and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society,— March, 1912. 273 



SALES OF PRODUCE IN BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL MARKETS. 



Fibres, Cotton, Grain, Oil Seeds, Hides and Skins, 

 Timber, Rubber, Drugs, Wool, Ores, Mica, Gums, Tea, 

 Cocoa, Coffee, Copra, Sugar, etc., are being regularly 

 dealt in; Keymer, Son & Co., being selling Agents for 

 Estates, Mills and Exporters. 



Samples valued. Best ports for Shipments indicated. 



The management of Estates undertaken. Capi tal _ found 

 for the development or purchase of valuable properties. 



KEYMER, 



Cables: 

 KEYMER, LONDON. 



THE RUBBER PLANTING INDUSTRY 

 OF CEYLON. 



CIRCULAR OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC 

 GARDENS, CEYLON. 



By R. H. Lock, Sc.D. 

 Three different genera of rubber-yielding 

 plants have formed at different times the object 

 of commercial enterprise in Ceylon. Of these, 

 the Castilloa rubber tree of Central America was 

 found after fairly extensive trials to possess little 

 value for the Ceylon planter, so that its culti- 

 vation has now become almost extinct in this 

 country. 



Manihot glaziovn,the rubber of the Ceara Pro- 

 vince of Brazil, has been somewhat more suc- 

 cessful, and it is thought by many that a pros- 

 perous future awaits the cultivation of this 

 species in the drier regions of the Island, al- 

 though its successful treatment presents diffi- 

 culties, which have not yet been entirely over- 

 come. 



There remains Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber 

 tree par excellence of Eastern cultivation, which 

 so far exceeds all other species in importance 

 that iu Ceylon and Malaya rubber and Hevea 

 have become almost interchangeable terms. 



Hevea brasiliensis is a tall and handsome tree 

 with a bark of medium thickness, and posses- 

 sing an excellent consistency for the passage of 

 the various tools used in tapping, combined 

 with a remarkable faculty for recovering from 

 the effect of wounds. The latex tubes form a 

 series of concentric delicate networks occupying 

 the inner layers of . the bark, or more properly 

 the cortex. The amount of latex present varies 

 greatly in different trees. Thus, when comparing 

 two troes of equal circumference, ten times as 

 much latex can often be got from one as from 

 the other. The leaves are smooth, with three 

 spear-shaped leaflets, and are very variable in 

 size ; indeed, all features of the tree are subject 



35 



SON & CO. , 



Whi tef riars, 



LONDON, E. C. 

 (Same address since 1844). 



to marked variation. In Brazil the shape of the 

 leaves is considered a feature by which good and 

 bad varieties can be distinguished. The variety 

 introduced to Ceylon appears to be one of the 

 best, although showing in its turn considerable 

 variation. In the Western parts of Ceylon the 

 leaves fall from the trees about January and are 

 replaced by new leaves shortly afterwards, so 

 that for a few weeks the trees winter with bare 

 branches. On the same side of Ceylon the 

 flowers appear soon after the leaves, and the 

 seeds ripen about August. Three of the well- 

 known marbled brown and gray seeds are con- 

 tained in a single fruit, the latter consisting of a 

 hard, woody capsule, which bursts open when 

 ripe and scatters the seeds to a considerable 

 distance. 



Historical. 



Hevea rubber was introduced into the East by 

 the Indian Government at the advice of the late 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, then Director of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew ; and Kew itself provided a rest- 

 ing place and nursery for the seedling plants 

 midway in their long journey from the Amazon 

 Valley to Ceylon. The best Para rubber trees 

 are said by Mr H A Wickham to grow on those 

 forest-covered plateaux of a few hundred feet 

 elevation, which occupy the spaces between the 

 great arterial river systems of the Amazon 

 Valley in Brazil. It was from such trees, well 

 grown and already being worked for rubber that 

 the orginal seeds were selected on the left 

 bank of the Rio Tapajos. The idea that these 

 particular rubber trees had their origin 

 in very swampy country is therefore quite 

 erroneous, and in practice it is found that care- 

 ful drainage is required before Hevea can be 

 induced to grow well in swampy land in Ceylon. 



The seeds themselves were obtained with in- 

 finite trouble and ingenuity by Mr H A Wick- 

 ham from the Tapajos plateau. For some time 

 prior to 1876 Sir Joseph Hooker had been en- 

 deavouring to obtain living seeds of Hevea bra- 

 ziliensis from the Amazon Valley, but no success 



