405 
alluded  to  previously.  It  would  be  very  satisfactory  to  hear  from 
the  various  District  Officers  what  amount  of  cultivation  the  Malays 
in  the  different  districts  were  doing  and  how  far  some  such  scheme 
as  the  proposed  one  would  be  likely  to  increase  the  agriculture. 
Editor. 
FRUITING  OF  TRAVELLERS  TREE. 
In  the  Bulletin  for  September,  I notice  that  you  have  heard  of 
no  case  of  the  travellers  tree  [Ravenala  Madagascariensis)  flower- 
ing or  fruiting  in  the  Straits.  It  may  interest  you  to  know  that 
it  did  both  in  the  Waterfall  Garden,  Penang,  last  year.  The  seeds 
were  sown,  but  up  to  the  time  I left  had  not  germinated.  I thought 
at  the  time,  and  still  think,  that  the  seeds  were  not  quite  ripe  at 
the  time  of  gathering.  In  Madagascar  this  is  a most  common 
plant  in  places  near  the  coast.  I have  seen  it  growing  in  great 
abundance  within  a short  distance  of  Tamatave,  and  in  other 
places.  Almost  anything  from  the  coast  of  Madagascar  does  well 
in  the  Straits.  Flame  of  the  Forest,  is  another  of  the  Madagascar 
things  that  is  largely  planted  in  Penang,  as  well  as  in  other  Malay- 
an countries.  Few  residents,  except  those  interested  in  botany, 
realises  how  many  of  the  showy  plants  in  their  gardens,  and  by  the 
roadside,  are  introduced  plants,  and  how  few  properly  belong  to 
the  Malayan  region 
C.  CURTIS. 
The  Editor 
Agricultur.al  Bulletin. 
RAINFALL  IN  LONDON  AND  PENANG. 
A Comparison. 
From  every  district  in  the -British  Isles  come  reports  of  excessive 
rainfall  in  the  present  year;  but  in  the  metropolis  and  the  Thames 
Valley  the  excess  has  been  apparently  greater  than  elsewhere.  The 
following  is  a comparative  statement  of  the  rainfall  in  London  as 
against  that  for  Penang  from  1880  to  October,  1903. 
The  ) early  fall  is  given  from  1880  to  1882  and  from  1895  to 
1902,  the  average  from  1883  to  1902  and  the  total  from  1st  January 
to  31st  October,  1903.  From  the  statement  it  will  be  seen  that 
Penang  is  far  ahead  of  London,  and  the  damage  caused  by  our 
rains  is  simply  nil  as  compared  to  London  and  its  suburbs  as 
gathered  from  the  English  papers. 
But  while  Londoners  and  many  others  have  been  bewailing  rainy 
skies  and  frequent  down-pours  (as  we  Penangites  have  written  the 
past  3 months)  they,  the  Londoners,  have  only  to  turn  their  atten- 
tion, says  the  British  Medical  Journal,  to  another  spot  in  England, 
Borrowdale,  at  the  head  of  the  Derwent  water,  below  Scaffell,  to 
