388 
safely tapped before 9 years, one tapped at 7 years’ age gave 4 oz. 
rubber, but the shock of too heavy tapping nearly killed it. Two 
more tapped more carefully at 9 years’ old gave one and two 
ounces respectively. While Para rubber a year older gave 1 lb. foz. 
The rubber obtained contained 8.67 p.c. resin, and 89.33 caoutchouc 
as against 3.2 5-3 90 resin an 9 95.96-95.53 p.c. caoutchouc in Para. 
Under these circumstances Funtumia is hardly Jikely again to 
play an important part in the world’s rubber supply. 
Mr. JOHNSON points out in conclusion that rubber plants are 
not nearly so plentiful in Africa as was generally supposed, and 
gives a table showing the enormous decrease in rubber export 
from West Africa from 1898 to 1902, viz. } from 94 ’ 30 l cwts. in 
1898 to 18*486 in 1902. — Editor. 
RUBBER SOILS 
A circular issued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, July, 
1905, deals with Para Rubber, chiefly from a chemical point of view. 
A series of analyses of soils and of fresh and decaying leaves, 
twigs, etc,, being given. The article is by Messrs. Wright and 
Bruce, and is interesting and instructive. The authors point out 
that the drain on the soil by taking away the latex is not great but 
that though the loss is small yet it should be taken into consider- 
ation after a number of years and an attempt made to replace the 
mineral matter and nitrogen. Though this may be admitted it 
forms a very trivial loss of food-material compared with the losses 
of sweeping away the leaves and .twigs and removing the weeds 
which have grown beaeath. Indeed the loss by the removal of the 
seeds would probably be far greater than that caused by the removal 
of the latex. 
The authors further say, u We are at present of the opinion that 
manuring at the young stage would help on the young plants and 
prove to be beneficial.” This cautious opinion was justified as long 
ago as November, 1903, in the Bulletin with a*x illustrative photo- 
graph, (published later). It seems a pity that the authors do not 
keep au courant with rubber literature. 
They continue “ We would strongly recommend that the fallen 
leaves be buried with lime or basic slag in trenches or round the 
trees at a distance of from 4 to 6 feet from the trunk.” I should 
venture to dissuade planters in the Malay Peninsula at least from 
doing anything of the kind. In the paper above referred lime was 
shown to be, if used in quantity at least, injurious to the tree. 
But more serious is the damage that would be caused by cutting 
through the roots of the tree at a distance of from four to six feet 
from the trunk. Para rubber in the Peninsula roots very high, and 
such treatment would be most injurious not only checking the 
growth of the roots, but allowing a possibility of their injury on the 
cut ends by inroads of fungi. By all means let the leaves and 
small twigs rot on the ground and feed the plant, as is done in the 
