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progress and state of the plants of American Rubbers which were 
sent to Perak from the Botanic Gardens. 
The Superintendent, 
Botanic Gardens, 
Singapore. 
No. 20278. 
I have the honour to be 
Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
(Sd.) J. A. SWETTENHAM, 
Assistant Col. Secretary, S.S. 
Residency, Kwala Kangsar, 
26th July, 1878. 
Sir, 
In reply to your letter No. 3590 of the 20th July, 1878, requiring 
a report on the progress and state of the plants of American 
rubbers which were sent to Perak from the Botanical Gardens, I have 
the honour to state that the only plants of this description within my 
knowledge are one plant of what 1 suppose to be the Hevea and nine 
of the Manihots. 
These were brought here by Mr. Murton in October last and 
planted at the back of the Residency and are growing very well. 
They were quite small when they arrived here but the first is 
about 5 feet high with branches of equal length and the Manihots 
vary from four to eight feet and are growing vigorously. 
1 believe Mr. Murton left plants of some kind at Durian 
Sabatang and at Thaiping or Matang and 1 will send on your letter 
to those places in order that if this were the case some report of 
their condition may be obtained, but I did not see anything of them 
in either places on my last visits there, though I carefully inspected 
the African Coffee, Cloves, Chinese fruits, and Australian plants 
growing on the Residency hill at Thaiping. 
There are many Districts ip Perak which would, judging from 
what I have read of the Hevea habitat, be very suitable to the 
cultivation of these plants, this hill on which they are now growing 
well is of river gravel and I have no doubt they would have been 
much stronger in alluvial soil. 
The Hon'ble 
The Colonial Secretary, S.S., 
Singapore. 
I have the honour to be, 
Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 
(Sd.) Hugh Low, 
Resident. 
