then 

 in course of foundation, and it so happened that two were planted 

 side by side in poor gravelly soil on sloping ground which by the 

 subsequent cutting of a new road alongside them some years later 

 converted the site on which they are growing into what is virtually 

 a dry bank. When, some ten years after these trees were planted, 

 the question of the best method of extracting coagulating rubber, 

 and the probable yield to be expected commenced to interest the 

 planting community, this tree as being the largest in the garden, 

 was selected for experiments which have been continued from time 

 to time and the result recorded in the Annual Reports. There is 

 nothing remarkable about this tree except that, as planters have 

 often remarked, it is remarkably small for its age, but that is not 

 surprising considering the nature of the soil and the situation in 

 which it is growing. It is not pretended that the result of tapping 

 one tree is of great value as a guide to the results to be obtained 

 from a large number, for we now know from the experiments of 

 Messrs. Derry, Arden, and others that there is a great dissimi- 

 larity in the yield of trees of equal size growing side by side and 

 under exactly similar condition. The interest in this particular tree 

 then is that it has been tapped successively six times from the ele- 

 venth to the fifteenth year of its age, that it shows no sign of de- 

 terioration, that the incisions made are all healed up, and that 

 the total yield of dry rubber during that period is fifteen pounds ten 

 ounces, obtained by the methods which have been fully described 

 in the Annual Reports, and at the following seasons : — 



Date of tapping. 



Result in dry 

 rubber. • 



Approximate 

 age of tree 

 at time of 





lbs. 



oz. 



tapping. 



June 1897 



1 







1 1 Years 



Nov.-Decr. 1898 



3 







I2i „ , 1 



April-May 1899 



2 



, 8 



s 3 „ , 



Nov.-Decr. 1899 



3 



4 



13* 11 



Oct. -Nov. 1900 



3 



• 



1 2 



Hi „ 



Aug. -Sept. 1901 



2 



2 





Total... 



15 



10 





Remarks. 



Circumference at 

 the time tapping 

 commenced 36 

 inches at three 

 feet from the 

 ground. . 



Circumference in 

 December 1900, 

 66 inches. Hei- 

 ght about 55 ft. 



