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made  holes.  The  bark  of  the  tree  where  attacked  is  dried  up  and 
dead. 
These  beetles  seem  to  be  one  of  the  genus  Platypus,  of  the  tribe 
Bostryckidce.  They  are  inch  long  dark  brown  and  sprinkled 
all  over  with  short  stiff  hairs.  The  head  is  very  short  and  perfectly 
flat  in  front,  antennoe  very  short  with  few  joints,  the  terminal  one 
oval  and  flat,  jaws  black  conic  curved  and  deeply  grooved.  Thorax 
cylindric  punctate,  slightly  indented  at  the  sides  sparingly  hairy. 
Elytra  oblong  deflexed  at  the  tip  and  then  rounded  quite  covering 
the  abdomen,  with  golden  hairs  on  the  apex  and  two  short  conical 
processes.  They  have  numerous  well  marked  ridges,  and  are  also 
dotted.  The  first  joint  of  the  abdomen  is  very  long,  longer  than 
the  rest  of  the  abdomen,  so  that  the  last  pair  of  legs  appear  to  come 
from  near  the  tail.  The  fore  legs  have  a very  .thick  round  coxa, 
the  femora  short  and  thick,  tibia  narrowed  at  base  dilate  forwards 
with  short  processes  on  the  outer  edge,  the  tarsi  long  and  slender 
ending  in  two  rather  large  claws.  The  second  and  third  pairs  of 
legs  are  somewhat  similar,  but  the  coxae  are  much  smaller. 
This  animal  or  one  closely  allied  1 have  found  coming  to  light  in 
the  Botanic  Gardens.  It  belongs  to  a group  mainly  at  least  feeders 
on  dead  wood  and  I have  no  doubt  that  in  this  case  the  Para  tree 
was  dead  or  partly  so  and  the  beetles  attacked  the  dead  portion 
laying  their  -eggs  in  the  dead  wood,  where  the  grubs  could  feed, 
the  holes  referred  to  are  doubtless  their  exit  holes,  and  where  the 
beetles  tried  to  burrow  their  way  out  through  still  living  bark  they 
got  caught  in  the  latex.  The  latex  of  plants  like  the  para  rubber 
tree  is  indeed  its  defence  against  the  attacks  of  such  insects  which 
of  course  are  unable  to  bore  through  laticiferous  tissue. 
But  though  this  beetle  has  I think  merely  attacked  the  dead  por- 
tion of  the  tree,  it  is  not  at  all  advisable  to  neglect  it.  There  have 
been  known  more  than  one  case  of  wood  boring  beetles,  living 
normally,  on  dead  wood,  gradually  adapted  themselves  to  attack 
living  trees,  and  effected  vast  damage.  It  is  just  this  set  of  insects 
that  1 should  expect  to  be  the  greatest  enemies  *of  Para  rubber 
under  cultivation,  and  just  these  that  we  must  specially  watch  and 
guard  against.  Fortunately  it  is  easy  enough  to  destroy  all  rotten 
wood  [especially  that  of  the  trees  themselves),  lying  about  the  plan- 
tations, so  as  to  leave  boring  beetles  no  breeding  ground.  To  leave 
a dead  Para  tree  lying  about  among  living  ones  is  nearly  as  bad  as 
to  leave  a corpse  to  decay  in  a town. 
Ed. 
SARCOLOBUS  GLOBOSUS. 
This  plant  is  a long  climber  with  a slender  brown  stem  rather 
thicker  than  a crowquill  covered  with  a brown  thin  bark.  'The 
leaves  rather  thin  and  fleshy  ovate  to  lanceolate,  3 inches  long  bv 
one  and  a half  wide  with  a broad  rounded  base,  and  a petiole  half 
an  inch  long  opposite.  The  flowers  are  in  small  clusters  on  short 
