43 
that they cannot attack the wood when defended by the latex, and 
hence he condemns the system of cutting the tap root. However 
among the numerous stumps some of considerable size in which the 
tap root has been cut off, I have never seen one tree killed from 
attacks of termites or any other insect in that way, and the des- 
truction of the tap root, often very long in wet ground, causes a 
greater output of lateral roots, which besides giving the tree a 
greater area of feeding ground, usually give it a stronger hold on 
the soil and make it less liable to be overset in a storm. With 
respect to the destruction of trees by Helicpbasidium, the root 
parasite, Mr, ARDEN suggests that if the trees had been killed 
by the fungus there would have been some indication <>l its pre- 
sence before the tree collapsed, and there doubtless would have 
been to a carefully searching mycologist, but to the ordinary ob- 
server, the death of a tree from a fungus root parasite is usually as 
sudden as the death of any plant can be. In the case of an out- 
break of a root parasite on certain trees and shrubs the destruction 
was so rapid that for some time I thought that by some accident 
some poisonous liquid had been thrown on the plants. All who 
have grown Tomatos and have come one morning when the fruit 
is getting ripe and found all the plants looking as if boiling water 
has been thrown on them due to an attack of Tomato fungus will 
know how sudden the death of a plant from a fungus often appears. 
With respect to distancing as the author suggests we have much 
to learn. Under some circumstances it may pay to plant close, un- 
der others at wide distances. 
1^ should be very doubtful as to strongly advising covering the 
tapping wounds with a coating of tar to keep off Fungi and insects. 
It seems that this interferes with the growth of the cambium which 
would cover the wound up again, and for tapping wounds it should 
not be necessary. The best protecting covering is that of rubber. 
In the case of big accidental wounds, such as those caused by the 
tearing off of a bough, wounds which the cambium can never com- 
pletely cover, tar will do much to delay the death of the tree. 
Twenty pages of the report deal with the extraction of the latex, 
the methods of tapping and the wound effect. The experiments 
were made both with V shaped cuts and the herring-bone system. 
The tables of yield are very instructive and bring out many im- 
portant points as to the wound effect, and the area of bark giving 
the largest quantity of latex. They confirm what has been pre- 
viously pointed out that the base of the tree contains the greatest 
quantity of latex, but also that from the upper part of the tree 
need not be neglected. However the author suggests that as the 
latex did not cease to flow at the end of experiments made at the 
base of the tree, that from the upper part of the. tree might have 
been obtained from the cuts at the base had the experiments been 
continued, but as this would have required the renewing of the 
wounds on at least 28 occasions, this would have endangered the 
life of the tree. These experiments should be tried with a less 
injurious plan than the herring-bone system. Either the V shaped 
incisions or better the simple cuts as employed in the Amazons 
