214 
i8 95 Mr. Kyndersley starts the first practical Estate in 
the Federated Malay States. 
^96 Dr. Willis arrives in Ceylon 
Rubber block and biscuit sent home from the 
Gardens valued at 2/8. 
i8 97 Mr. Derry sends rubber from Perak valued at 
2/8 to 3 per pound. 
I{? 9§ Mr. Curtis sends rubber from Penang allied at 
3/3 per lb. 
Mr. Tan Chay Yan exhibits plantation grown 
rubber at Malacca exhibition. 
i8 99 Mr. Derry sends rubber from Perak, sold in England 
for £61—1—6 (3/10 per lb.) sheet. 
1899 June. Messrs. Parkin and Willis publish the discovery of 
wound response and the method of collecting 
latex in tins. 
COCONUTS m PEAT SOIL. 
Mr. Lermit kindly sends an instructive photograph of Coconuts 
cultivated in the same kind of peat soil which has been already 
described as utterly unsuitable for Para rubber. 
The coconut palms were first planted some twenty-five years ago 
and at present the yield of nuts is practically nil. The depth of peat 
is fifteen feet. The photograph shows a number of the palms of fair 
size, but most with bent stems, as we are accustomed to see in soft 
wet ground, and a number of young ones of a fairly good habit. The 
ground beneath the trees is covered with a thick mat of grass and 
ferns, the Lamiding Acrostichum being the most conspicuous. 
The effect on the trees seems to be that of swamp land. Coco- 
nuts grown on low lying damp soil, insufficiently drained, are bent 
and lie at all angles sometimes nearly horizontal and though 
attaining often a good size fruit little or not at all. A curious thing 
I observed about such trees many years ago was that they were 
never attacked by coconut beetles, though in some cases the surround- 
ing trees were freely attacked. This suggests that some part of the 
nutriment for the nuts, which is also attractive to the beetles, is 
absent from the tree.— Ed. 
