227 
In  Sarawak  the  brothers  HOURANT  have  attempted  to  manufac- 
ture the  gutta  by  the  Serullas  method,  the  Rajah  of  Sarawak  having 
granted  them  a monopoly  of  the  leaves  in  the  State.  Unforfunately 
Serullas’  process  requires  a great  deal  of  machinery  and  a number 
of  chemicals,  and  the  expenses  of  purchase  and  transport  were  so 
large  that  the  Society  were  alarmed  and  abandoned  the  whole 
business  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  gutta  produced  was  quite 
successful.  Other  European  syndicates  have  not  been  more  for- 
tunate. 
At  the  Suresnes  factory  M.  SERULLAS  is  continuing  his  series 
of  experiments  without  attempting  to  start  a commercial  under- 
taking. A factory  put  up  at  Chezy  near  Orleans,  treated  the  leaves 
with  petroleum  ether  and  precipitated  the  gutta  by  ice,  using  in 
fact  Dr.  Oback’S  method.  This  factory  has  however,  ceased  to 
exist.  I1ie  factory  of  Graville  St.  Honorine,  near  Havre,  had 
some  difficulty  in  procuring  material.  M.  KorTE,  Traveller  for 
the  factory,  has  succeeded  in  forming  a new  export  locality  at 
Sambas  to  replace  Pontianak.  .As  to  Padang  which  supplies  at 
the  present  time  nearly  all  the  dry  leaves  sent  to  Europe,  the 
exportation  according  to  statistic  amounts  to  20,000  kilograms  a 
year  only. 
The  paper  goes  on  to  give  some  account  of  the  attempts  at  cul- 
tivation in  various  parts  of  the  world. 
In  Java,  there  are  the  Government  plantations  of  Poerwokarto 
started  in  185b,  containing  now  only  58  trees  of  Dichopsis  oblon^i- 
folia\  the  Experimental  Gardens  of  Tjikemeuh,  150  plants  of  each 
of  the  following  : — D .gutta,  borneense^  Treubii  oblon^ifolium  and 
Payena  Leerii,  planted  in  1884  and  the  large  plantation  of  Tjipetii, 
of  700  hectares,  first  commenced  in  1885.  There  are  also  two 
private  plantations  in  Java  recently  started.  In  Bintang  Dr.  Le- 
DEBOER  has  a small  plantation  of  D.  gutta. 
There  are  also  the  plantations  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  The 
Americans  have  tried  to  introduce  the  Gutta  percha  into  the  Philip- 
pines, the  Germans  into  New  Guinea,  and  tht;  Belgia  ns  on  the 
Congo.  According  to  Dr.  StuhlmanN,  Director  of  .-\griculture  on 
the  blast  Coast  of  Africa,  the  only  attempt  made  there  with  four 
plants  of  D.  Treubii,  has  failed.  Dr.  PREUSS,  according  to  M. 
SCHLECHI’ER,  has  had  better  success  in  the  Cameroon s.  France 
has  made  serious  attempts  to  introduce  it  into  her  Colonies.  The 
plants  collected  by  Messrs.  SERULLAS  and  PlAOUL  have  been  scat- 
tered over  her  possessions.  At  Sibreville  (French  Congo)  some 
j)lants  given  to  a planter  are  dead,  two  only  of  those  supplied  to  the 
.Mission,  hive  survived.  To  (luadeloupe  97  plants,  to  .Martinique 
106,  and  to  French  Guiana  87  were  taken  by  Dr.  Lecomte.  M. 
Jacquet  succeeded  in  introducing  too  alive  to  French  Indo-China. 
RAINFALL  STATISTICS  FOR  MAY,  1903. 
Our  annual  dry  season  generally  begins  from  about  the  middle 
of  December  and  finishes  in  May  ; June  ushering-in  our  rains  for 
