1 37 
Three samples of Para rubber were analysed. 
Moisture. Resin. Rubber. 
Residue . 
Para Hard Cure 
Ceylon 
Gold Coast 
14-30 -2-73 
0-53' 3*93 
0-27 2-31 
71-09 1 1 7 1 # 
90-38 5*°3 
93-92 3*30 
The resins from Para Hard Cure and from the Gold Coast were 
soft and oily, those from Ceylon hard and glue like. The residues 
of the Ceylon and South American rubbers consisted of “insoluble 
rubber ; that from the Gold Coast sample largely fibrous material 
and very little insoluble rubber. The American rubber is as will be 
noticed very wet and contains more than twice as much insoluble 
rubber than either of the other two. It was far the wettest of any 
of the rubbers analyzed. Only one sample of Ficus elastica. was 
analyzed, from Rangoon. It gave moisture 0-58, Resin 6*8 1, Rub- 
ber 84*63. Residue bark with a small quantity of insoluble rubber, 
8- 1 6, Resins hard but not amorphous. Four samples of Funtumia 
elastica , and two probably from that tree vary a good deal in pro- 
portions of rubber from 67 to 80 per cent but the lowest sample was 
wet, 10-90 per cent. One sample of the root rubber Landolphia 
Tholloni, comes out well with 7*02, Resin 83*00 Rubber, 7 * 74 residue 
chiefly fibre. Possibly there is more to be done with this plant than 
one naturally expects. 
One of the other Landolphias, Ficus Vogeln and Mangabeira> 
Hancornia speciosa ) finish the analyses. The latter is very poor 
with only 58-75 per cent of rubber. 
Perhaps the most interesting point is the difference in the quality 
of the resins in Ceylon and Gold Coast Para. Those of the latter 
resembling the reC of the American rubber. 
In the same journal there is an article on the effect of various 
atmospheric conditions on the resin content of rubber by Messrs. 
Drabble and Spence. The resins seem to increase with tempera- 
ture and moisture. The article is only a preliminary one, and inves- 
tigations are being pursued. The. subject has a great importance in 
the matter of methods of preparing and drying the rubber. 
H. N. R. 
RUBBER NOTES FROM CONSULAR REPORTS. 
French West Africa.— The chief rubber supply in Senegal and 
French Guinea is derived from species of Landolphia , and in 1904 
the exported rubber known as Sudan niggers fell in price owing 
chiefly to adulteration. In 1905 however, the Inspector of Agricul- 
ture who had spent two years in visiting the European rubber markets, 
got an ordinance passed, to suppress adulteration, preserve existing 
rubber plants create new plantations and also found schools for 
instruction in methods of cultivating and gathering rubber. The 
first result of this was to produce a rise in price of rubber, of nearly 
