74 
It is right to add that the plantations in Malaysia are partly of 
Ficus elastica, the rubber of which will not command as high a price 
as that of the Hevea. All these plantations having been only made 
within the last two or three years, it will be not before five years 
that Asia can put enough rubber on the market, say 5,000 tons to 
influence it. 
Till then and for some years after the Asiatic producers will 
benefit by the very high prices which will allow them to recover 
their capital to a large extent, to increase their plantations and to 
perfect the manufacture whilst Amazonas which cannot employ the 
same methods will see the era of prosperity for the last 20 years 
disappear or at least decrease. Reading the Brazilian journals it 
does not appear that in that country, chiefly interested in rubber, any 
one has a notion of the great danger which Brazil and the other 
countries of the basin of the Amazon only escape by a general im- 
provement of their economic civilization and by doing what the 
English are doing, that is to say, organizing plantations ,of Hevea , in 
moct suitable localities instead of merely exploiting the natural 
forests situated thousands of miles away in the interior. 
P. CIBOT, 
( Tran si.) 
THE CANKER OF PARA RUBBER. 
In one of the circulars of the Botanic Gardens of Ceylon, Mr. 
CARRUTHERS gives an account of the canker in the trees in Ceylon. 
The fungus causing the disease is a species of Nectria. In its at- 
tack it does not appear to be very clearly conspicuous from the 
outside. The external colour of the bark is in many * cases different 
from that of the healthy parts, as a rule a little darker, and the bark 
surface is different in appearance. As the bark dies it is attacked by 
boring insects which tunnel. into even living parts and cause an 
exudation of latex. This is no: however a certain sign of the pre- 
sence of canker as it happens in any case of death of wood or bark 
from whatever cause. The tissue below the bark, however, is very 
differently colored, of a dirty yellow or neutral tint and when the 
fungus has got compjete hold it is claret colored like the skin of a 
mangosteen. Wherever the canker occurs, latex disappears. The 
stem and branches are equally liable to attack, but roots and 
twigs are unaffected. 
The life history of the fungus is like that of all fungi of the kind. 
The mycelian permeates the cells for some time destroying them, 
and at a certain time produces spores of two kinds, the first goui- 
diospores are whitish grey in mass and look like thick white mould, 
Later at the same spot are produced the perfect fruits which resemble 
grains of red pepper, sometimes forming a mass as big as a ten cent 
piece. These produce spores which are readily disposed by wind 
or perhaps carried about by insects. When the spores find a suitable 
