52 TlMEHRI. 
Hevea was scattered irregularly among other subjects. 
The plants varied much in size ; the largest observed and 
measured did not exceed from 18 to 21 inches in diame- 
ter, or from 40 to 60 feet in height. As a natural result 
of confinement in dense forest, the trunks were here 
straight and unbranched., but on the banks of the river 
and creeks, a situation they seem to prefer, they are 
branched, much stouter and hardly erect, but lean out 
in the centre, in the effort to steer clear of their 
closer-growing neighbours. No ungerminated seed was 
obtainable ; but I picked up some of those which had just 
sprouted, and some of the exploded capsules to complete 
my dried specimens. Seedling plants from one to three 
feet high seemed very common. If there were any demand 
for them a man might gather them at the rate of five or 
six hundred a-day ; selecting only the smallest, chiefly 
those of the current year, I gathered about one hundred 
and forty in an hour. Their abundance indicates unmis- 
takably that the fruit ripens, and the seeds drop during 
the spring dry season. Were it to fall while the floor of 
the forest is covered with water it would inevitably float 
away, and even that which lodged among brushwood and 
exposed roots would hardly germinate successfully. 
September is the flowering season, and April and 
May is, I think, the fruiting season. I have since 
discovered that some Hatie seeds were purchased 
with a collection last May ; which circumstance proves 
the correctness of my inference as to the time of 
fruiting. Having had a couple of quakes made for 
the reception of the plants and lined with mukroo 
{Ischnosiphon) leaves, I packed them carefully in soil 
