68 
PARA RUBBER LEAP FUNGUS. 
* 
Mr. Petch writes from Ceylon sending leaves of Hevea Brazil- 
lens/s bearing a leaf fungus which he is about to describe under the 
name ° V Helimnthopona Hevess. This appears identical with the 
leaf fungus described on several occasions in the Bulletin as attack - 
ing young leaves of Para rubber. It does not do much harm to, adult 
trees, but is very troublesome occasionally in nurseries of young- 
plants. J ° 
H. N. R. 
CASSIA FISTULA. 
I his hajjdsome yellow-flowered tree often known as the Indian 
Laburnum is sometimes cultivated here and especially in Malacca for 
its beautiful blossoms. The fruit is a long cylindrical pod contain- 
ing small flat seeds imbedded in a sweet, but' purgative black pulp, 
ihe fruit is commonly known as Pudding pipe, and the pulp used 
as a purgative. To this use has been added another by the Chinese 
whose skill and patience in inventing adulterations for everything 
saleable is well known, as an adulterant for opium (cha ndu). and 
there have been numerous complaints of this adulteration. The 
sticky pulp somewhat resembles opium in appearance, but other- 
wise it has no other similarity and cannot in any way improve the 
flavour or action of the drug, 
'H. N. R. 
A PARASITIC FUNGUS ON ROSES. 
"this year 1905* tn the wet weather of December our rose bushes 
in tubs were attacked by a fungus which caused many branches to 
die and become black. The fruit of the fungus is very minute. It 
appears in great quantity on the dead boughs and consists of minute 
globular heads borne on stalks, all of a reddish pink colour. Cutting 
off the affected twigs and use of clubicide was tried effectually but 
probably Copper sulphate would be better in this case. 
Specimens of this fungus sent to Kew were identified by Mr. 
CiEORGE MASSEE as Sphoerostilbe cinnabarina , Tul. This plant 
belongs to the section Hypocreaceee, which includes the pestilent 
genus Nectria; TUBEUF in his Diseases of Plants, gives the genus 
Sphoerostilbe , as saprophytic only, but this species certainly appears 
to be parasitic on the rose bushes. 
H. N.-R. 
CRICKETS EATING RUBBER PLANTS. 
The crickets described as biting off the tips of rubber seedlings 
by Dr. Lim Boon Keng, about which a note was published in the 
Bulletin of December. 1905, have been identified by Mr. C. O. Wa- 
terhouse of the British Museum. One of these is Brachytrypes 
