3«9 



SUDU-SUDU. 



This is the Malay name of Euphorbea neriifolia, Linn, a spiny 

 succulent shrub with oblanceolate fleshy leaves. The leaves are 

 used for making a sweetmeat. They contain a quantity of a poi- 

 sonous milky latex, and it is very remarkable that such a plant 

 should be used as a sweetmeat. The leaves are pricked all over 

 and sprinkled with salt to get rid of the latex, and then sleeped in 

 brine for three days, after which they are boiled in syrup. 



The plant is probably a native of India, but is now cultivated 

 all over the east, and propagated by cuttings. It attains a height 

 of 15 or 20 feet when old, and is easily recognized by its quad- 

 rangular branches. Rumph in the Herbarium Amboinense men- 

 tions it as being used in the Eastern islands in medicine, but not 

 as a sweetmeat. The milky latex is generally used as a purgative 

 in India and the Eastern islands. 



H. N R. 



RUBBER NOTES. 



These short notes are taken from the Bulletin de la Societe 

 Centrale d' Agriculture Colonial. Para rubber trees cultivated at 

 Andemaka in Madagascar, planted five metres (15 feet) apart have 

 grown 2 metres and some over 2 and a-half metres (6 ft. 6 to 7 ft.) 

 in two years. This plantation has a satisfactory appearance (We 

 should hardly think so in the Straits). 



LandolpJiia lieudelotii is the only successful rubber in the Ivory 

 Coast. The only cultivation it requires is to protect it against 

 weeds. The latex is collected by the natives in calabashes and 

 set with the acid of lime juice. 



Another knife for tapping Para rubber trees is described in the 

 Bulletin de Agricultura de Guatemala. It is in the form of a 

 straight bladed parang bent downwards at an obtuse angle from 

 the handle. The blade is a foot long and two inches wide, sharp- 

 ened along the lower edge at the point nearest the handle and 

 gradually thickening to the tip. A sheathing portion is screwed 

 on to the blade so as to leave the cutting edge only just as deep 

 as is necessary to cut through the bark without touching the cam- 

 bium layer. The knife is drawn towards the user so that the cut 

 enlarges gradually without tearing the wound. It is said that this 

 produces an abundant flow of latex and the Wounds heal rapidly. 

 The instrument is known as the Rayador. 



CASTILLO A SEED. 



Mr. \V. S. Todd, Amherst, Lower Burmah, writes: — That he 

 has reduced the rate of Castilloa elastica seed to 20 rupees per 

 thousand, fifty per cent, guaranteed to germinate. Delivery in 

 August. 



