274 
Investigations are being made into the Ceylon Gutta-perchas, 
ebonies and other subjects. The Laboratory here has been used 
by numerous visitors, in addition to the staff of the Department. 
scientific Journal, the “Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, 
reradeniya, has been established for the publication of the tech- 
nical and scientific part of the work of the Department. The 
su ordinate clerical and gardening staff has been re-organized with 
an incremental system of pay, resulting in a slight saving. The 
epartment has assisted the Department of Public Instruction in 
the starting of the new system of School Gardens, providing num- 
bers of useful plants of the best varieties. 
NOTES, 
New Rubber in* Saigon. 
A new source of supply for rubber has been found out by M. 
Ueiss, a French scientist at Saigon. The forests inland in that 
quarter abound with lianas, creeping and twining plants which 
grow to a large size. These lianas yield rubber out of the juice 
from cutting in the bark (the usual mode of gathering) but not in 
paying quantities. The fact that the bark, apart from the juice, 
holds rubber, had long been known ; but nothing had been done 
to turn this knowledge to profitable account. M. Deiss was struck 
by this, and sought for means to get at the stores of rubber in the 
bark It is said that he has met with success. The bark is treat- 
ed chemically, and undergoes sundry processes, including treat- 
ment by currents of hot and cold water alternated. The result is 
said to be the extraction of rubber of the best quality, which soon 
thickens and hardens. It took repeated experiments to show the 
I'r ! wuy^to go to work. 1 he outcome is that a syndicate of capi- 
a is s in riance has undertaken to start in Cochin China and Ton- 
qum, works for turning out rubber from bark on the new system. 
Rubber and the State in Brazil. 
Ihe Bulletin de la Societe d’ Etudes Coloniales (Brussels) re- 
cently published the results of an official inquiry made under the 
direction of the Belgian ministry of foreign affairs as to the official 
measures taken m Brazil to foster its greater rubber industry. It 
was found that the general government of the republic has passed 
no laws relating to the industry. It is not regulated at all except 
so far as the legislature of the several states have adopted mea- 
sures. Seventeen of the twenty states produce rubber, the climate 
being unfavourable to rubber culture only in the three southern 
states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, and Parana. Most 
of the small Atlantic coast states in the rubber zone, though 
producing more or less caoutchouc, have made no attempt, as yet, 
to conserve their rubber resources or to encourage or regulate its 
production. I hese states include Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes, 
Espinto Santo, Parahyba, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, and 
Leara. Most of the rubber states make the product contributed to 
the finances by imposing a tax on rubber exports, but the states 
