68 
useful for not only these seedlings but those of many other plants. 
He applied to a Chinese towkay brickmaker to make the tilee as des- 
cribed and the Chinaman suggested, (< Why not buy cheap tin rain- 
water piping of the required circumference, 6 inches, and get any 
tinsmith to cut the pipes across to any length required for a ’pot (12 
inches) and then split them into equal halves, or tin guttering may 
be used if obtainable. ” Being in the nursery daily watering must 
be done and having the lower end open and resting on potsheds the 
imperviousness of the sidewalls of tin will not affect the plant by 
want of evaporation and causing water logging. 
As explained in the previous paper the tilepots are buried in beds 
so that the question of the sun’s rays scorching the roots, tin being a 
ready conductor of heat, does not come in. The idea appealed to 
me immensely as it reduces the cost in breakage, compared with 
tiles and tin piping is cheap especially if bought in quantity. 
The idea certainly seems a good one, and would certainly be 
qheaper in the long run than tiles. 
Speaking of the germination of Casuarina seed, Mr. HUDSON 
writes, “l put in Casuarina seed on the I2th of this month and be- 
hold, in 5 days they had sprouted.” — Editor. 
RUBBER PESTS. 
A planter sends a number of leaves of seedling rubbers badly 
attacked with the fungus described in Bulletin III, 8 p. 308. It 
has attacked a whole nursery of seedlings, and has pretty nearly 
destroyed the plants. I find also this year a number of plants I had 
planted out too early badly infesled. In cases of nursery infection 
it seems desirable as soon as the disease is seen, '•'to remove all in- 
fected plants and especially fallen leaves. If only one or two leaves 
on a plant are attacked these could be pulled ©ff aTnd burnt, (Para 
rubber stands the loss of its leaves very well), and then disinfecting 
with Bordeaux mixture, the plants and nursery beds should get rid of 
the pest. Plants in too damp a spot, or sickly ones which have been 
injured seem to suffer most. All 1 can see in the spot where my 
seedlings are worst attacked are small plants not more than 6-12 
inches tall. Bigger plants have fine clean leaves, but these may have 
survived an attack when young or not been attacked at all and so 
made good growth. 
Mr. Little, who has a rubber plantation in Singapore, 4 brought a 
large number of that abominable animal, the Coffee locust, Cyrtan- 
thacris varia, which had apparently been chewing the tips of his 
Para rubber leaves much to their detriment. This large yellow and 
green locust with its bright pink hind wings has been described in 
Bulletin. 
It does not seem very particular as to what it eats, any leaves 
soft enough will do for it, and it soon makes rags of Canna and 
Dracaena leaves-. Fortunately it is easy to catch ; children can catch 
