week. Few if any of these are cultivated by the exporters, most of 
whom say they obtained the plants from Klang. One man was 
recently charged with fraudulent possession of I 3 >° 9 ° P' an ^ s » but 
was acquitted as the evidence wanted was in the Native States and 
not procurable. It seems probable that the nurseries are raided by 
night, the plants pulled up and taken by native boats to Singa- 
pore so as to avoid their being seen on board a steamer leaving for 
Singapore, and then sold to the exporters for shipment. 
At one time it was proposed to prevent the export of rubber 
seedlings from the Malay Peninsula, except to British Colonies — it 
is regrettable that this w r as not carrie'd into effect as the supply of 
plants is by no means large enough for our own requirements, and 
it would then have been possible to check these robberies. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
THE WATER-HYACINTH. 
Eichornia crassipes. 
This beautiful aquatic was introduced here some four or live years 
ago and has now become a very popular plant among the Chinese. 
It is usually, cultivated for ornament, in a jar of water with char- 
coal and stones when it will flower if it is allowed sufficient light. 
The leaves have a swollen fleshy petiole and a round short blade. 
In too shady a place the petiole gets much longer and less swollen 
and the whole leaf is much larger. In this state it does not flower 
so well. It grows by offsets from the base and with surprising 
rapidity, and will fill up a pond very quickly, if the place suits it. 
From this habit it has proved a great nuisance in Florida and 
Australia choking up the rivers so that steamers could not pass. In 
Brazil it usually grows in damp water meadows which are almost 
dry at times but when flooded the suckers of the plant drift off by 
the aid of then swollen petioles and are carried far off by the water 
and deposited at other spots where it grows again. It is grown 
here in some quantity also by the Chinese, in ponds as they grow 
Pistia Stratiotes , and other plants for feeding pigs. The flower- 
spikes are hawked about in large quantities in Singapore for sale 
and have become quite a feature in the streets. They are very 
beautiful and certainly suggest a spike of large pink hyacinths but 
they are unfortunately but of short duration lasting but a day. 
Flowers are very seldom sold in the streets of Singapore, and in- 
deed this is the first time that I have ever seen them sold in this 
way. 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
NOTE ON AN OLD RUBBER STUMP. 
Among the Para rubber trees in the Botanic Gardens stands an 
old stump of a tree, 9 feet tall and 3' 11" in girth. It met with an 
