42 
into  light  readily,  and  like  all  Death’s  head  Moths  is  very  quiet, 
generally  sitting  down  in  a corner  of  the  verandah  and  remaining 
motionless. 
Another  enemy  is  the  omnivorous  caterpillar  of  the  Atlas  Moth, 
(Aftacus  Atlas),  1 found  a full  grown  caterpillar  of  this  together 
with  one  of  the  Death’s  head  devouring  the  same  leaf  at  the  end 
of  February.  Such  big  caterpillars  as  these  make  short  work  of 
the  foliage  of  a small  plant  like  Brucea,  but  being  large  are  more 
easily  detected  and  destroyed. 
Mr.  ARDEN’S  REPORT  ON  PARA  RUBBER. 
In  September  of  last  year  Mr.  Arden  published  an  excellent 
report  on  the  experiments  which  he  had  lor  some  time  been  making 
on  the  Para  Rubber  tree,  Hevca  hraziliensis.  The  whole  report 
is  too  long  to  publish  in  extenso  but  a few  notes  in  it  may  be  of 
interest. 
It  commences  with  a short  history  of  its  introduction  into  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  but  in  respect  of  this  it  is  only  necessarv  to 
refer  our  readers  to  the  fuller  account  published  in  the  last  number 
of  the  Bulletin.  In  the  next  section  on  cultivation,  he  deals  with 
the  locality  suitable  for  planting,  and  points  out  the  excellent 
growth  of  the  tree  in  abandoned  mining  land  in  Perak,  being  rather 
inclined  to  condemn  the  selection  of  swamp  land,  (quoting  the 
Director  of  .Agriculture  in  Zanzibar  who  states  that  trees  planted 
there  in  typical  rice  swamps  were  nearly  all  dead,  and  also  an 
article  by  WiCKHA.M  in  which  he  says  that  the  rubber  in  the  'I'apajos 
and  Madeira  river  districts  whence  our  seed  was  originally  derived 
occurred  in  well  drained  stiff  soil  in  the  upland  plateaus  and  that 
the  theory  that  it  was  a tree  of  the  low-lying  inundated  forests  is 
an  error.  However  th(‘  trees  of  the  Singapore  Botanic  (iardens 
have  certainly  done  very  well  in  this  hnv-Iying  inundated  wet  soil, 
and  Mr.  1-5on.ni-:ciiauX,  who  had  considerable  experience  In  the 
rubber  of  the  Amazons,  stated  that  the  best  rubber  came  from  the 
wet  low-lying  ground  by  the  Amazon  river,  which  was  constantly 
llooiled,  and  that  the  rubber  of  the  hill  and  dryer  localities  was  in- 
ferior. On  pointing  out  to  him  a tree  grown  in  the  Gardens  in 
stiff  clay,  and  kept  as  an  example  of  the  bad  growth  made  under 
such  circumstances  ht'  said  it  was  quite  similar  to  those  of  the 
d;y  upland  r(ygions,  and  pointed  out  that  the  latex  from  that  tree 
was  peculiarly  yellow  and  not  of  the  pure  white  color  of  those 
grown  in  the  low  swampy  ground,  a phenomenon  well  known  to 
the  rubber  collectors  in  the  Amazons.  However  there  are  also  in 
the  Singapore  Gardens  some  very  line  tall  and  healthv  trees,  grown 
in  low  and  dryer  hills,  and  indeed  in  many  places  in  the  Peninsula, 
I have  seen  trees  doing  well  in  dry  localities. 
Mr.  Arden’s  remarks  on  germination  of  the  seed  are  well  worth 
study,  an  1 it  is  probable  that  he  is  correct  in  his  suggestion  that 
termites  attack  the  trees  through  the  cut  end  of  the  tap  root,  and 
that  t!ie  latex  protects  the  tree  fro.m  these  and  other  such  pests,  so 
