74 
seasons may be long. They are often unnoticed because of their 
small size and inconspicuous colours and consequently supposed 
not to be present. The size of the flower is no guide as to th 
size of the fruit or seed, small flowers often producing large fruits, 
and vice versa . The term fruit is here used in its botanical sense ; 
one fruit may contain any number of seeds and may be of any size 
from that of a pin’s point to that of a durian or jack fruit. As a 
rule, plants raised from seeds are of a superior constitution and 
less liable to disease than those propagated by any other method, 
but as a matter of convenience, and a means of saving time, other 
methods are sometimes adopted when seeds are just as easily ob- 
tainable. Seeds should always be selected from clean, healthy, 
vigorous plants, and in the case oi plants that vary in any impor- 
tant matter, and there are few that do not, from the very best 
types obtainable. That they should be thoroughly ripe at the time 
of gathering is also important, for although imperfectly ripened seeds 
may germinate; they will not give such satisfactory results as those 
that have properly matured. Recent observation on this point in 
connection with gutta percha (Palaquium gutta) seeds, confirms 
this opinion. In this case great numbers of seeds were knocked 
off the trees bv bats before they were quite ripe, but being anxi- 
ous to raise a large number of plants, every seed was sown. A 
good number of these immature seeds germinated, but in many 
cases dwindled away and died iru, the course of a few weeks, while 
fully ripened seeds sown under exactly the same conditions, but 
separately, have grown well. The demand for para rubber seeds 
up to the present has been so great that seeds from any tree has 
readily found a buyer, but now that it has been proved beyond a 
doubt that there is a great difference in the yield of trees of the 
same age, growing side by side, under exactly the same conditions, 
preference should be given to seeds from trees that are known to 
yield freely. Personally, if I were forming a plantation, I should 
not hesitate to pay twice as much for seeds from proved trees as 
for those gathered indiscriminately. 
To lay down a rule applicable to sowing all kinds of seeds is 
impossible, but the principal points to be observed, and which will 
prove successful in most cases, may be summed up in a few words. 
Drain well, cover lightly; water carefully; shade moderately. Use 
light sandy soil with a large proportion of leaf-mould for sowing 
seeds of most kinds no matter what the ultimate requirement of 
the plant may he. A smooth level surface, so that all the seeds 
may be of the same depth, and a covering of very fine soil not ex- 
ceeding in thickness the diameter of the seed is generally sufficient. 
Under natural conditions seeds dropping from the trees get no 
covering at all but under such conditions only one in tens of 
thousands germinate except under the most favourable weather 
conditions, therefore it is not a system to be imitated. From 
observations made in regard to the natural reproduction of the 
more important local timber trees I have come to the conclusion 
that these bear seeds freely only at intervals of several years and 
that their chances of germination depends mainly on the state of 
