244 
VARIATION IN THE FLOWER OF 
THE BLACK PEPPER. 
The flowers of the black pepper (Piper nigrum) are of 
very simple structure. They consist normally of a sub- 
globose pistil enclosed in a short fleshy bract. On either 
side of the pistil are one or two simple stamens. The pistil 
is crowned by a stigma of from 3 to 5 recurved lobes, oc- 
casionally only two and sometimes as many as seven. In 
examining some spikes of the plant in flower I find it is not 
very rare to see two pistils in some of the bracts, owing to 
pressure the pistils are unequal and flattened on the ap- 
pressed side. [ have seen none of these double flowered 
bracts producing fruit and suspect they always abort. In 
the case of this modification, I find the stamens either re- 
duced to a single one or quite absent. There are forms of 
the pepper in which the stamens are normally absent from 
the female flower but in the pepper under observation the 
stamens occur regularly. 
Ed. 
DYERA COSTULAT-2E (Gutta jelutong). 
This tree and rubber has been referred to in the Agri- 
cultural Bulletin P. 95, vol. IT (1903) and P. 48 and 91 vol 
III (1904) and more recently in the report on the Inter- 
national Rubber Exhibition February number of the cur- 
rent volume. In the latter notice it was mentioned that 
“its cultivation would not attract private enterprise’ ’ al- 
though the rubber and existing trees were worthy of atten- 
tion. 
As may be seen from the account given by the Scientific 
Department of the Imperial Institute (P. 48* vol. Ill,) the 
coagulants used are gypsum and kerosine-oil, (although not 
mentioned alum is used also) and as may be expected from 
such crude treatment the resulting rubber is of very low 
grade. 
The enormous and growing demand for this rubber will 
— it may safely be predicted — introduce othe/ methods 
of coagulation, and a system f tapping without destroying 
the trees for which there is no reason w' 1 ever. At the 
present time the two large sources of/suppiy are Borneo 
and Sumatra, but scattered over the C vests of the Malay 
Peninsula and Colony there must J^e many thousands of 
trees fit for exploiting. It may be of interest to record the 
