Rangoon. There is little original matter in the book which greats 
of Hevea, Castilloa, Ceara rubber, Ficus elastica, Hancornia and 
some rubber vines. A rather curious standard table of Guttas and 
rubbers is given in the introduction, in which Hevea representing 
Standard rubber, Parameria, Castilloa and Chavannesia (Urceola) 
are given as second grade, Ceara, Ficus and Hancornia third grade. 
One would be inclined to reverse these two grades only leaving 
Castilloa in the second grade with the first two of the third grade 
Parameria and f Urceola are hardly as good as Ficus or Ceara. 
With the standards of gutta percha, the arrangement is more curious 
Dickopsis gutta is given ^s first grade. D. ohlongifolia (the same 
thing) Payena Leer ii and Wiling hbeia edulis, (a rubber not a gutta 
nearly equal to Para) form the second grade. The account of 
Para rubber is poor and not up to date. The authors have appa- 
rently had access to a few works only on rubber cultivation, and 
practically know nothing of rubber cultivation in Malaya. A page 
or so is given to the subject of shade trees for Para rubber. This 
may be necessary in countries unsuited for the plant, but is not 
required in the rubber zone The spiral tapping system (now 
everywhere abandoned) is recommended. 
The description of the tree is very inaccurate. Thus the flowers 
are not white as stated but yellow, the fruit is not yellow but green 
and is smaller than a garden tomato. The seed oil is not violet but 
brown or yellow, and the statement .that “the germ contains an 
active purgative principle not found in the rest i f the seed ” which 
has of course to be removed i efore proceeding to extract the oil 
is certainly news to those who have often eaten the seed with 
impunity. 
The authors think that Para rubber will do well in Portuguese 
India, for one specimen at least is over 25 feet tall though it is no 
more than 6 years of age! This would hardly be considered a 
great success in the Malay Peninsula. 
Of the other rubbers Ceara, Ficus and Castilloa the accounts are 
chiefly extracted from well known publications. The authors, how- 
ever, give some accounts of the M angabeira Hancornia, a rubber 
tree little known, which has never been tried here not on account of 
its slow growth and poor rubber as the authors suggest but because 
seeds and plants were not procurable. It is, however, a sandy 
country dry region plant, and is hardly suited for this wet rej^on. 
The Chapter on land tennure in India is useful for Indian planters, 
and the estimates of return to capital seem fairly reasonable In 
the scheme for a mixed plantation, to combine trees such as Erio- 
dendron and Bombax , as a kind of catch crop does not commend 
itself, and to suggest that “such important trees” as Pongamia 
glabra , C 'alophyllum inophyllum, Stercujpa foetida “might be made 
a valuable source of profit” is simply misleading. They are quite 
valueless trees. 
The book contains numerous photographs the most interesting of 
which are those showing the root system of Hevea. 
H. N. R. 
