Ridley thanks Thiselton-Dyer for the identification of the fungi. Regarding Schizostachyum, Ridley cannot distinguish it from a specimen of 'brachycladon' [S. brachycladum?] sent from Calcutta [Kolkata]. There is a golden stemmed form from Java. As Stapf says, it is not the common, yellow variety of B. vulgaris. He has sent Thiselton-Dyer flowers. Ridley hears little from the British Museum; he was very sorry to learn of Murray's breakdown. He wonders who could replace him; systematists are scarce in England. Ridley would not care for the job now: the whole department needs starting over and he does not want to return to the 'horrible' climate of England. Most of the Sansevierias from Thiselton-Dyer are doing well. They have been propagating the common ones from leaves. Derry went to Rangoon [Yangon] not long ago and brought back some fine Adiantums and plants of Sansevieria grandicuspis. Alas, Derry's wife brought back the smallpox and is very ill; Derry and his children are quarantined and Ridley is again singlehanded. He has had himself and the men and servants vaccinated. The wet season has been arriving late, as in Java. Their chemist, P.J. Burgess, is going home to investigate rubber among the manufacturers and will call on Thiselton-Dyer. He is interested in the coagulation and preparation of rubber and takes home some Para latex prevented from coagulating by formaline. Burgess has also taken some photographs that Thiselton-Dyer might like copies of for RBG Kew. Ridley has finished the Christmas Island plants and is writing a general account of the flora. He wonders if Thiselton-Dyer has the soybean alive at RBG Kew. Ridley enjoys seeing their plants figured in BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. Precocity in flowering, as described by Hemsley in the last ICONES [PLANTARUM], is common there in newly introduced plants. One of the oddest was a shoot of Garcinia nigrolineata with flowers on it. A Chinaman once offered him a coconut producing a spathe and spadix as a curiosity. Sansevieria aethiopica and S. ehrenbergii are dead but they have one plant of the latter. Pages 1 and 4 of 8.