314 
picul, but now it lias risen in price to 30 s. a picul, and as the 
factory is enlarging its plant, we may presume there is a 
good profit on this. It seems hardly likely that the cultiva- 
tion of Gamb ir will return to the Straits Settlements on 
the -same scale as it formerly was, but this tan stuff is 
required and will long be of the greatest importance to 
tanners, and the cultivation may return to waste fields at 
some time. There is a good deal still grown in Malacca 
and J ohore, but the Para rubber tree is gradually driving 
all other cultivations before it, even in these places. 
Should it return we shall hope to see the cultivation run on 
a better system both as regards the land and the manu- 
facture. „ 
Ed. 
PARA RUBBER. VARIOUS REGENT 
PUBLICATIONS. 
Abnormalities. Mr. Petch lias brought two Cir- 
culars from the Botanic Gardens in Ceylon of interest to 
rubber planters. One deals with the looping and other 
contortions of the radicle in the germinating of the seed 
and the other treats of burrs and outgrowths of wood and 
bark. . 
In the germination of Para rubber seed it is too com- 
mon to find the young root twisted into a loop or recurved 
in such a way as to seriously interfere with the growth of 
the tree. Some notes on this point have already been 
published in the Bulletin. Mr. Petch after giving a descrip- 
tion of the structure and moral development of the. young 
plant gives an account of some experiments on germination 
made by planting the seeds in different positions in the soil. 
Fifty needs were planted horizontally with the lower (flat 
surface) downwards, and fifty the other way up. Fifty 
were planted vertically with the Micropyle (the little cir- 
cular spot from which the root is pushed out) downwards, 
and fifty with the Micropyle upwards. Fifty were planted 
horizontally on the narrow edge. In all these ways the 
seeds that germinated came up normal without any bend or 
loop, except when the seeds were planted with the micro- 
pyle upwards, in all of which the young root was curved, 
or bent or formed complete loops, out of sixty seeds planted 
in this position not one germinated normally. There are 
however other ways in which looping of the foot is produc- 
ed irrespective of the position of the seed, occasionally the 
