now large nurseries and am perfectly satisfied there is no differ- 
ence, if one can judge by general healthy appearance of plants in 
the nurseries. I referred the matter to Mr. WlLLIS the Director 
of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. and lie has very kindly 
allowed me to publish his opinion which is as follows: — “ As to 
seed from trees which have been tapped (Para) our experience goes 
to show, that we get less seed when we tap, but the seed seems 
just as good on the whole. In some years our seed, seems better 
than in others, but so far as I am aware this has no relation to 
tapping — weather has probably more to do with it. It is difficult 
without special observation on the subject to disentangle one effect 
from the other.’’ Re tapping Para, from experience gained in 
tapping 6,500 trees, 1 find that they can easily give 1 lb. per tree 
per year, if tapped twice yearly as is being done at present on 
this estate. 
I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 
Francis J. Holloway. 
[We should certainly be inclined to recommend that seed should 
only be taken from Rubber trees set apart for that purpose just as 
Tea-bush-seed bearers are so treated. — Editor Tropical Agricul- 
turist .] 
FORMALIN IN TREATING CASTILLOA RUBBER. 
A short article on this subject appears in the Trinidad Bulletin 
of Miscellaneous Information, for July, 1903, p. 528. Mr. H ART 
refers to Dr. Weber’s papers on this subject and reports on ex- 
periments made in the Botanic Gardens in Trinidad as follows: — 
Latex from trees of mature age was treated with Formalin in 
varying quantities but our results did not confirm those reported 
by Dr. Weber, in so far as the period required for the formation 
of the cake of rubber on the surface; on the contrary, it was found 
that the time required was four times that mentioned by him. 
Eventually however, the creamy portion did coalesce and form a 
cake of spongy rubber which parted with the liquid it contained 
readily on pressure. The quality of the rubber obtained was excel- 
lent, but was not observed to be much superior, if any, to that obtain- 
ed by the ordinary creaming without Formalin. There is, however, 
every reason to believe that it may keep belter than rubber so 
prepared on account of the intimate mixture of the rubber globules 
with the chemical preservative and specimens will be kept for the 
jpurpose of observing its effect. Castilloa latex treated to the 
creamy process will readily cake together and harden on the sur- 
face without the application of Formalin, if left for a sufficient 
length of time, and if left in the mother liquid without creaming or 
washing, the albuminoids will decompose and the rubber globules 
will form a cake of rubber on the surface, of good quality though 
somewhat darkened by oxidization. 
