176 



fruit, and therefore probably contains less of the bitter principle. 

 The bark was in their strips of a light brown colour externally and 

 paler on the inner surface. In the analysis there was found butyric 

 and formic acid and behenic acid. 



The author concludes that in view of the difficulty of obtaining 

 any quantity of the bark of Brucea Sumatrana and the fact that it 

 contains a much smaller proportion of bitter principles than the fruit 

 it would appear that the latter is to be preferred for medicinal use. 

 This would certainly be so as the bark of the shrub in very thin and 

 adheres so closely to the wood that it is very troublesome to scrape 

 it off. 



In examining the fruit of the Abyssinian Brucea antidysenterica 

 Dr. Power and Dr. Salway find that the constituents of this species 

 are very similar to that of Brucea sumatrana and it may consequently 

 he assumed that the two species possess similar medical properties. 

 The bitter principles appear however to be contained in relatively 

 larger amount in the fruit of Brucea sumatrana than in that of the 

 Abyssinian species, and in view of the difficulty experienced in collect- 

 ting the fruit of the latter it is not probable that it will acquire a very 

 extended use. 



" It may finally be noted that the Pharmacopaea Nederlandiea. 

 (Editio quarta 1905) has given official recognition to the fruit of 

 Brucea sumatrana, Roxb. which is described under the title of Fructus 

 Bruceae and it is there stated that in the Dutch East Indies this 

 is known among other names as " biji makasar " and " tambara 

 maridgi." 



It seems therefore from these two papers that the seed of our local 

 species is better either than its bark or the fruits of the African one, 

 and fortunately it is very easy to grow from seed, and fruits heavily in 

 a short time. If a sufficient demand for the fruits could be found. 

 Brucea sumatrana would be an excellent catch crop for rubber. The 

 seeds need only be planted two or three feet apart in situs, and no 

 manuring, or other cultivation is necessary. When the fruit commences 

 to ripen it is gathered and simply dried. Each plant will produce 

 about of a pound of dried fruit per vear. 



H. N. E. 



FIVE SEEDED HEVEA FRUIT. 



Mr- Lowther Kemp sends two samples of five-seeded fruit of 

 Hevea braziliensis from the Sioni Rubber estate forwarded by Mr. E. 

 A. B. Brown the manager. Normally as is well known the Euphor- 

 biaceae have three-seeded capsules, whence at one time they were 

 known as Tricocci, but occasionally we get abnormalities of this kind. 



We have met with fruit of Hevea with two, four and five seeds. 

 Some trees are very irregular in this matter, and one tree in the 

 Singapore Botanic Gardens produced quite a large proportion of four 

 and five seeded capsules on several occasions. 



H. N. R. 



