211 
Note — I. Mr. Janies Collins, really the first man to bring the 
plant from the Amazons to Europe, was afterwards Government 
Economic Botanist at Singapore. He only remained about a year, 
and retired. He was the author of a report, apparently the first real 
account, of the rubber industry in South America ( Report on the 
caoutchouc of commerce by James Collins 1872 ). 
He described and figured the herringbone system of tapping, 
and invented several forms of tapping knives, among which is the 
well-known “ Farrier’s knife ” which was also suggested by Mr. 
Mann, and was used for marking timber in Hanover at that time. 
He suggested the use of iron vessels for catching the latex in place 
of the folded leaves plastered to the trunk with clay or calabashes. 
Clay, he says, contaminates the milk in a very objectionable manner. 
Yet this system was the only one in Ceylon till 1899, with a coconut 
shell substitute for the calabash. 
2. Plants were sent to Burraah, Mauritius and Calcutta, besides 
Ceylon and Singapore. The plant has always failed in Calcutta, but 
neither Mauritius or Burmah seem to have taken any trouble to 
continue its cultivation. In fact, though later the plant was sent to 
all the other tropical gardens of the Empire, Ceylon and Singapore 
alone saw the importance of continuing to propagate it so that, thanks 
to Thwaites and Trimen, Murton and Cantley, there was a sufficient 
stock of plants and seeds to start the industry when the demand for 
cultivated rubber sprang up. But though there were upwards of 
2,000 Para rubber plants sent to Ceylon in 1877, there seem to have 
been in 1899 only about 70 trees in the Heneratgode and Peradeniya 
Gardens, while in Singapore, which received 22 plants in 1877, there 
were over a thousand full grown trees and from the plants taken up 
to PeralTByTTurton some hundreds at least at Kuala Kangsar and 
Taiping Gardens, ready as stock for the expected demand. 
3. It is interesting to note that Singapore had the first Ceara 
rubber plants in the East. — E d. 
Colonial Secretary's Office, 
Singapore, 6th September, 18/8. 
Col. Sec, No. 4072/78. 
Sir, 
I am directed to transmit to you for your information a copy of 
^ \ a letter from PI.B.M’s Resident at Perak upon the subject of the 
