and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— March, 1910. 267 



of the inner bark, and these few successive tap- 

 pings did not increase the flow of latex to any 

 appreciable extent. Unlike Hevea brasiliensis, 

 the latex coagulated quickly in the cut, so that 

 the flow ceased almost immediately ; in fact, it 

 was quite impossible to collect it in cups for 

 this reason. The rubber collected was obtained 

 by stripping it from the cuts. It had a very 

 disagreeable herb-like odour. 



Analysis gave the following figures calculated 

 to dry weight : Rubber 9(' - 44 por cent., Resin 

 6"83 per cent, and Ash 273 per cent. 



The rubber is fine and tough, tougher than 

 .Plantation Para, and very light straw yellow in 

 colour. The ash could, of course, be reduced to 

 a negligible amount by washing. 



Choneomorfha Mackophylla. 

 The specimen examined was taken from a 

 large vine in the Botanical Gardens, Singapore. 

 The stems were about 3£ inches in diameter, and 

 the base much thicker. It was tapped by a sort 

 of herring-bone system, rather diagonally, and 

 the latex seemed to be quite abundant. It 

 coagulated in the cuts very readily, with about 

 the same ease as Willughbeia firuoa. As part had 

 coagulated, it seemed impossible to keep the 

 latex in a liquid condition for the time neces- 

 sary, and it was all coagulated by rubbing up 

 with the fingers. The rubber was tough and 

 almost odourless. The anatysis, calculated to 

 dry weight, is : Rubber 88 63 per cent, Resin 

 919 per cent. andAsh2'18 per cont. 



I should say it is a better rubber than either 

 Willughbeia firma or Landolpkia hcudelotii, al- 

 though the raw rubber is not as tough as either 

 of these two. It has slightly less resin, and a real 

 comparison would require vulcanization tests. 



R. B. E. 



— Straits Agricultural Bulletin, for February. 



LECTURE ON RUBBER SANITATION. 



MR. GALLAGHER AT JOHORE, 



Yesterday at the invitation of the Johore 

 Planters' Association, Mr Gallagher, Director of 

 Agriculture, F.M.S., gave an interesting lecture 

 to a large gathering of members and others at 

 the Johore Hotel. His Highness the Sultan of 

 Johore, himself a rubber planter, Mr D G Camp - 

 bell, Adviser to the Government of Johore, 

 Messrs. Gawlor, Main, Coghlan, Derry, Westen- 

 holz, Anderson, Pertile, JJr, Wilson, and many 

 others were present. 



Mr W N Gawler— introduced Mr Gallagher, 

 and welcomed the visitors, regretting that the 

 Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Associ- 

 ation were unavoidably prevented from attending. 



Mr Gallagher — said that to reach the subject 

 of his lecture, plant sanitation and diseases of 

 the Para rubber tree, it was necessary to refer 

 to the structure of the rubber tree, and the 

 functions the parts were designed to fulfil. By 

 aid of diagrams he pointed out that the tree was 

 composed, as it were, of layers, coiled round. In 

 the centre was the heart-wood, which for prac- 

 tical purposes was dead, though it atill served to 



impart a certain rigidity to the tree. It might be 

 attacked, by white ants for instance, and the tree 

 would go on living, unless it were blown down. 

 Next to that was the sap-wood, the living wood, 

 which carried up from the roots the nourish- 

 ment from the soil into the leaves, each of which 

 was a little factory, converting the salts in the 

 soil into nourishment for the plant. The sap- 

 wood was the highway for the nourishment of 

 the tree, which only became useful when it had 

 been in the leaves, suitable to build up the 

 structure of the tree, for the growth of its many 

 parts, for flowers, fruit and for every portion of 

 the tree. The sap-wood had therefore an excee- 

 dingly important part to play. The cambium 

 was the next thin layer, not more than a hun- 

 dredth-of-an-inch thick, and most easily obser- 

 vable when the bark was stripped off, part of it 

 adhering to the strip and part to the trunk. 

 Outside the cambium is the latex layer, and 

 outside that again the bark, which was also very 

 thin. The cambium and the bark were the parts 

 the rubber planter was most interested in, as on 

 either side of the latex and he might say that 

 latex was only a secondary function of the tree, 

 although the latex-layer had the very important 

 part to play of carrying back from the leaves 

 the converted nourishment. The latex layer 

 was the outer highway of the tree. The roots 

 absorbed the food mass below the surface of the 

 soil. But the actual part engaged in that was 

 only about a tenth-of-an-inch long, and as the 

 soil for that part was exhausted, the root struc- 

 ture had to be pushed forward into new ground. 

 Since each part of the tree had its function, 

 it was important for the planter to see that 

 no part was injured, or if they wanted a pro- 

 duct from any part of it, that it was not irre- 

 trievably injured. For instance, tapping all 

 round must be wrong, because it cut off one of 

 the highways of the tree, the roots got starved, 

 and the tree inevitably died. 



Generally speaking, the less of the latex cut 

 away, the better ; the cutting should not take 

 away more than half of the tree. If over-tapped, 

 the bark did not renew ; nor did the roots get 

 building material for extension. The half is 

 better taken in quarters, opposite, because the 

 latex travels with difficulty sideways. This 

 brought round the tapping once in four years. 



Pests or Fungus. 

 An insect eating a leaf interferes with the 

 functions of the tree. It does not die at once, 

 but is slowly starved. A root or stem fungus 

 (the fungus is a living organism, the seed or 

 some part of it must be present) by growing to 

 the interference of the tree which is its host. 

 The cells are pierced and perhaps their con- 

 tents absorbed, or choked. The latex layer is 

 then destroyed and unable to fulfil its functions 

 of supplying food. The same happens if the 

 latex layer is physically destroyed. The water 

 roquired for the leaves io kept away through 

 the destroyed vascular system. They then 

 wither, and the tree dies away. The root 

 fungus, fomes, presents one important pro- 

 blem to be solved. Fomes is a grave 

 and expensive disease, which has to be 

 dealt with it, but tho expense should be 

 looked upon as an insurance. The treatment 



