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and crepe. The trees over this very large area were very 
uniform, and regular. While walking round with Mr. 
Petrie we came across the corpse of a rhinoceros beetle 
( Oryctes ). These beetles he assured me had taken to ex- 
perimenting on Para rubber tree leaves as a food, rather 
an unusual thing for a beetle which does not as a rule at 
least eat leaves. The result to the beetle was disastrous 
its mouth and gullet were soon choked with latex and it fell 
to the ground in a moribund state and was soon attacked 
and killed by ants. The dead one I examined and found 
that it had quite a string of rubber in its gullet and mouth. 
It was another example of the way the Para rubber defends 
itself from insect attacks by its latex. The rubber at Tali 
Ayer was being made in temporary quarters in the form of 
a KranPs house, but a new building was being erected for 
the factory. It had naturally not been- expected that the 
tree would be ready to produce so soon as three and a half 
years. The basal V ^vas the form of tapping used and the 
cutting by the Tamil coolies all over these estates was as 
perfect in fineness of cut, and in absence of slips into the 
cambium layer as one could desire. The renewed bark was 
smooth, regular and full of strong latex. 
There was no fungus to be seen anywhere and but few 
trees damaged by Termites. Mr. Turner however has put 
up a Carbon-bisulphide plant at Caledonia which will en- 
able him to deal with these pests wherever they occur. 
I have been impressed lately more and more with the 
importance of planting Para rubber seed right way up, 
that is to say with the flat side down. Some planters seem 
to think that it does not matter at all whether you plant it 
upside down or not, and that it will right itself. And so 
it will to a certain extent, but if you get the tap root curved, 
this may remain as a permanency. The defect may not 
show for 'some years, but the result is that the ‘main 
root or part of the root through which the water sup- 
plies ascend to the tree is permanently bent and the ascent 
of the water, and of course the plant food in it is seriously 
retarded. The tree is stunted. It is shorter and less well 
developed than the others with straight roots, and in most 
trees or shrubs when this happens the life of the tree is 
short. There is no reason why rubber seeds should be 
planted on the rounded side instead of the flat. It is really 
just as quick to plant them, properly as to plant them any- 
how when one has got the knack of the thing and it 
should be made imperative on the coolie to plant each seed 
properly. When planting seedlings out care should be 
taken to get the tap root straight. In the old days of coffee 
