22 -! 
In Sarawak the brothers HOURANT have attempted to manufac- 
ture the gutta by the Serullas method, the Rajah of Sarawak having 
granted them a monopoly of the leaves in the State. Unforfunately 
Serullas 1 process requires a great deal of machinery and a number 
of chemicals, and the expenses of purchase and transport were so 
large that the Society were alarmed and abandoned the whole 
business in spite of the fact that the gutta produced was quite 
successful. Other European syndicates have not been more for- 
tunate. 
At the Suresnes factory M. SERULLAS is continuing his series 
of experiments without attempting to start a commercial under- 
taking. A factory put up at Chezy near Orleans, treated the leaves 
with petroleum ether and precipitated the gutta by ice, using in 
fact Dr. OBACK’s method. This factory has however, ceased to 
exist. The factory of Graville St. Honorine, near Havre, had 
some difficulty in procuring material. M, Korte, Traveller for 
the. factory, has succeeded in forming a new export locality at 
Sambas to replace Pontianak. As to Padang which supplies at 
the present time nearly all the dry leaves sent to Europe, the 
exportation according to statistic amounts to 20,000 kilograms a 
year only. 
The paper goes on to give some account of the attempts at cul- 
tivation in various parts of the world. 
In Java, there are the Government plantations of Poerwokarto 
started in 185b, containing now only 58 trees of Dichopsis oblongi- 
folia ; the Experimental Gardens of Tjikemeuh, 150 plants of each 
of the following : — D .gutta, bo r license, Treubii oblongifolium and 
Pavena Leerii \ planted in 1884 and the large plantation of Tjipetii, 
of 700 hectares, first commenced in 1885. There are also two 
private plantations in Java recently started. In Bintang Dr. Le- 
DEBOER has a small plantation of D, gutta. 
There are also the plantations of the Malay Peninsula. The 
Americans have tried to introduce the Gutta percha into the Philip- 
pines, the Germans into New Guinea, and the Belgia ns on the 
Congo. According to Dr. STUHLMANN, Director of agriculture on 
the East Coast of Africa, the only attempt made there with four 
plants of /A Treubii, has failed. Dr. PREUSS, according to M. 
SCHLECHTER, has had better success in the Cameroons. France 
has made serious attempts to introduce it into her Colonies. The 
plants collected by Messrs. SERULLAS and PlAOUL have been scat- 
tered over her possessions. At Sibreviile (French Congo) some 
plants given to a planter are dead, two only of those supplied to the 
Mission, have survived. To Guadeloupe 97 plants, to Martinique 
106, and to French Guiana 87 were taken by Dr. Lecomte. M. 
Jacquet succeeded in introducing too alive to French Indo-China. 
RAINFALL STATISTICS FOR MAY, 1903. 
Our annual dry season generally begins from about the middle 
of December and finishes in May ; June ushering in our rains for 
