66 
stocks on hand are several thousand tons more to-day than they were 
a year ago. So until a marked improvement takes place in the demand, 
especially in America, it is difficult to see where any advance in prices 
can come from, and considering the gigantic scale upon which planting 
in all parts of the world, including West Coast of Africa and the 
Congo, has been going on, it is clear production will be doubled in a very 
few years. Brazil at present maintains her export duty of about 
25 per cent., and it is impossible to see how this can be continued 
much longer. 
London Stock of Plantation Rubber, 31st December, 1907, 
145 tons, against 78 tons last year. 
Highest. 
1907. 1906. 
Plantation Para ... 5/10 6/3 
Fine Para (Amazon) 5/2 5/5 
1905. 
6/9I 
5/9 
Lowest. 
1907. 1906. 
5/5 
5/- 
1905. 
The Materials for a Flora of the Malay Peninsula. 
This work was commenced by Sir George King in 1888, parts being 
published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal as they 
were finished. The parts dealing with Gamopetalse and some other 
groups were contributed by Dr. Prain, Mr. C. B. Clarke and Mr. 
Gamble. In the matter of Dicotyledons the orders are finished as 
far as the end of the Gamopetalae except the Verbenaceae and 
Gesneraecese which will shortly be published by Mr. Gamble. Three 
volumes of the Monocotyledons were published independently in 1907 
by the Director of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. The first volume 
contains the Hydroclparidese, Orchideae and Apostasiaceae. The 
second contains the Scitamineae and other orders to the end of palms ; 
the third from the Aroids to the grasses, completing the account of 
the Monocotyledons as far as is known. 
These three volumes are now on sale at the Botanic Gardens, 
Singapore, and at Messrs. Kelly and Walsh, 32 Raffles Place, Singapore, 
and at the Crown Agents, Whitehall Gardens, London, at the price 
of 5 dollars or 15 shillings for each volume and 10 dollars or 30 
shillings for the three volumes. 
It is proposed to issue shortly an index to each volume. — H. N.R. 
Death of Mr. A. B. Stephens. 
We much regret to have to record the death of Mr. Arthur Bligh 
Stephens which took place in the beginning of January, at Taiping. 
Mr. Stephens was originally connected with planting for twenty years 
before he joined the Federated Malay States Government as Assistant 
Indian Immigration Agent, 1892. He was appointed Deputy Con- 
servator of Forests, Perak, in 1903, and acted as Conservator of 
Forests during the absence of Mr. Burn-Murdoch. 
