442  India  Rubber  and  Gutta  Percha  in  Ceylon,  {^jj^ilsu^' 
with  hyoscyamine,  and  the  belladomrine  of  Hiibschmann  and  of  Kraut 
is  probably  a  mixture  of  atropine  with  oxyatropine  (Ladenburg  and 
Roth).  Should  it  be  desired  to  differentiate  between  chemically  iden- 
tical atropine  according  to  its  origin,  it  would  be  simply  to  make  a 
distinction  between  an  atropine  from  Atropa  Belladonna  and  one  from 
Datura  Stramonium,  but  not  between  atropine  and  daturine. — Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  July  12,  1884,  p.  29. 
INDIA  RUBBER  AND  GUTTA  PERCHA  CULTIVATION 
IN  CEYLON. 
From  the  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens. 
India  Rubber.^  Ceara. — In  Ceylon  a  planted  area  of  977  acres  is  cred- 
ited to  this  kind  of  rubber,  but  it  has  not  yet  appeared  among  our  exports. 
Since  it  has  been  ascertained  that  the  quality  is  excellent,2  cultivators 
have  been  endeavoring  to  discover  a  means  by  which  the  milk  can  be 
obtained  at  a  cost  sufficiently  low  to  give  a  return,  but  without,  as  yet, 
encouraging  results.  The  removal  of  the  outer  separable  bark,  as  prac- 
ticed in  the  experiments  referred  to  in  my  last  report,  has  been  objected  to 
on  the  ground  that  the  bark  formed  in  its  stead  is  of  a  different  character, 
very  hard  and  inseparable  from  the  green  layer  a  second  time.  Instru- 
ments have  therefore  been  devised  for  bleeding  without  such  removal.  A 
knife  with  twTo  parallel  blades,  which  took  out  a  strip  of  bark,  has  been 
modified  into  one  in  which  the  very  sharp  cutting  edges  meet  to  form  a  V, 
the  basal  angle  during  use  being  at  the  cambium.  Another  invention 
avoids  all  cutting,  being  a  double  spur-like  wheel  with  sharp  but  guarded 
points  which  puncture  the  bark  without  further  injury.  The  milking  (one 
can  scarcely  call  it  tapping)  has  also  been  practiced  on  trees  of  various 
ages  and  at  different  intervals  and  seasons.  While  it  is  found  that  the 
yield  of  individual  trees  varies  extremely,8  none  of  the  experimenters  is 
satisfied  that  the  small  quantity  obtainable  by  present  methods  is  sufficient 
to  make  the  cultivation  profitable  at  the  existing  price  of  rubber.  Mr. 
Wall,  however,  who  states  that  hundreds  of  young  trees  have  been  bled 
daily  with  the  "  pricker  "  for  some  weeks,  and  that  thus  a  cooly  can  collect 
about  half  a  pound  of  dry  rubber  per  diem,  thinks  that,  if  trees  will  bear 
this  treatment  for  two  hundred  and  forty  days  in  the  year,  the  cultivation 
would  be  remunerative.  It  appears  evident  that  milking  must  be  repeated 
at  frequent  intervals,  and  (as  often  already  pointed  out)  the  cultivation  be 
1  The  import  of  Caoutchouc  into  Great  Britain  during  1882  amounted  to  nearly  20,- 
000,000  pounds. 
2 1  am  informed  that  as  much  as  Is.  a  pound  has  been  obtained  for  Ceylon  Ceara 
rubber. 
3This  is  to  be  expected;  for  it  should  be  recollected  that  the  " milk  "  in  plants  is 
quite  distinct  from  their  sap,  and  is  contained  in  special  channels.  It  has  no  nutritive 
function,  but,  like  the  alkaloids  in  cinchona,  is  rather  of  the  nature  of  an  excretion. 
Its  removal,  therefore,  per  se,  inflicts  little  or  no  injury  on  the  plant. 
