9 
At present it has been found impossible to piocuie seeds oi I). oblongifoha ux. 
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 way ot 
procuring plants is to have them dug up from the forests in the form of seedlings 
or more commonly as young trees about \ to j inch through or less. Tie ops o 
these are removed and the stumps with the tap root kept damp till t ley can e 
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 lea v wit 1 iarc \ a ’visi > < 
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 tor the 
roots to be fully emitted so that the marcot can be removed, varies from 3 to (> 
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 ol propagation. Another method o propaga ion 
by laying the young plant horizontally and allowing if. to throw up lateral shoots and 
then cutting the stem into segments each bearing a shoot has been tried with moit or 
less success. This method has however given it is said good results m 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. 1 he young trees 
planted in various exposed positions were found to suiter very much from the attar vs 
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 itselt in tin 
spun-up leaf. Attempts to rear the caterpillar to the moth state faded. ! l 
noticed that not only were young trees freshly planted attacked but even in the jung e 
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 ol five line large sized trees 111 
the Bukit fimah 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 Foiest 
Guards will be required to prevent the destruction of the remaining large trees. 
The question of the name of the species common hi the Malay Pemn.ua. 
whether D. gutta or D. oblongifolia has more than a botanical importance, inasmut 1 
as the values and qualities of the produce of the trees known under these names ave 
been stated to be different. Dr. ROMBURGH who visited the Gardens during the year 
affirmed that the old trees in the Garden were D. oblongifoha and not L). gutta. 
Specimens of the two species as known in Buitenzorg were supplied to the herbarium 
by E>r. Treub, but I fail to see any tangible difference. The form of the leaves vanes 
very much in different parts of the same tree and still more markedly with age, ani 
the flowers of the tree identified by Dr. Romburgh as D. oblongifoha do not appear 
to differ from those figured as D. gutta in Dr. BurCK'S paper on Gutta Perchas. ■ * 
still more remarkable that the original D. gutta, which was origina y o ame . g 
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. Botamcally speaking the question u 
some importance and perhaps economically so, thong it mus V re f vears or 
in any case at least the bulk of the trade Gutta Percha for upwards of fifty years or 
more has been derived from D. oblongifoha. , 1 
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. 
The vote for planting valuable timbers in the forests, viz., 3 00 dollars allowed of 
three 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 
