469 



surface wood decays and forms at last a brown powdery 

 soil, mixed with fragments of sticks etc. and reminding one 

 of the surface of an old tan yard. The water which fills the 

 drains and streams from this formation is dark brown, re- 

 sembling the brown peaty water of a Scotch moor, but is by 

 no means safe to drink though it has only a slight peaty 

 flavour as it is apt to produce a violent diarrhoea and has 

 been known to cause much sickness of this nature among the 

 coolies working in such land. 



We have not seen any analysis of either water or soil 

 from such ground but it is probable that it contains an ex- 

 cess of humic acid and also of salts of magnesia, sodium 

 and potash. 



Not long ago I visited the fibre plantations of the 

 Peneiro estate in Southern Johore, recently floated as a 

 Company. Here Sanseviera, Agave sisalana and Four- 

 croya gigantea were being cultivated on a large scale for 

 fibre making. I was much struck with the appearance of 

 the sisal hemp, Agave sisalana. This plant long in cultiv- 

 ation in the Botanic Gardens in Singapore has never really 

 made good growth, though being a desert plant, such as is 

 scientifically called a xerophyte, it had been planted in the 

 driest corners of the Gardens. 



In this damp mass of decaying logs and branches, it 

 was growing luxuriantly. The plants were strong and 

 healthy, in fact quite handsome and throwing up suckers 

 in every direction. The suckers growing wherever they 

 happened to be thrown. Fourcroya and Sanseviera, which 

 however are much easier plants to grow here were also 

 doing well. One would not indeed have been prepared to 

 find a xerophytic plant cultivated successfully in dry sandy 

 places in the West Indian Islands thriving in a strongly 

 peaty damp locality. On exactly similar ground I have 

 seen Para rubber planted on a large scale. Now Para 

 rubber is a typical hygrophyte, that is to say, a plant 

 adapted for growth in the wettest regions of the tropics, 

 the region known as the "Tropical Rain-forest Region/' 



For a short time the little rubber plants looked all 

 right, but only for a very short time. The mortality was 

 frightful. The dead ones were replaced in vain. The 

 plants all looked sickly and died, some from attacks of 

 Fomes, others perhaps from termites, some from unknown 

 fungi. The dead plants were pulled up were remarkable 

 for their long tap root and for the fact that all the roots 

 descended vertically parallel to the tap root. As every 

 planter knows the Para rubber is a high rooter throwing 



