<A MONTHLY. ^ 
XXII. 
COLOMBO, FEBRUARY 2nd, 1902. 
No. 8. 
REPORT ON HEVBA BRASILIBNSIS 
IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
By Stanley Arden, 
Superintendent, Expenmental Plantations, Federated 
Malay States, 1902. 
HEVEA BRASILIENSIS. 
SHOKT HISTORY. 
EVE A BRA8ILIEKSI8, the 
tree furniahing the Para rubber 
of commerce, is [a native of 
Tropical America and was intro- 
duced into the British posse?, 
sions in the East, at con^ider" 
able coat and trouble, by 
the Indian Government in 1876 
through the iuatrumentality of Kew. According to 
the Kew Report for that year a Mr. Wickham was 
commiasoned to collect seeds at the rate of £'10 per 
1,000. "He succeeded in obtaining 70,000 in the Sirin- 
gala of the Rio Sapajos whicli he packed with the 
greatest care and with a full knowledge of their 
evanescent vitality ; and coming straight homo with 
them arrived at Kew on 14th June, 1876. Although 
sown ou the following day, of these only 3.^ 
per cent germinated." At Sir Joseph Hooker's sng- 
geation, it was arranged that the seedlings should 
be sent to Ceylon, to be cultivated and propagated 
for subsequent distribution to the hot and moist 
districts of the Indian Empire, and the late Dr. 
Trimen (then Director of the Peradeuiya Gardens 
reports, that thirtyeight VVardian cases, conlaiuiug 
l.yit) plants, despatched from Kew on August 12th, 
were received at Peradeniya in very good order. 
In the same year (1876) plants of Para rubber were 
forwarded direct from Kew to Singapore, and the 
*ollowing year, Mr, Murton reported that " our 
climate is evidently suited for the growth of Hevea, 
judging by the progress tlie plants sent last year 
have made." It was introduced into Perak ab ut 
the same time by Sir Hugh Low, but whether he 
pbtained his plants from Singapore or Ceylou I have 
been nnable to fi;id out. That they were some of 
the original lot there is little doubt, for in 1879 he 
reports that " the Hevf as are now 12 to 14 feet high. 
They take to the country immensely," and in 1883 
he reports " the trees are now six yeivs old." 
In the year 1887 some seeds were obtained from 
these trees and planted in the Museum Grounds at 
Taiping; others were sown at Kummuninp' Estate 
(Perak) and a few years later at S'tiawau (Perak). 
There seenw to have been very little interest taken 
in the product, however, by planters, presumably on 
account of the high prices ruling for coffee about 
this time, and with the exception of the trees cited 
above, there are very few trees in the Native States 
over four years old. But with a decline in the prica 
of coffee, planters began to look for other cultivations 
and during the season 1896 — 1897 the planting of 
rubber was taken up seriously. Since then its caltiva 
tion has received great attention and there are at 
the present time, in the Malay Peninsula alone, at 
least 12,000 acres planted with Hevea, representing 
about 1,500,000 trees, presumably the whole being the 
progeny of the trees originally introduced by the 
Government of India. 
Of the many trees yielding commercial ludia- 
rubber the various species of Kevea are the mosi 
important, furni5hing about one-third of the world's 
supply or 45,000,000 pounds of rubber annually, and 
always obtaining a market value in excess of that 
of all other commercial rubbers. To a certain extent 
this is no doubt due to ths fact that Para rubber 
reaches the market in a purer, and drier condition 
than most rubbers ; the method of coagulation in 
vogue in Brazil not lending itself to adulteration to 
the same extent as ia practised by collectors in 
other parts of the tropics, 
CULTIVATION. 
Conditions of Growth. — Although a native of the 
tropics of the New World, Uevc-i brasiliriisis is admit" 
ably suited to the couditiona obtaining in the Malay 
Peninsula and adjoining islands and its cuUivatioii 
