214 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1898. 
Mr. F. W. Holder, now occupying the ministerial position mentioned 
above, said recently in the Assembly House of South Australia that experi- 
mental plantations were to be started in the Northern Territory, under the 
direction of the conservator of forests. 
A widely known nursery firm of Adelaide planted 20 acres in rubber- 
trees several years ago, and they grew finely until, owing to a change in 
ownership, they fell into a condition of neglect. They were capable of yield- 
ing some rubber of good quality befure they ceased to receive the proper care. 
Mr. D. Le Souéf, assistant director of the Zoological and Acclimatisation 
Society of Victoria, on an excursion into North Queensland, found, among 
other trees before unknown, several kinds which “ exude a milk-white sap on 
having their bark cut into, especially one tree with a very soft wood, locally 
known as the ‘ fly-catcher tree,’ or ‘ milk tree,’ from the fact of its bearing seeds 
covered with a sticky substance, which are often thickly strewn on the ground 
under the tree, and hold any insects that come into contact with them.” It is 
now reported that these Queensland trees, whose sap is believed to contain real 
caoutchoue, are to be cultivated systematically in the subtropical districts of 
that colony.* 
It is not felt here that the indigenous rubber-yielding trees of Australia 
are of value, beyond indicating the limits for the cultivation of rubber, the 
indigenous trees being scattered and difficult of access. All our authorities 
are agreed that cultivation is the thing, as conducive to the best results and 
most economical management. The native rubber-yielding trees that have 
attracted attention are the Ficus macrophylla and Ficus rubiginosa, besides 
other species of the fig tribe not yet identified. 
I may add that in the propagation-house of the Melbourne Botanical 
Gardens, in Victoria, there is now growing a fine specimen of the Landolphia, 
the rubber-producing creeper of Africa. 
Under the land laws of the Northern Territory of South Australia a free- 
hold for not more than 1,280 acres may be obtained unconditionally upon the 
payment of $3 per acre. Or, in case cultivation is carried on, a small annual 
payment per acre will be credited on the purchase price. 
Melbourne, February 5, 1898. A. N.F. 
[In 1890 the late Mr. G. W. Griffin, then United States Consul at Sydney, 
New South Wales, wrote in an official report that the Ficus macrophylla was 
allied to the Assam rubber-tree (Ficus elastica), and he was informed by the 
Government Botanist of New South Wales that it yielded a very fair rubber. 
He also mentioned as a rubber-producing tree the Ficus rubiginosa, which ig 
referred to by our correspondent, and the Ficus macrophycea, Which he had 
heard contained rubber. | 
INDIARUBBER AND OTHER PRODUCE. 
Tue London correspondent of the Worth Queensland Herald supplies that 
journal with the following interesting budget of news :— 
WHAT QUEENSLAND CAN GROW. 
The market for indiarubber is still advancing. A parcel, ex “ Jumna” (20 
bags), sold at from 2s. 8d. to 2s. 93d. per lb. ‘This week [had a chat with Mr. 
Thomas Christie, of Lime street, the drug, etc., merchant. ; 
* On this subject Mr. F. M. Bailey, F.L.S., Queensland Government Botanist, says :—‘‘T 
cannot give you any information 7¢ Mr. D. Le Souéf’s ‘fly-catcher tree,’ or ‘milk tree’; neither 
have I heard of any of our indigenous trees having been selected for planting with a view to 
producing caoutchouc. We have quite a number of trees whose seeds are embedded in a sticky 
substance. The tree, however, which the gentleman had in his mind when writing was a Pisonia. 
whose sticky fruits not only catch insects, but birds. "There are a large number of Queensland 
plants which yield caoutchouc, and, probably, in paying quantity, but up to the present no 
systematic experiments have been carried out to prove the matter,” 
