AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 4.] APRIL, 1906. [Vol. V. 
H. WRIGHT S PARA RUBBER. 
( Review.) 
Though this book was published some time ago, the edition was 
so small that it is only within a few days ago that we were able 
to procure a copy; hence any delay in noticing it. The book was 
wanted as there was no other book on the subject at all up to 
date but Mr. JOHNSTON’S work. Since then a great deal of pro- 
gress has been made in every thing connected with the work of 
growing and making rubber. And now that Mr. WRIGHT S excel- 
lent little work Is out of print and that much more is known about 
rubber we shall hope to see another and larger edition soon on 
the market. The work deals chiefly with rubber in Ceylon, and 
perhaps too little with the rubber country par excellence, viz., the 
Malay Peninsula. It commences with a short history of the intro- 
duction of rubber into Ceylon in which it is said that India and 
the Straits have received a considerable number of Ceylon rubber 
seeds and plants the first consignments dating from 1877, when 
cuttings from one year-old trees were sent from Peradeniya. The 
plant however, only arrived at Kew in November, 1876, and then 
had to be propagated before 100 plants could be sent to Ceylon. 
It is only a matter o*f ‘historical interest but it is clear from the 
archives of the Botanic Gardens and MuRTON’S reports, that these 
cuttings were not received or were dead. No mention of them 
at all is made anywhere, and it is clear from Sir HUGH Low’s 
letters that no living cuttings were in his possession in 1879, nor 
any plants but those brought by MURTON and received from Kew 
direct. Many years later seeds were received from Ceylon how- 
ever, but by that time the original trees in the Botanic Gardens 
at F ^apore had fruited. This is only a historical matter as stated 
be.oic and the full history of the introduction of rub ier into the 
Straits and Malay Peninsula has been published in the Bulletin 
previously. 
The physiology of the plant next is dealt with, and the important 
question of the function of the latex the author seems to have 
