March 1908.] 



263 



a book on the above most important 

 subject. 



J. G. F. MARSHALL. 

 Tavoy, Burmah, 18th February, 1908. 



MOLE RAT AND GRBEN WOOD- 

 BORER {CERATINA BEE.) 



Sir,— I send the clean skull and the 

 skin of the "mole rat" which does so 

 much destruction in Burma, for favour 

 of identification. The skin is not a good 

 one, as I fear 1 am a bad taxidermist, 

 but I hope it will serve its purpose. 



I also send per this mail, in a hollow 

 bamboo, specimens of the boring bee and 

 its depredations. That boring is done 

 in green wood will, I hope, be conclusive- 

 ly proved by the stem sent. This boring 

 is quite an insignificant one compared 

 to some I have come across. These speci- 

 mens should have accompanied a letter 

 of mine despatched two mails ago, but 

 were overlooked. 



J. G. F, MARSHALL. 

 Tavoy, 10 th January, 1908. 



II. 



Sir,— With reference to three letters 

 to you advising despatch of a mole rat, 

 skin and skull, and specimens of the 

 Ceratina bee and its works, i have now 

 to say that I have had both parcels 

 dumped back to me by the Post Office, 

 marked " unclaimed." The village post- 

 man, who brought the letters, could give 

 no further explanation. The note " un- 

 claimed" is an obvious lie, as^ neither 

 parcel bears any Ceylon post mark, and 

 they have apparently never left Burma 

 I am now making enquiries, and hope in 

 due course that the specimens will reach 

 you. This is simply sickening. We 

 pioneers can get no help or assistance in 

 naming specimens in Burma, and when 

 we try to get you to kindly do so, we are 

 treated in this way. I suppose I have 

 transgressed some rule ; but, if so, why 

 the Post Office here (Tavoy) could not 

 have told me at once and saved much 

 delay and worry I do not know. In the 

 meantime I can only apologise for the 

 delay in sending the specimens. 



J. G. F. MARSHALL. 

 Tavoy, 20th February, 1908. 



RUBBER: AXILLARY BUDS. 

 Sir,— My Para trees of 1905 and 1906 

 planting are now wintering pretty 

 generally. The trees that have quite 

 ost their leaves (and which have not yet 

 been thumbnail pruned, not having reach- 



ed 12 feet high) are worrying me consider- 

 ably by sending out a copious supply of 

 buds from the axils of nearly every leaf, 

 or rather from where the leaves were 

 before falling. The leading bud at the 

 same time looks vigorous and also 

 starts growing. I am nipping off all 

 these axillary buds, as they appear, of 

 course. They have been so many that I 

 have been forced to put men out to do 

 it. Can you explain the circumstance ; 

 and have other planters had a like ex- 

 perience ? Two very heavy showers 

 which fell on the 1st and 2nd instant 

 may account for the sudden growth, but 

 why not the leader only, as usual with 

 Para, unless pruned or killed back in my 

 way, 



J. G. F. MARSHALL. 

 Tavoy, 9th January, 1908. 



P. S.—I also enclose a piece of stem of a 

 half-year old rubber plant which is rather 

 curious. I have come across some 30 or 

 40 such during the last two years. The 

 plants were "rung" in some way about 

 6" to a foot or so above the ground, and 

 proceeded to throw out roots from the 

 upper portion as in the specimen sent. 

 This looks as if propagation from cut- 

 tings or layers should be easy, but it is 

 not according to your correspondents. 

 I am making an experiment in cuttings, 

 the result of which will be reported on 

 in a month or two. In the specimen 

 now sent, you will see that the " rung " 

 portion of stem has quite recovered 

 itself with bark, and the plant was 

 flourishing, but had also sent up a sucker 

 from below the injury.— J. G. F. M. 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



By C. Drieberg. 



Enquirer about Kola-nut Cultiva- 

 tion.— I regret that your letter was 

 mislaid, and hence my inability to com- 

 municate directly with you. The culti- 

 vation of Kola is very similar to that of 

 Cacao, and you will be able to see Kola 

 growing a few miles out of Matale on the 

 North Road. The preparation of the 

 nuts has already been described in these 

 pages. It should be mentioned that the 

 market for Kola is not particularly good. 



Jute.— Two correspondents enquire 

 about jute seed— one from the North and 

 one from the South. The enquiry is for 

 true jute(Corchorus)— not to be confused 

 with"Hana" (Crotalavia juncea) some- 

 times erroneously spoken of as jute. The 

 idea of planting this fibre locally lias no 

 doubt arisen from the reference lately 

 made to the planting of jute in place of 

 rice in Bengal. In the first place this 



