9 
At present it has been found impossible to procure seeds of D. oblongifolia or 
D . Gutta . Two trees in the Botanic Gardens flowered this year, one rather heavily, 
it however does not appear to have set a single fruit. At present the only wav of 
procuring plants is to have them dug up from the forests in the form of seedlings 
or more commonly as young trees about i to f inch through or less. The tops of 
these are removed and the" stumps with the tap root kept damp till they can be 
planted. These stumps after a period of 4 to 6 months put out strong shoots, but it 
is remarkable that the new rootlets do not appear usually till after the shoots have 
made some growth, and often one can find stumps quite leafy with hardly a visible 
rootlet. It is found advisable therefore to allow the stumps to remain a long time in 
the beds or boxes till they have put out strong roots as well as leaves before plant- 
ing out. The plan of planting the stumps as received in situ in the plantation is 
now being tried, so as to avoid injuring the roots by moving. 
The various forms of Marcottage have been tried on D. oblongifolia and l) . 
calophylla. These are all successful in almost every case, the time required for the 
roots to be fully emitted so that the marcot can be removed, varies from 3 to 6 
months. 
For work on a large scale this method of propagation is too slow and expensive. 
Simple cuttings were also tried but though a few thus treated grew the percentage is 
too small to be a satisfactory method of propagation. Another method of propagation 
by laying the young plant horizontally and allowing it to throw up lateral shoots and 
then cutting the stem into segments each bearing a shoot has been tried with more or 
less success. This method has however given it is said good results in Sumatra, and 
plants so propagated have been received thence which are very strong and healthy, 
but it is noticeable in this case as in the matter of stumps that the proportion of roots 
produced is very small in proportion to the size of the shoot. The young trees 
planted in various exposed positions were found to suffer very much from the attacks 
of a caterpillar which spun the leaf shoots together and destroyed them. It is rather 
difficult to deal with as it escapes the action of insecticides by concealing itself in the 
spun-up leaf. Attempts to rear the caterpillar to the moth state failed. It was 
noticed that not only were young trees freshly planted attacked but even in the jungle 
when the surrounding vegetation was cleared so as to let in light the pest appeared 
on the trees in a very short time. 
It is regrettable to have to record the destruction of five fine large sized trees in 
the Bukit Timah Forest by a party of Malays during the year, who destroyed also 
others in different parts of the Island. Two of the men were captured but with the 
present value of Gutta Percha, severer penalties and a more adequate staff of Forest 
Guards will be required to prevent the destruction of the remaining large trees. 
The question of the name of the species common in the Malay Peninsula, 
whether D. gutta or D. oblongifolia has more than a botanical importance, inasmuch 
as the values and qualities of the produce of the trees known under these names have 
been stated to be different. Dr. Romburgh who visited the Gardens during the year 
affirmed that the old trees in the Garden were D. oblongifolia and not D. gutta. 
Specimens of the two species as known in Buitenzorg were supplied to the herbarium 
by Dr. Treub, but I fail to see any tangible difference. The form of the leaves varies 
very much in different parts of the same tree and still more markedly with age, and 
the flowers of the tree identified by Dr. Romburgh as D. oblongifolia do not appear 
to differ from those figured as D. gutta in Dr. Burck's paper on Gutta Perchas. It is 
still more fe markable that the original D. gutta, which was originally obtained in Singa- 
pore and has now, according to the Buitenzorg botanists, utterly disappeared, 
although the D. oblongifolia which was discovered very much later is still comparative- 
ly abundant, and appears to have replaced it. Botanically speaking the question is of 
some importance and perhaps economically so, though it must be remembered that 
in any case at least the bulk of the trade Gutta Percha for upwards of fifty years or 
mere has been derived from D. oblongifolia . 
The trees of Para Rubber at Bukit Mandai were gone over by the men employed 
on the vote and all belukar trees which had come up among them and were interfering 
with their growth were removed. 
Vote for timber planting. 
I he vote for planting valuable timbers in the forests, viz., 300 dollars allowed of 
thiee men being employed on this work. The ground was cleared where necessary, 
in the same district of the Bukit Timah Forest Reserve which was selected for the 
planting of Gutta Percha, the ground unsuited for that plant being planted with timber 
