211 



Note— I. Mr. James Collins, really the first man to bring the 

 plant from the Amazons to Europe, was afterwards Government 

 Economic Botanist at Singapore. He only remained about a year, 

 and retired. He was the author of a report, apparently the first real 

 account, of the rubber industry in South America ( Report on the 

 caoutchouc of commerce by James Collins 18/2 ). 



He described and figured the herringbone system of tapping, 

 and invented several forms of tapping knives, among which is the 

 well-known " Farrier's knife " which was also suggested by Mr. 

 Mann, and was used for marking timber in Hanover at that time. 

 He suggested the use of iron vessels for catching the latex in place 

 of the folded leaves plastered to the trunk with clay or calabashes. 

 Clay, he says, contaminates the milk in a very objectionable manner. 

 Yet this system was the only one in Ceylon till 1899, with a coconut 

 shell substitute for the calabash. 



2. Plants were sent to Burmah, Mauritius and Calcutta, besides 

 Ceylon and Singapore. The plant has always failed in Calcutta, but 

 neither Mauritius or Burmah seem to have taken any trouble to 

 continue its cultivation. In fact, though later the plant was sent to 

 all the other tropical gardens of the Empire, Ceylon and Singapore 

 alone saw the importance of continuing to propagate it so that, thanks 

 to Thwaites and Trimen, Murton and Cantley, there was a sufficient 

 stock of plants and seeds to start the industry when the demand for 

 cultivated rubber sprang up. But though there were upwards of 

 2,000 Para rubber plants sent to Ceylon in 1877, there seem to have 

 been in 1899 only about 70 trees in the Heneratgode and Peradeniya 

 Gardens, while in Singapore, which received 22 plants in 1877, there 

 were over a thousand full grown trees and from the plants taken up 

 to Perak by Murton some hundreds at least at Kuala Kangsar and 

 Taiping Gardens, ready as stock for the expected demand. 



3. It is interesting to note that Singapore had the first Ceara 

 rubber plants in the East. — Ed. 



Colonial Secretary's Office, 

 Singapore, 6th September, 1878. 



Col. Sec. No. 4072/78. 

 Sir, 



1 am (lirecled to transmit to you for your information a copy of 

 a letter from H.B.M'> Resident at Perak upon the subject of the 



