43 
that  they  cannot  attack  the  wood  when  defended  by  the  latex,  and 
hence  he  condemns  the  system  of  cutting  the  tap  root.  However 
among  the  numerous  stumps  some  of  considerable  size  in  which  the 
tap  root  has  been  cut  off,  I have  never  seen  one  tree  killed  from 
attacks  of  termites  or  any  other  insect  in  that  way,  and. the  des- 
truction of  the  tap  root,  often  very  long  in  wet  ground,  causes  a 
greater  output  of  lateral  roofs,  which  besides  giving  the  tree  a 
greater  area  of  feeding  ground,  usually  give  it  a stronger  hold  on 
the  soil  and  make  it  less  liable  to  be  overset  in  a storm.  With 
respect  to  the  destruction  of  trees  by  Helicobasidiinn,  the  root 
parasite,  Mr.  Ardkn  suggests  that  if  -the  trees  had  been  killed 
by  the  fungus  there  would  have  been  some  indication  of  its  pre- 
sence before  the  tree  collapsed,  and  there  doubtless  would  have 
been  to  a carefullv  searching  mycologist,  but  to  the  ordinary  ob- 
server, the  death  of  a tree  from  a fungus  root  parasite  is  usualiy  as 
sudden  as  the  death  of  anv  plant  can  be.  In  the  case  ot  an  out- 
break of  a root  [parasite  on  certain  trees  and  shrubs  the  destruction 
was  so  rapid  that  for  some  time  I thought  that  by  some  accident 
some  poisonous  licjuid  had  been  thrown  on  the  plants.  All  who 
have  grown  Tomatos  and  have  come  oik;  morning  when  the  fruit 
is  getting  ripe  and  found  all  the  plants  looking  a^  if  boiling  water 
has  been  thrown  on  them  due  to  an  attack  of  Tomato  fungus  will 
know  how  sudden  the  death  of  a plant  from  a fungus  often  appears. 
W'dth  respect  to  distancing  as  the  author  suggests  we  have  much 
to  learn.  Under  some  circumstances  it  may  pay  to  plant  close,  un- 
der others  at  wide  distances. 
I should  be  very  doubtful  as  to  strongly  advising  covering  the 
tapping  wounds  with  a coating  of  tar  to  keep  off  fungi  ^nd  insects. 
It  seems  that  this  interferes  with  the  growth  of  the  cambium  which 
would  cover  the.  wound  up  again,  and  for  tapping  wounds  it  should 
not  be  necessary.  The  best  protecting  covering  is  tiiat  of  rubber. 
In  the  case  of  big  accidental  wounds,  such  as  those  caused  by  the 
tearing  off  of  a bough,  wounds  which  the  cambium  can  never  com- 
pletely cover,  tar  will  do  much  to  delay  the  death  of  the  tree. 
Twenty  pages  of  the  report  deal  with  the  extraction  of  the  latex, 
the  methods  of  tapping  and  the  wound  effect.  The  experiments 
were  made  both  with  V shaped  cuts  and  the  herring-bone  system. 
The  tables  of  yield  are  very  instructive  and  bring  out  many  im- 
portant points  as  to  the  wound  effect,  and  the  area  of  bark  giving 
the  largest  quantity  of  latex.  They  confirm  what  has  been  pre- 
viously pointed  out  that  the  base  of  the  tree  contains  the  greatest 
quantity  of  latex,  but  also  that  from  the  upper  part  of  the  tree 
need  not  be  neglected.  However  the  author  suggests  that  as  the 
latex  did  not  cease  to  flow  at  the  end  of  experiments  made  at  the 
base  of  the  tree,  that  from  the  upper  part  of  the  tree  might  have 
been  obtained  from  the  cuts  at  the  base  had  the  experiments  been 
continued,  but  as  this  would  have  required  the  renewing  of  the 
wounds  on  at  least  28  occasions,  this  would  have  endangered  the 
life  of  the  tree.  These  experiments  should  be  tried  with  a less 
injurious  plan  than  the  herring-bone  system.  Either  the  V shaped 
incisions  or  better  the  simple  cuts  as  employed  in  the  Amazons 
