314 



picul, but now it lias risen in price to 80s. a pieul, and as the 

 factory is enlarging its plant; we may presume there is a 

 good profit on this. It seems hardly likely that the cultiva- 

 tion of Gambir will return to the Straits Settlements on 

 the same scale as it formerly was, but this tan stuff is 

 required and will long be of the greatest importance to 

 tanners, and the cultivation may return to waste fields at 

 some time. There is a good deal still grown in Malacca 

 and Johore, but the Para rubber tree is gradually driving 

 all other cultivations before it, even in these places. 

 Should it return we shall hope to see the cultivation run on 

 a better system both as regards the land and the manu- 

 facture. 



Ed. 



PARA RUBBER. VARIOUS RECENT 

 PUBLICATIONS. 



Abnormalities. Mr. Petch has brought two Cir- 

 culars from the Botanic Gardens in Ceylon of interest to 

 rubber planters. One deals with the looping and other 

 contortions of the radicle in the germinating of the seed, 

 and the other treats of burrs and outgrowths of wood and 

 bark. 



In the germination of Para rubber seed it is too com- 

 mon to find the young root twisted into a loop or recurved 

 in such a way as to seriously interfere with the growth of 

 the tree. Some notes on this point have already been 

 published in the Bulletin, Mr.' Petch after giving a descrip- 

 tion of the structure and moral development of the young 

 plant gives an account of some experiments on germination 

 made by planting the seeds in different positions in the soil. 

 Fifty seeds were planted horizontally with the lower (flat 

 surface) downwards, and fifty the other way up. Fifty 

 were planted vertically with the Micropyle (the little cir- 

 cular spot from which the root is pushed out) downwards, 

 and fifty with the Micropyle upwards. Fifty were planted 

 horizontally on the narrow edge. In all these ways the 

 seeds that germinated came up normal without any bend or 

 loop, except when the seeds were planted with the micro- 

 pyle upwards, in all of which the young root was curved, 

 or bent or formed complete loops, out of sixty seeds planted 

 in this position not one germinated normally. There are 

 however other ways in which looping of the root is produc- 

 ed irrespective of the position of the seed, occasionally the 



