30 / 
Resin 2 parts, Sal Soda 1 part, Tobacco tea 1 part. Boil all 
together stirring slowly over a slow fire til! all the resin is dis- 
solved. After simmering about 15 minutes, remove from the fire 
and add little by little 16 to 15 parts of tobacco tea, stirring ra- 
pidly for five minutes or more. This should produce a very frothy 
'soap which contains only just enough of the alkali to hold the 
resin in solution. Apply with a large syringe or coarse holed spray 
pump directly to the open holes or galleries of ants’ nests. It 
should not be used in large quantities round the roots of young 
trees since the caustic action of the soda might injure the small 
roots. As the termites do not make the long galleries which ants 
do, it would be necessary to bore under the tree till near the nest 
and then inject the material. It might be worth while trying 
this remedy. 
In the same leaflet a paint for healing wounds and preventing 
the attacks of insects is described as follows: — Four parts of com- 
mon yellow resin and 3 parts by weight of linseed oil, preferably 
raw, melted together over a slow fire and boiled for about ten 
minutes. After removal from the fire but while still hot, this li- 
quid is beaten up with a small per cent of cold tobacco tea, 
about half a pint of the tea to three pints of the resin mixture. 
The tobacco tea should be added little by little while the wax is 
being stirred. 
As a rule people here use tar for tree wounds, such as those 
caused by a broken bought but this preparation would probably 
be better. — Editor , 
STERCULIA SCAPHIGERA. 
Sterculia Scaphigera , Wallich., the Kembang Sernangko of the 
Malays is at present fruiting in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore, in 
the garden jungle. It is a tree of considerable size, flowering when 
about 60 feet tall but eventually attains a much greater height. The 
leaves are ovate dark shining green and stiff in texture on long 
petioles. The tree flowers about June shedding its leaves completely 
previously. The flowers are small and yellow 7 and produced in great 
abundance, and are unisexual. The fruit is very curious, consisting 
of from one to five large green papery boats about 6 inches long at 
the base of which is a black wrinkled seed oblong or rounded about 
an inch long. One of these seeds put in a tumbler of water exudes 
such a large amount of mucilage that in a few hours the cup is 
nearly full, and hence the Malay name Kembang Sernangko, or 
fill-cup. This mucilage, which resembles gum arabic in appearance, 
tastes something like boiled sago, and is eaten with a little sugar 
by Malays to clear the mouth in the morning. The seeds dried are 
exported to China, and used as a remedy for dysentery, and was 
formerly sent to France under the name of Boa-tampaijang. An 
analysis given by GuiBERT gives 59-04 per cent of bassarin, a sub- 
stance also found in gum Tragacanth, it acts as a demulcent and is 
very cooling and pleasant to taste. The seeds are sold in the local 
