2 7 2 
Several planters have sent specimens of the leaf-fungus and it is 
clear that it is common all over the Peninsula. Except in the case 
of seedlings, it does not seem to do much harm, but it certainly 
checks the growth of young plants and might do much harm in the 
nurseries, if neglected. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
ANALYSIS OF PAHA RUBBER. 
M. P. SERRE, French Vice-Consul at Batavia, writes in the 
Journal d } Agriculture Tropicale , April 30, p. ri2 : — 
Quite dry Para rubber from the Bukit Rajah Company and very 
suitable for vulcanization sold at a little more than 7 francs a pound. 
On analysis, it was found to contain 95*37 percent, caoutchouc, 3*02 
per cent, resin, i'24 percent, albuminoid matter, '37 per cent, mi- 
neral matters. 
BARU: HIBISCUS TILIACEUS. 
An article on the fibre of this common tree here, appears in the 
Indian Forester of June, 1905, p. 347, in which it appears that a 
M. Le FEVRE in Rangoon has made an attempt to introduce this 
fibre into commerce. He is stated to have a secret method for work- 
ing the fibre and made it up into rope, matting and gunny and also 
dyed it of different colours. His product fetched from £20 to ^35 
per ton, and he obtained a concession to work the fibre in the To- 
ringoo district, but the help he had teen promised in the venture 
was not forthcoming and he had to stop work. It is suggested that 
Baru would do better than Jute in cases where the gunny bags 
made from it have to stand on damp ground and that the Govern- 
ment might grow the plant or buy it from cultivators and have it 
worked into gunny bags in the jails. 
The plant was described, in the paper on fibres in the Bulletin , 
and its abundance on our rivers was noted. It grows very readily 
in the edges of the tidal rivers, and in nipah swamps and would pro- 
bably pay well if either planted or in many cases simply aided in its 
growth by removing the other plants which grew among it and so 
giving it room to .spread. The natives who make a living by col- 
lecting nipaji leaves for cigarette papers might have their attention 
called to this fibre, of which perhaps hundred of tons are wasting on 
our river banks. — Ed. 
RED COCO-NUT BEETLE. 
In a paper in the Tropical Agriculturist, p. 153, Mr. W. JardinE 
treating of coco-nuts, states that in Ceylon it is rare for the Red coco- 
nut beetle Rhyncophorus ferrugineus , to attack a tree over 10 or 12 
feet tall, and suggests the reason for this is that it cannot fly higher. 
