285 
now  large  nurseries  and  am  perfectly  satisfied  there  is  no  differ- 
ence, if  one  can  judge  by  general  healthy  appearance  of  plants  in 
the  nurseries.  I referred  the  matter  to  Mr.  WiLLIS  the  Director 
of  the  Royal  Botanical  Gardens,  Peradeniya.  and  he  has  very  kindly 
allowed  me  to  publish  his  opinion  which  is  as  follows: — “ As  to 
seed  from  trees  which  have  been  tapped  (Para)  our  experience  goes 
to  show,  that  we  get  less  seed  when  we  tap,  but  the  seed  seems 
just  as  good  on  the  whole.  In  some  years  our  seed  seems  better 
than  in  "others,  but  so  far  as  I am  aware  this  has  no  relation  to 
tapping — weather  has  probably  more  to  do  with  it.  It  is  difficult 
without  special  observation  on  the  subject  to  disentangle  one  effect 
from  the  other.”  Re  tapping  Para,  from  experience  gained  in 
tapping  6,500  trees,  I find  that  they  can  easily  give  i lb.  per  tree 
per  year,  if  tapped  twice  yearly  as  is  being  done  at  present  on 
this  estate. 
I am,  Sir,  yours  faithfully, 
Francis  J.  Holloway. 
[We  should  certainly  be  inclined  to  recommend  that  seed  should 
only  be  taken  from  Rubber  trees  set  apart  for  that  purpose  just  as 
Tea-bush-seed  bearers  are  so  treated. — Editor  Tropical  Agricul- 
turist?^ 
FORMALIN  IN  TREATING  CASTILLOA  RUBBER.  . 
short  article  on  this  subject  appears  in  the  Trinidad  Bulletin 
of  Miscellaneous  Information,  for  July,  1903,  p.  528.  Mr.  H ART 
refers  to  Dr.  Weber’s  papers  on  this  subject  and  reports  on  ex- 
periments made  in  the  Botanic  Gardens  in  Trinidad  as  follows: — 
Latex  from  trees  of  mature  age  was  treated  with  Formalin  in 
varying  quantities  but  our  results  did  not  confirm  those  reported 
by  Dr.  Weber,  in  so  far  as  the  period  required  for  the  formation 
of  the  cake  of  rubber  on  the  surface;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  found 
that  the  time  recjuired  was  four  times  that  mentioned  by  him. 
Eventually  however,  the  creamy  portion  did  coalesce  and  form  a 
cake  of  spongy  rubber  which  parted  with  the  liquid  it  contained 
readily  on  pressure.  The  quality  of  the  rubber  obtained  was  excel- 
lent, but  was  not  observed  to  be  much  superior,  if  any,  to  that  obtain- 
ed by  the  ordinary  creaming  without  Formalin.  There  is,  however, 
every  reason  to  believe  that  it  may  keep  belter  than  rubber  so 
prepared  on  account  of  the  intimate  mixture  of  the  rubber  globules 
with  the  chemical  preservative  and  specimens  w.ill  be  kept  for  the 
purpose  of  observing  its  effect.  Castilloa  latex  treated  to  the 
creamy  process  will  readily  cake  together  and  harden  on  the  sur- 
face without  the  application  of  Formalin,  if  left  for  a sufficient 
length  of  time,  and  if  left  in  the  mother  liquid  without  creaming  or 
washing,  the  albuminoids  will  decompose  and  the  rubber  globules 
will  form  a cake  of  rubber  on  the  surface,  of  good  quality  though 
somewhat  darkened  bv'  oxidization. 
