244 



VARIATION IN THE FLOWER OF 

 THE BLACK PEPPER. 



The flowers of the black pepper (Piper nigrum ) are of 

 very simple structure. They consist normally of a sub- 

 globose pistil enclosed in a short fleshy bract. On either 

 side of the pistil are one or two simple stamens. The pistil 

 is crowned by a stigma of from 3 to 5 recurved lobes, oc- 

 casionally only two and sometimes as many as seven. In 

 examining^ some spikes of the plant in flower I find it is not 

 very rare to see two pistils in some of the bracts, owing to 

 pressure the pistils are unequal and flattened on the ap- 

 pressed side, I have seen none of these double flowered 

 bracts producing fruit and suspect they always abort. In 

 the case of this modification, I find the stamens either re- 

 duced to a single one or quite absent. There are forms of 

 the pepper in which the stamens are normally absent from 

 the female flower but in the pepper under observation the 

 stamens occur regularlv. 



Ed. 



DYERA COSTULATiE (Gutta jelutong). 



This tree and rubber has been referred to in the Agri- 

 cultural Bulletin P. 95, vol. II (1903) and P. 48 and 91 vol. 

 Ill (1904) and more recently in the report on the Inter- 

 national Rubber Exhibition February number of the cur- 

 rent volume. In the latter notice it was mentioned that 

 ' 'its cultivation would not attract private enterprise" al- 

 though the rubber and existing trees were worthy of atten- 

 tion. 



As may be seen from the account given by the Scientific 

 Department of the Imperial Institute (P. 48, vol. Ill,) the 

 coagulants used are gypsum and kerosine-oil, (although not 

 mentioned alum is used also) and as may be- expected from 

 such crude treatment the resulting rubber is of very low 

 grade. 



The enormous and growing demand for this rubber will 

 — it may safely be predicted — introduce other methods 

 of coagulation, and a system of tapping without destroying 

 the trees for which there is no reason whatever. At the 

 present time the two large sources of supply are Borneo 

 and Sumatra, but scattered over the forests of the Malay 

 Peninsula and Colony there must be many thousands of 

 trees fit for exploiting. It may be of interest to record the 



