ical interest.
L. 2-3 in. long, linear acuminate.
cemes lax, dulous. Fl. small, green
with yellow bristles on the sep. and pet.,
some yellow the li Dorsal
sep ipe egi — tail-like
oblo is
wi with small tubes cles.
—Ü ye b.f. (G. C. 1887,
6.) Drchiden. Something in
de. o ot P. cerina. Bulbs narrow,
light green. e long, narrow, and thin.
FI. bright yellow, sep. and pet. with dark
Lii spots; lip bleit dotted with indian-
iin selligera, Reh (G. C.
Peristeri 2, E » rade. Very
ec to P pendula, but with an arm-
s column, and a saddle -shaped crest
lip. emerara
Phaius Sede nianus, Rchb. f. (
1887, v. 1, p. 174.) Orchidex. Garden
hybrid,
116
i
— Reh
p. 799.) Grchidee
Something in bé wiy of = grandi iflora.
L. silvery green. Sep. a t. creamy
white, the sep. P yellowish pns
Lip white with y spo n the
lobed Aran mail of a lip, aie: lobes
MC COE
and k the nearly cross-shaped
front lobe
TAG C ot Rothschildiana, Rehb. :
Mos 7, v. 1, p. 606.) Garde
(G. €
Phalenopss ei iae
FR A small de
outside, and a yellow callus on the inner
fe
side of each; Il iris 3-toothed, with
an erect fiba eh
Phalenopsis Ha rette, Rolfe.
( Ve 25 , f. 1.) Garden
hybrid. Syn. p SiE d amabilis. Rolfe.
Phalænopsis Luddemanniana,
heirog yphica, Rchb. f. (G. C. 1887,
v 2, p. A var. with rather nar-
7, V.
a larger oblong-
eei apiculate ont lobe, much
ened u ; the filiform pro-
Ese are represent by s whit
mall te
teeth, and is ses a small three-
lobed v crest Sia:
Pheenix rupicola, var. argenteo
variegatis PHIL. H. * je $ 10, pl. C
ng the l. varie-
"Garden variety.
ta, Carri
p. siwer Phytolace H. per.
variegated.
ae sade (Gf. 1887,
ion tree. Much in
the of P.e a, but having the
young io velvety wih stiffer,shorter,
d thicker l., about 4-2 in. long, and
more dotad 4-angled. Swiss Alps.
Picea excelsa, var. vir
ta, Caspary.
(Gf. 1887, p. 521, f. 1
syno
8. Coniferz.
H.tre. As € Abies excelsa,
var. monstrosa
117
Pinus austriaca, var. foliis aureis. Podocy tisus caramanicus, Boiss.
ae p.643.) I. tree. Garden (R. H. 1887, p. 63.) See Laburnum
vari caramani icum.
Pinus pee var. variegata, Pogogyne MEUM Gray. (GI.
Carrière. (R. H. 1887, p. 83.) 1587, p. 113, t. 1242; G. C. 1887, v. 1,
Garden variety. p. 447.) Labiatæ. Fy A pretty an-
nual 9-12 ipn. high, with slender puber-
Pi GRE M. dest, p: 304) lega Franchet ulent branches, narrow, obtuse, glab-
p 2 gumi nose. rous l., and whorls of bright blue fi.
shr., somewhat resembling P. nepa- | Shout 2 in, long. Califo
res but rats thed i. a Lond tomen- 3 B:
tum in all parts. Yunnan, Chin p eera ceruleum, var. Himala-
Pitcairnia Roesli Morr. (B. H. v. 35 opua e E la- xu ME
p. 285, , ees 3 eel p. 766 vs Polemoniacem. H.. A.
mosca Bra iad, with lax tufts of x ik. eh 4 with ne Teque ims df
been linear acuminate l, about 2 ft ibis orollà being 1L in. in diam., ulis:
ng, with sm es, and very mealy aya.
beneath, and a tem about as long as vhs
the ]., bright red, having green bracts area erben Gre (B. M.
with a cobwebby tomentum. ‘The fl. are 5.) A distinet species
about 23 in. long, and of a bright scarlet- 3 fe high, "Joosely tomentose in the
x e arranged i upper part. L. — with lanceolate
n Mountains, Rrazil. segments. Cymes corymbose or pan-
van rhytidoc arpum, A Ge. oni reb light yéltos; 1 in. 5 diam.
nar P S87. p. 130.) Pittosporem. G.
with obovate or oblanceolate, shortly Polyscias panipulata, Baker. (G. C.
acu greets and terminal crowded um- 887, v. 2, p. 366.) ences The
of w A das pretty and use- co rected nam bg the S. = Fae as
Pal p eber plant. Tj. ieat dedi in garden
Platanus occidentalis, var. foliis edt Eugenii, v COR 1887,
gets, ger CR..H. 1887, p. 64.) p- : p. 818.)
H. tree. Garden variety. incisa ^u ca Garden pavers d
. canadensis. ^ em P. pyra
Plerandra Gr, no doubt a TT
print for P, Grayi, : ^e (GA. 18 dalis var. Meetens
7
p.71.) Araliacezm. $. mall obs PUMA eub ern Bul. (Bull Cat.,
tree, with home green mee. having 2) S. foliage plant of
8-10 leaflets. Fiji. Pimbing pos with obli uely ovate-
snr at . of a silvery- , with the
Pleurothallis ins insignis, Rolfe, (G C. | margin anda band along the ditdecth
ei Pe ATT, achat De T Sees prea. Tom
chideæ ery 8 iking species, with —
oblong bukar 1; 3-34 in. long, 1 in. dox nitens, a (Bull Cat.,
ad; peduncles 2-flowered, 21 in.long; ds ) S. climber aper a acute l.,
nd fl. 25 in. long, of a whitish pellucid quely cordate at
of a dar
green, striped with dull! purple, lip dark si bronzy- die pide Malay
Backii- pure villose at the apex. pelago.
Primula blattariformis, Franchet.
cecil mac uitio Br. (G. C. 1887, v. 1, p. 575.) Primulace.
An insignifieant species, with very we Ih per. istinct and handsome
stems, elliptic obtuse fleshy 1., 11-21 ins species, clothed with short papilliform
broad, spotted with purpie, and nume- hairs, wit obovate, deeply
ous minute yellow fl. spotted with crim- erenate, and crested 1., j
son, the ee united at their base and 8-12 in. long, bearing numerous scat-
apex. ? Syn. Cryptophoran- tered lilae fl. with broadly obcordate
thus oer roe Rolfe. lobes. Yunnan.
Pleurothallis picta, Lindl. (G. C. | Primula capitata, var. (B. es t.
1887, v. 2, D. A eee lile 6916, f. B.) H. H. A var. with a
species, prec tuft of 1. ke der of much larger violet-
high, and race —— bright yellow urple fl. Sikkim
he emera bois obtusifolia, Royle var
Pl sürbthallis tribuloides, -— CB. M. 1.099563 G. C. 1887, v. 2,
(G. C. 1887, v. 2, p. 835.) p.341) H. Te egi alpine prim-
conspieuous species thon 2 in. S Mut. rose, with ed, oblong, obtuse,
with MM P mgd brick-red fl. glabrous, i Md toothed L, and
Jamaica, umbels of deep claret-purple fl, with
118
koe calyces. $i kkim. N. "e
—The — is not the typical form o
the speci
Primula spia)
tun T
Hook. fl. and
2L) HH. A
dpt ‘little species, m in. high,
with a rosette z D coarsely
toothed 1., 4-4 in. long, and few-flow v
utt of n nodding purple fl., about 4
Sik
i Wikia Vui (G. C. pns wi,
p. 390.) H. Garden hybri
ula vincifiora, Franchet, (G..C.
hi 1, p. 5 575 08.) H. per. A
ring
5 ——— et fl,
1i in ong pubescent
me. omina: at the bin. nna
Pritchardia Thurstoni, Mull. and Dr.
(Gfl. 1887, p. 486-489, f. 123 and 124,
C. 1887, v. 2, p. DR OH.
Palme. S. A fine
m crowned with a
on,
n the 1., and bear : a master senile
Fiji.
of t 4. at their apex.
Pepin
alm growing to 25 ft. in height, with
pinnate 1. 4} ft. long, — A lanceolate
me i leifa n. 16 in. long, glau-
cous Eo ix panicled, about
v; and bons: Berries 2 in
in diam. rel ht orange or red. Fo orida
S :
Ps jo P baee = x qf.
sabi s ing gr and
clusters of Centran gone Hike right bise
fl., and sulphur-yellow be
Ptelea trifoliata, var
CR. 1886, p. 547.) Rutacee. H.
icm rie
CE
tree. Garden variety.
Pteris cristata, var. "A eyes
(R. H. 1887, p. 90.) A
garden var. of P.s Peri Eu
Pteris tremula, var. pape Bull.
e C. 1886, v. 26, P. 7 ull Cat.,
11.) G. Gard yid.
URS d Maxim.
marginatum, Miq. HRA H.
= p. 185.) See Chrysanthemum.
Quercus sessiliflora, var. yos a,
Carrière. (R. H. s p. 6h
ere. ndul
branches.
H. tree pe ous
n em
pandurata, Rchb.
E ia
(G . 1, p. 244.) Orchideæ.
. 1887, v
Sir with pirple- bewi spots.
Rhapis Kwamwonzick, cid
H. v. 34, p. 39., pl. 13 )
iole
palmately divided into
17 preste segments. Japan?
Rhododendron albescens, Bull. (Bull
€ ia 11.) Ericaceæ. G. Garden
Rhodenāron A run ciha e
album ureum, Veitch. (Ve iic A
Cat., a and 6 and 7 with fig.)
Garten hybrids.
Er ap gee d mer var. roseum,
G. A vari-
whic i bar with red =
saa iard deep red fl.
Rhododendron graveolens, Bull.
Sees Cab, jp. 1L) ae —Ganen
Rhododendron ledifolium, var. plena
ES i Pe iai —
5 155, 1 Ed 887, fe 43.)
H. shr. res €
Bhodotonaren Victorianum,Cuvelier.
(G 5 v.1,7]. 98 7.) Garden
hy rid
BS EE a yedoense, ee
(GA. 1 p. 565, t. 1933, f. . a-b.)
i L pr d are
lanceolate e, nio acuminate, with
adpressed hairs, the autumnal 1 ller,
gr : U
linear-oblong, acute, serrate, setose;
corolla fannel-shaped, rose-pink. Japan.
Ricin us cambodgensis , Benary. ER
1887, p p- Pu Rapholtiaces
Probably a for td
with large 1., and “blackish stem and
branches.
Aeneis, var. mono-
Robinia peeudo udo-aca.
hylla, "r — cer A)
nos
variety
Romulea Macowani, Baker. (G. C
1887, v. 1, p. 184 d 180, f. 42.
eee. G. A beautiful little bulb
with linear-curved 1., and erocu e fl.,
-lj in. in di which are bright
n. diam.,
golden yellow in the lower part, lighter
upward Bredi tinged with red at
p h: y H. 1886,
) Rosacee. A broad-
faved form of R. =a Thbg.
119
Rubus americanus of gardens is
e given by n mc to oe E
E NOR Ait. (see G. C. "E
v.2,p
Sacc vie oor Rehb. f. (G. E
1887, v. 1, p. 4 ) Or chidee. L.
long, 2 in. afe oblong, T bide.
Raceme few-flowered, fl. arge
those of S. bellin Sep. an
rer d subacute, ochreous h
cupular
is yellow
w red — 8, ie di lobe
whitish. oam
ally p Racem
Fl. small, whitish with mauve
mid-veins to the and a
uve dis the white lip, whic
latter fades to yellow and brown, the sep.
. fadi o ochre
mauve-brownish stripes. Sep. and
obl Side lobes o very E
Salix RICE = gardens. (Gf.
1887, p Age ves 44.) qorn onm
var. of S.r s, said to be
entai vile y= mingling with mou
plan
Salix — t lancifolia, ve
(GA. 1887, and 409 8.)
with . dor ideni
l., 6-10 in. long, Bron ely — on the
margin ; reniform stipules, and greenish-
yellow catkins about 2i ar "long, on short
lateral shoots. Californ
Sanseviera aurea ee Wil-
iem ms. (Wi Wo Cat, p. 23.) Lila-
stinet looking plant with
thick, bey oblong-obovate 1.
green in the wW
bands of oa san white
pale green margin
erdum us Friderici -
ugusti. d. C. 1887, 1» 1p. 47.
Saxifragacese pin e plant t of very
d n rec ene with small rosettes
of narrow lanceolate bright green 1., and
iei yello s. fl. on short lea fy
stalks.
and a narri
Schizanthus Gr das. ar. lilacin
CGJ. 1887, p. 665, f. 100) ,emphn-
Faas cem G. Garden
eae ata ig and Rod,
GIL H. v. eae pl. 6; G. C. 1887,
p. 5. foliage
plent, k ike S. F artei in genera
pit tre age * cei yel erg
gree zs rly ban with rosy
Blade of 1
. sagittate, piai NAg
green, with pale AKERE tan midrib
and nerves, Sia
Schombur. rgkia Humboldtii pre n
( Veitch Man. Catil. and Le lia, y
Orchidee. A handsome species dei fl.
somewhat like those of a Bulbs
tapering, 6-8 in. long, furrowed. L. 2 to
3, oblong, leathery, Gin. long. Fl.-st
8-4 , panieulate 21-3 in. in
diam nd pet. wavy, pale lilae,
Schomburgkia marginata, var. im-
— Rehb. (G. C. 1887,
A
and pet. without a uec
Tip. and column white
outside yo e, with whitish dots.
the front be of the keels. pn: Ble tia
chb. f.
Thomsoniana,
Sciadopitys verticillata, var. varie-
ta, Carrière. (R. H. ier p. 83.)
[ene oy H. — riety.
na (f.
ba (f. 4a and 45) h
white fl. Algeria, Moroce
see apy oficinale, var. Val-
loisii. oa Om a dics p. 447,
Hi "ge 2 Fili H As ong grow-
ith. ‘th e fronds dilated and
irregularly divided and crested at their
summit, forming large bunch-like tufts.
y
à Pent elegant species with a
Feind egre ic —
fally pa inel tely branched stems,
the yg cuts ug in dme slender
spikes. Bra
Silphium aifioren (B. M.
t. 6918; R. H. 1887, p. E Com-
posite. ” An ornamental H. per., 2-4 ft.
high, scabrid. L. piinata.
n the axils of the upper stem l., radiate
"Y in, in diam., creamy white. Te xas.
~~, PA CE. Rchb. f.
CW. . 6, pl. 271.) Orchidew.
His u dl Mons with ceolate
acuminate, plicate 1., and io ite fl.,
with the throat iud "disk o he lip deep
yellow; marked with o ipe lines in
the tube. Costa Rica.
Sobralia xantholeuca, Williams.
CW. O. A. v. 6, pl. 250.) A distinct
and showy species, with broad, lanceo-
late, acute, plicate, dark n l., and
‘fl. . with spreading ipii
Solanum n dii, saxi ( a M ‘
t viel JL B: I887, p. o-
lanace ome climbing
peat with prickles on the stem and
oles. L. variable, 2-10 in. long,
-4 in. b and oblon
pinnatifid, pin Fl. in large
bora in: plete purple, 2-22 in.
dia Costa Rie
Daip Batemanniana,
Rolfe. (Journ. Linn. Soc. v. 24,
synonym of Lælia
hb. f.
So Sint erii var. auran-
fia ca, Carrière. (R. H. 1886, p. 492,
pl.) Orchidee. A var. with dark
-red fi.
—— Var. purpurea, Veitch, and v
rosea, Veitch. (Veitch Man. Cattl. imd
Lelia, p. 106.) The ei named var.
is the S. purpurea, Reh and the
second is similar, but Herm bright rosy-
le fl.
purple
Spathiglottis Regni jeri, Rchb. f.
YG. rod 18875, V l; p. I 174.) Orchidee.
Allied to S. "Lobbii, but with broader 1.,
fl, having the
a
stands more
no eilia on the c angles of the long
sta ochin Chi
Staphylea Colombier André. (R. H.
Yr p- Sapi indacex H. tree.
Garden vi v
Statice superba, (Gfl. 1887,
666, f. 170.) Piunbarines. H.
cael resembling S. Suworowi, but
he spikes a nir soured into a
cle.
with t
yra panicle
Stellera Alberti, Rgl. a -— p.
649, t. 1262.) Thymeleæ shr.,
l che i P ob-
sinat ly silky-pilo in un-
eulate heads, mg Jie. Central
120
Strelitzia regina, var. citrina. (G. C.
E v. p. 816. Scitaminez.
ir m var. vik citron-yellow sep. $.
ca.
Stre LER Ue. Hook. f.
M. t. 6903; G. C. 1886, v. 96, p.
PUNCOEK
nerace Bui D
Sit; ig,
B
e
a3
ou
‘bata red fl. Tra
p. aru inii Ne RB. Br.
87, v. 2, p. 137,and 246, f.
a, de n. 1887; p: 99b) G: Garden
spa Watsoni, N. E. Br.
C. 1887, v. 2, p. 137, and 215,
f. G. Garden hybrid.
Strobilanthes —— Jaeq. (GA.
3.) Acanthacez.
s yos with petiolate,
^s
an
marked with a val spot in the throat.
Himalaya.
Strohilanthes V ci are
(B shr., gubrows,
L. "e zd d nate,
toothed, dark green biis le be-
eath. y T panicles, is lilac-
de rpl with a swollen,
nearly pet taba. "Matri Himalaya.
Strobilanthes flaccidifolius, Nees.
M. t COLT: GLO. Test: 3
9. S. A pretty shr., yielding
e dye. L. in. long, elliptic-
lanceolate acute, narrowed into a
petiole, serrate, glabrous, bright green
Fl. in 1 eafy, paniculate spikes,
al the tube of the corolla is
bent, e lobes deeply notched.
India, Chin
Strophant ue Ledienii, Stein. (GA.
1887, p. 145, t. 1241; G. E 1887, v. 1,
. 447.) Apocyneæ r. of in-
teres esting character, with decidtious; op-
posite, obovate, pm subsessile,
rubescen a nal of
$
"^
z
[z]
-®©
-—
'
KA
S
fari
œ
TE
oO
gr e
aee ant with linear tails 41-6
eon "Mititbotbaa: Carriére,
€ H. redd r E Leguminose.
arden
ic ace anat var. alba,
Carrière. HS 1886, p. 562)
G. Garden variety.
Syringa emodi, var. aurea Bi:
CR. patr 1886, p. 547.) Oleacem.
shr. Garden variety.
foliis b asd Simon-
Lou eH 1886, p. 547.) Gar-
den variety :
Tapeinanthus humilis, Cav.
1887,
us
b>
B
5
"1
tá
ES
eo
g^
=
°
oO
8
rrow e seg
weale at their base. Spain
-—— Powe ae Orti Tanfani. (Bul-
let cult., 1887, P. 17,
S.
minal panicles, corolla with a
s t infla narrowly fotinel-
shaped tube, and spreading ad deli-
cate rose-pink, veined Mad = 8.
rica. Syn. vim te.
(G. C. 1887, v. 1, p.2
i um ung culatum Rehb.
v0.4. v l. 266.) Orchidee.
This, which i is iiec known as nop-
sis Ruckerinana in gardens, is a rte
of Sarcochilus unguiculatus, Ld.
Thunbergia xeu S. "gens (G. C
1887, v. 2, Acan-
thacee. S ae “shr. with
shortly stalked, eniti or tilt eis:
bea dee ary fl. 2 i
in anie ved da a
yellow throat.
sae ae stach s, Baker.
(B 061 H Hf. 1881, p. 166.)
Bromeliacee. in E riesia chrysos-
s, Morren.
Tillandsia fene stratis, Hook. f. (B
t. 6898.) Syn. riesia fenestralis,
Lind. and André
Tillandsia inflata, Wawra. (R. H.
887, p. 44.) The corrected name for
Trin psittacina, var. Truffautiana,
satiate tng Baker. (G. C
1887, Me ^ 140 "This is the Tias
n gar PI "ec nnia
also
su hala £d Vriesia Atakai
Tillandsia Bagira ord and Schl.
(G. C. 188 p- One of
the brond-apit A here "fte em ae
© nót u linear - subulat
. broad, channelled,
a simple d Mia cihous
spike, yellow, with bright red glabrous
Mex
iii mt eri, var. ——
Gump. (Gf. 1887, p. 667, f. 172.)
Scrophulariacer: arden variety.
Tournefortia nia —
( H. 1897, *
Boragines. G.orH. H. Shr.of bold
| Tridax Leere var.
habit, _ clothed with short ha
corymbose cymes. ‘Trop. Americ
Trichocentrum albo- urpureum, var.
uut erem NS v. 2, p. 77, pl.85;
G. C. 1887, v. 2, p. 1
the apical part striped with the same
colou
rosea Gr.
(G: C. 1887, v 2, p. 428, mag 553,
site. A pretty
warf habit, with tated
ovate 1l., slightly glandular exei poe
long-s vae heads 1i in.
rosy-lilae ray and erie disk.
ies
T fe d Rgl- ge cn
t I? 887,
5 14y Liliaceæ. pul Ib. A smali
es, with about ihree linear- Janceo
obtuse segments.
Ulmus proxi e var. Berardi, Car
CR. H. 63.) Olivades.
ree. Gaiden d
Urgines 1 M rade capire Baker. (G.
260 Li sana.
“botanical interest, ta nh
cylindrica, glos vri ie
a fl.-s 2 ft. high
et whitish f S. A
ag — Baker. (G.C.
2) G- Duib of
botanical eet. Bulb globese 2-3 ins,
with a aaa s of
diam. Leaf solitary, terete, erect
1j ft. long. Fl. stem 3 ft. high, stout,
ith a se raceme of ascending,
pes a white fl, tipp ith
green ;
west bracts with a curious
convolute spur 3 Pda long. Africa.
Urals pulchra, 5 . E. Br.
1887, v. 1, p. 670.) Composi H.
annual. This is merely the "familiar
ied. yui speciosa of men id now
o the genus Ursini S.
Amesiana, Rchb. f. (G.C. ze
v.l, p. 164; and v. 8, p. 472; W. O
v.7, pk 296.) Orchidee. A ipe
species, having a short stem with 1. like
those of
wit P pet.
cuneate ag, subacute; Side] lobes wel
P rare,
lip small, pearly front lobe
reniform, decibel: «x raised rmm
n the disk in front of a small tran
ed tubercle.
Spur poniai,
compressed, short. India
122
Vanda Clarkei, N. = » (Esmeralda
Clarkei, Rehb. f. . 1886, v. is
p.552,) Much in cz Se of V. Cat
carti, with cuneate, sean obtuse a:
a d
t, of a dar own barred
with ochre, yellow outside the lateral
sep. and pe rved. 3-lobed, with
h
a chien pos s “whitish, wit
b bo and 8 betwee en
o e bes. .
date, oblong - elliptic, with
lobulate kae and 7-9 radi indnpwhiteh
eels. Mouth of vara covered by two
retrorse nene wit other crest in
front. Himalaya.
Vanda PTS Rchb. f£. (G. C. 1886,
v.
with yellow very acute, bi-
dentate at apex, 1j in. broad, yel
-green. Sep. and pet. shortly
stalked, elliptie obtuse. Lip with small
trans-
squarish side lobe
vi
conical and has a short, rounded, grooved
he front its
der var. albata,
uu f. (G, C. 1887, v. 2, p. 9.)
is sometimes
Venidium fugax, Harv. (G. C. 1887,
v.2, p. 333.) Composite. H. annual,
E" ft. c ie with short Da
Radical 1. o. iptie, more or less
sinua pe per l. sessile, entire
or sient éliuti icudied. H x E
orange with
am., bright
; SA eal udiludéuii
is Ft species of garden 8.
Vicia Dennesiana, Wats.
Zygocolax Veitchii, a
p.
ntc. Ve ohio
wed ged pe 2" uxi,
(B. M:
t. 6967.) Leguminose. H. H. p
climber, of great interest, on account of
ild st
sion to a dingy fawn colour. Azores.
Vitis s capensis Thunb. ok H. 1887,
p. 872, with p) A Ampelide
tomentose fl., followed by
depressed globose blackish-red berries.
S. Afric
Xanthorrha æa Preissii, En dl (B. M.
6933.) Juneacem. G. One of the
escis ** Grass-trees," with a stout
t iem long, quadrangular, slender 1.,
= -stem 1-8 , bearing a
length
ik
of dironuboreliów . W. Australia.
Zea gracillima, var. variegata. (Gf.
1886, p. 640.) Ep aminem. Garden
variety of the Mai
Zinnia linearis, Bth. (Gf. 1887,
pen 66s. £ ee Composite. H.
annual. NOS utiful ones 12-18 in.
iici fh fro
ds of a bri right
io etin, Een 1 in. in diam.
aquatica, L. an 1886,
: Graminez. A =
e grass, with e lanceo
acumina a vag aione
inflorescence. meri
(6.-C,
Hee - Ayyo-
Carrière.
Orchideæ. A
i sm ll
Fl. ra ;
showy ; sep. and pet. dark red spotted
and stripe yellow; lip large,
white with violet lines on the margin,
nd with short
nerves covered
violet-rose hairs, Brazil
Zygo pue -rk Veitch. (G. C.
18 Garden hybrid.
Syn. TUR he Veitch Rolfe,
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
No. 17.] | e Ay
XL.—IPECACUANHA.
(Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, Rich.)
The ipecacuanha plant is a half-shrubby perennial not more than
18 inches High, which enone in abundance under the shade of trees in
hot, moist forests of many parts of Brazil. It was cultivated
. country at Edinburgh at least as eeu as 1832, b nd flowei red
. in 1843.
j -The part used in- medicine is the dried roots. These.
more or sor all the year. round, but jess during the rain
the y of drying tat rede tle
Trim men (Medicinal Plants, vol. ii., 143), «From its stimulant acti
* on the alimentary c anal i ipecacuanha has always been in PORA as
* remedy in chronic dysentery and ordre and in large d
s cvm and re ards it is regarded in India as almost a s
te dysen
For the s quarter of a century a persistent attempt has teii
to introduce the ipecacuanha plant into India. This = met 1 iac i
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HER Rope cma
ER QUY i ,
And to be purchased, either directly or kani Doit
; EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, East HARDING cmd FLEET STRET,
deas GDON STREET, S.W.; or
ADAM AND. CHARLE BLACK, 6, NORTH BRIDGE, RonrenAx: or À
tecum FIGGIS, & 204, GRAFTON inanes: Dos —
HN
most varied fortune, and has a t last be en eoim ith success m the
Seats Settlements. s is idni that the p presented w:
of no ordinary difficulty. The ipecacuanha plant pend very y little
elasticity of constitution, and refuses to flourish, except under a very
nate p of physical eno The result of experiment lini
n to sho at it cam be propagated by extrao rdinary
‘facility, uae by ordinary cuttings, by cuttings of the roots, or even
. by merely pegging a leaf to the earth.
The eed of the series of the ipecacuanha plant into India
1 commenced with the following extracts from a letter emt
D. Anderson, Pec ee tina of the Botanical Sardis, Calcutta
e r Ronin ti to the Government of Bengal, dated December Sth,
My attention had been directed to the introduction of 2 ipeca-
uanha plant into the Botanieal Gardens of Calcutta for some years,
* but I was unable to procure any plants until April 1866, sien one
me by the overland route by Dr. Hooker, Director
CI
* on the plant by Dr. George King, Assistant Surgeon o of the Bengal
* Medical Service, during the hastis e to India for its having arrived in
Calcutta i in good health."
z > plant of ipecacuanha o rm introduced into the —
: si epe xir but I n v medias ne plants in this
On March . 23, 1869, the tin Oe enl. t 5 Kew. requesting thot
í plants- fs ipecacuanha, usd be. procera sa. sent with care to
Joseph Hooker replied) Mar rth 19: ^] ean ad two. healt thy
the disposal of his Excellency the matin in Council at
and: I hope — be able to supply more, but the plant
0 imported alive) is still. se uaivels rare
ished after their arrival i
| , 1870, Dr. Anderson, who had in dv nM to nit i6
;Me the India fest "T The plants have thriven at
of three. planta abide by Mr.
These i four. reps — are abe only ones
ve been all-others having perished
the conn x
tis — now to of this plant, but it is believed
it ofa direct importation from oan dco
peeecvanha as possible from. botanical - and p
tain and Europe.” Heec ontinues : nF
. Balfour, mr ise of Botei
* and both he a
AM ir de Odlcatts! B Gard
E be; prom t aes i pea ite gardens and will be rooted did grow
* in
cg estimate that I shall be able to take out in eem M -—
.* less than 50 plants of E true ipecacuanba, all of w :
urope, principally in — E or md sees
eeds from the Boitoa Gardens, Calcu
^ ted the ony curvving o
We from Dr. — ote
wh
E /** acc ordance with the orders of the Government of India, based on
— the results of the EIE of the late Dr. Anderson, these plants
** were forwarded to Sikkim as soon as practicable after their arrival
“here. The Calcutta climate having proved totally unsuitable to this
plant, all attempts to propagate itin this garden have been abandoned,
t under o
wd nchona plantation, and p is being carried
* on chiefly in one of the hot, deep valleys on the our E m opes of the
ikkim Himalaya, which open towards the terai. Hitherto
frequently been produced; we must therefore look to increase
— and other artificial methods.”
From the report of Dr. George Henderson, officiating Re ete es ory
of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, to the Governmen of Bengal,
423. He states: * The cultivation has been practically confined
Sikkim, where it has been conducted chiefly by Mr. J affrey of the
x howi
. “ root and leaf cuttings was discovered progress was idee SON
_ Since this discovery. it has been proportionately ra
Mr. Gammie, the pi manager of the cinchona ARE aE
ipe
i:
and 1
cacuanha cannot be successfully cultivated in
In open spots where it gets the full
“Tt is essentially a tropi ical plant an
itly priki moist, shady spots where there is much t eieiablg
* mould in the soil, and au equable steamy atmosphere. ;
w plants had been sent during the year to the Khasi ills,
100 are about to be despatched to to the Madras Government for —
he at Barliar, a low -lying, moist spot in one of the
Heys oft the Nilgiris."
5, Dr. King reports: “ The propagation of the plant oy
r thoroughly understood, and there are in the hot-
. Jaffrey's care, at Rungbee more than 100,000 young —
while two years ago th ere were less than 7,000.”
u s th, Seinen De ae nhe isse to the Government of
re a a quantity o of the drug tset o
on General for trial in hospital ML >
by Dr. Crombie
i that
skim i exoept in shady places
tie ickly
ought to suit ipecacuanha perfectly. * * * We have been per
a fem suecessful in propagating the plant € rt repe and seed,
* and it grows luxuriantly under cover. But out of doors the low night
* temperature of the cold weather proves too severe for it. During the
* year 26 pounds of the dried root, taken from plants grown in frames,
“ under Mr. Jaffrey’s care at Run ngbee, were sent to the medical depôt
* for use, previous trials havi hg peering the “ew of the
* Sikkim-grown drug.” Aga July 10th, 1879: “I have been —
* obliged to give up all hope of ‘the profitable cultivation of the drug
* in Nerthern India, the climate being unsuitable.”
Here its official history i in this part of India closes. But the follow-
ing extract from a letter addres to Kew by Mr. Gammie, thé
resident manager of the Government Cinchona Pisatabions at Darjeel-
ing, November llth, 1886, illustrates in a striking way the v aried |
te nt ew te
** differed greatly from each other. All the Kew plants were of one
the start the Kew variety. It
* rougher in the leaf lani the Edinburgh cil and rot so strong -
* growing while under glas
* After we had satisfied REY es that we could make nothing of |
ipecacuanha from a commercial point of view, we put all the plants
* out in the open, under shade, and let them take their e
* this time we had all the sorts mixed up together, and as w
- originally at least, ten Edinburgh ts for each one of the j
* sort, and the Edinburgh lot had, Paidra; been much hae
* growers under glass, the Kew plants formed formed less than five pe
up thios bai But i vege the Edinburgh dám. begi dis-
** appear, until, in the a year or two, there was not x ng
* plant of dé of the Ydinbugh varieties alive, whilst almost every
* plant of the =v variety lived. Of it, at the aay deem e
* have a good stock, and in one place, at 1,400 feet elevation, unde
* the shade of living trees, we have plants whic
E ed ago in the most perfect health, but, unfortunately, their gro
has been so slow as to render the prospect o: fitable
* from them almost hopeless. Still it strikes me that in plac
* graphically better situated for ipecacuanha growing than
“ that this particular variety succeed although other
L
o
"
et
^
4
ZE
oa
"e
=
©
&
E
> &
4
~ jpecaet ianha than the * Kew variety ’ to be found.” =
Co He King’ pëcdiction in 1878, that the climate of Singapore
be found well adapted to Hes anha Amt been abundantly
be seen from Mr. om rest |
Settlements for M A
- to grow in the Straits with all the lux
“ when a proper situation is hit upon. It enj e a very mo
tmosphere, | ewha e s the Straits it DR a
its sive any
1st, Stl
verage of the Brazilian drug bein per He con-
odes eretar; that * the Indian [so- “srt puede peras cc is
* quite equal to the average Braziliau ro
Nothing is known of tle history of the plant grown «in the Johore
tation. It is, however, probable that they were derived fro
im, neh four piante were a from Kew to t peti in 1875.
spon “has passed between this this establishment ae i
Office o an ithe subject of Brazilian gum arabie;— - E
ROYAL GARDENS, Eus, to FOREIGN OFFICE. =
Royal Gardens, Kew, February 6, 1888,
AM desired by Me Waien D Dyer to inform you that owing
rruption of c n the Soudan the price of “gum
Binit that oons -e ieri — to st
ter from other countr
© Secretary E State would approve of the
a; Con Pará being r w ue
ons of © he es forum, e — of the tree or s
is — FM :
CowsutL KANTHACK, Pari, to ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. |
pub eo British Consulate, Pará, April 3, 1888.
I HAVE the — to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
the 8th of piro e and a copy of your Despatch $e od v of
England.
which has thus appeared here consists of two differeut :
kinds. One is obtained from a tree called Jatuba [according to i:
chell this is probably Hymenea Courbaril, L.], and is of a Me ch 5
Angico [probably Acacia an Mart mut and is a gum of ;
colour, oozing out by cutting the bark. This gum ur disci von in
| bstit
and is considered a substi for gum arabic. —— i
. Ishall endeavour to = from Parnahyba specimens of le:
flowers of these two kinds of gum, and shall be glad wi
to you with all further fafobihation I may procure. Rm
I have, &c. T
D. Morris, Esq., (Signed) E. KANTHACE,
Assistant Director. Consul. -
We have ves the plant known under the native name of Meme
from Burchell as probably Hymen@a, and there is little dou
ibe character of the gum that it is H. Courbaril, L., the Locust tree of
e West Indies und the Simiri of iana. The gum
ang more A the nature of ; a a gum-resin han of
geir pede um Ani
insoluble in
: lately - roe The plant. Known ida i
native name of Angico is d belese T Nara Angico, Mart. Th
known.to yield a soluble gum y similar T gum arabic, Until
specimens are received at Kew. the question cau ri
d, may assume that the “pulk af corpses! qua
dod by this latter species ;
£s
E
$
ya |
P
XLIL—TRINIDAD COFFEE.
^ Semple staple one ‘of Trinidad are sugar and cacao. e
pe oe of these two sugar, 700,0
h « of d the vorthor portion of the Island, east of the Maraval Valley.
.* In the up E part of St. Ann's Valley ‘there are extensive plots of
* e which for vigour and fruitfulness are simply perfection."
Owing probably io reeurring periods of drought and to the absence 2
Suitable shade trees, coffee cultivation has not prospered = the lo
lands ially at a higher
Tu
E
=H
e
S
Lr
=
5
o
ct
=
E
—
#8
SEE
e
E
5
&
ig
elevation, complete success would, no doubt, be attain
In the report on the samples of Trinidad vate contributed to the
c hat *they w
The
in their poe Tn 535. dem 55s. per cwt., but iUad easily D be made to
realise 5s ore by careful picking and preparation
"Tt is oubtfol i if the Trinidad planters know iow to remove the e pulp
“ quickly and well after picking, and if they clean their qusc
[11
Mr. J. H. Hart, the pag appointed sai nie s of the Botanic
ns at es id i rned his a on to the possibility of
"bi a letter addressed to
coffee grown here ca Af n res spec tively Creole, Hybrid Moc
E & Mocha coffee. Tam very desirous of obtaining the market value of these
samp es,as I believe with proper appliances the coffee grown here
could be increased in market value at least e per cent. The samples
have been cleaned and propad by fermentation.”
In acid to this reque t the asa ferie: with enelosures was
Colonial Office
et Royal Gardens, Kew, April 11, 1888.
at AM desired by Mr. Thiselton Dyer to inform you that he lately
received from the Superintendent of the sarang Gardens, Trinidad,
samples of coffee which had been prepared by him experimentally for
the purpose of testing the merits of Trinidad coffee.
.2. It appears that coffee cultivation at Trinidad has no so far proved
` suc l industry. The planters who have ridi tial is
i 1 able to cure the produce in such a manner
"Ss
Mr. ] art who takes an i intelligent. interest in local industries has _ `
ery properly sought to improve the quality of Trinidad coffee by curing — =
ee wis method so > well pursued in regard to | e Blue =
ee
amaica.
The result of Mr. Hart’s experiment ‘according ta io the reports s of
brokers enclosed herewith has improved the value of Trinidad
ffee by about 25 per cent.
5. Mr. Thiselton Dyer is of opinion - that the report of the EE
also the letter of Messrs. Shand and Haldane, will prove e of interes
William Robinson, to whom they might be communicated for ihe
se of aioe At attention to coffee growing as EIE e means of
the industries. of the tis d aces
ward Wingfield, Eq,
Colonial ve. :
e, &c.
Gia "pr Mons.
^ CET :
Messrs. Snax AND Harpase to RoraL GARDENS, Kew.
... 24, Rood Lane, E.C., April 7, nd
WE réciived ls RUE d 29nd ultimo, and we no w have
enc report and valuation
made M Messrs. Wilkos
Mii & Co., 41, Mincing Lane, of the Belg ot Trinidad. coffee |
nt by you to us. "A few words as to the system of coffee preparation —
genos) adopted in Ceylon upon the estates may perhaps be of
interes
The coffee cherries are allowed to get fully ripe upon the trees, and
care is taken in picking to avoid green and partially ripe cherries
cherries are passed through machinery generally as soon as they —
are More i into the measuring loft from the field, though some planters
prefer keeping them for a night i in the loft before pulping, and | believe
thereby a better colour is obtained for the bean when it reaches market,
though the parchment skin may not look so clean. In the operation
ali
moved ; it is then put on mats or an asphalte or Stee dept
and left in the sun to de and after two or three day
iunt.
T
| dn Binim irteeren F RO “Haldane, lachen 7 1886. ;
We à;
(Bip iE. HALDANE & Co.
D. Morris, Esq.
DEAR Sins, 41, Mincing Lane, E.C., Mo 27, 1888,
ve examine "t the samples of Trinidad coffee
as under experimental cultivation at Trinidad, aud report as folloy
Qd ee of good liquor and flavour, the
of the be Hy ap mondes ds to long-ber rry
dre e Royan GARDENS, Kew, to COLONIAL Ond beer tion
=. Sn, Royal Gardens, Kew, April 23, 1888.
= In continuation of my letter of the It instant I am danat
Mr. Thiselton Dyer to forward to you, for the information of the Govern-
ment of Trinidad, the enclosed copy of a letter received from Messrs.
Lewis and Peat, of Mineing Lane, on the subject of cleaning * parch-
mente
2. It would appear from this letter that an entirely new aspect has
been given to the dee of vae for the English market by the
establishment in London of a factory to clean parchment coffee in a
ler.
T A
tis proposed to treat this subject as regards its bearing upon
Indian coffee in the K Kew Bulletin for the month of May =a
g to the falling off of coffee aeris in the East Indies to t
Setar, it is said, of a million and a quarter ewts. annually, coffee cotta
on in the West Indies should be largely augmented. The difficulties
m, &c.
Edward Wingfield, Esq., (Signed) D. Morris.
Colon: nial Office, S.W.
[Enclosure.]
Massas, Tews AND Peat to Royat Garpens, KEW.
a 6, Mincing Lane, ; E.C., April m. aas
io your Tor of the 16th instant we
"hs. e of importing coffee i in the parchment is largely on on
increase, and some most satisfactory results have been attai
e have recently sold large parcels from America which were
same coffee cleaned on the plantation we obtained 86s. per ewt
although prices = Rendre were lower, Experience shows that the
| : the bean from atmospheric Eso rue which
ct ‘the olor, and in every instance where trials have been made
Prats $i favour i. peek here. The process is —_
is
o ie We remain, Ae. ES US wm
(Gee) - Lows & Paar.
irected by Lord Eastin
to acquaint you that a copy of i evili be sent for publication to the
Governors of the West Indian iia other Solomos interested in the
production of coffee.
m, &e. >
(Bigned) Epwarp WINGFIELD. —
The Director, Royal Gardens, Kew.
XLIIT.-—PATCHOULI. ;
(Pogostemon Patchouli, var. suavis.)
In the Kew Bulletin, | No. 15, for. Maso; 1888, page 71
was given c the patchouli li plant use used i n perfum Toi
was
tes
recently received from Mr. Curtis :—
Sir, Penang, February 16, 1888. _
to thank you for the determinations of Penang plants.
(1,140-1, 201), and also for your kind letter of E erbe Refer
ting to your remarks tchouli, it may i o kno
result of an |
21st the whole was cut, and w in
; ter being dried in a cool airy deg z3 10 tjs
was 106 Ibs. The leaves were then separated from the stems and |
weighed separately, the result being, “good leaf,” 6
37 lbs Samples were submitted to two London Mops both of
said that the sample was good. One valued i d. to 10d.
and the other at 10d. to 11d. ae
o Fh e patch was cut again the first wok in Jha. ;
. and the Mise and results were site ena the same as i
that there is ubt a patchouli will :
ne ton
2I mentioned some time ago, when sending a sample to Kew, that the
2 Feros of the Urena lobata are used for adulteration.
. Can you inform me whether patchouli is used for any other purpose
_ than for perfumery ?
ne I remain, &c.
js . D. Morris, Esq. (Signed) C. Curtis.
XLIV.—COCHIN CHINA VINE.
(Vitis Martini, Planch.)
An C new species of vine has been received at Kew from
the Botan s, Hong Kong. It was sent by Mr. Ford as Vitis
Tartini, Planch. From ctm nical specimens also contributed by Mr.
ord to the Kew Herba “go Nba r Oliver has identified the plant
as Vitis (Ampelocissus) Morte of. Plane chon, but he is doubtful
. whether it is e distinct nie Vitis barbata, Wall., of Bengal
and Burma As plants of this vine have been distributed from Kew to
correspondents in the Colonies it is a Re to place on record all the
available information respecting se report of the Superin
tendent of the Botanical and Affor weiss "Depattinent, Hong Kong
£,
for the year IBS the following tiag account is given of the
ochin China v
“ Another Sans of considerable interest is a new tuberous-rooted
vine, Vitis Martini, Planch., from Cochin China. It fruited this
year in Hong Kong for the first time.
dens, a
e fresh s
the il, 1884, xai grew well during he summer, but
E no MELIA to Bow er; and again died down in the winter.
* Last summer they started vigorously and ed flower about
* the end of May. Many of the bunches, Tow ver, failed to develop
_ fruit, owing, apparently, to imperfect ferbitization but there was a
$ good a average crop of banches on the canes irrespective of the failures.
it was ripe in October, many of the bunches weighing a
nd each. The berries when D. are jet black, and rather Mu
re ordina Th |
n MOs rs m
'tionable. The flavour might be altered, as
ing the mode of cultivation; but the size of
cinerem is codi to prevent the grape becoming popular as a table
“ fruit x it may, -or very well adapted for a wine producer.
| rst resident
res
“of DE Colony, V but I learn that none of these plants have fiuited. A
few remark the mode of cultivation may therefore be useful.
cul be planted at a distance: of 12 feet apart in well
ed soil, taking care to keep. the manure ure near the surface as the
ake a Lorizontal d j ;
135
zt “ laterals that show bunches; but it will be fud d hat — very
* bunches will be developed on the lateral shoots, most of the bunches —
* springing directly from the main rods; but in the case of a bunch
n
* second bud above the bunch. The laterals cim be allowed to grow.
* till they are 2 feet long. It will then be s if eid ras likely
* to throw out oldie or not. If not, prune them parre escribed,
* and also pinch back all subsequent growth a opidi a may
“ be found necessary to thin out the — to Sion the sun to get at |
* the branches, but in doing this great care should taken not to ;
reak o
a
* bunches, leaving a space of 15 or 18 inches between them. BR
* is also advantageous to thin the berries, leaving hardly one half of the .
** original quantity on each bunch; but I am afraid this process would
* prove impractic cable if the vine were extensively grown, owing to the |
“ labour it would entail. After the fruit is gathered the vines require
no farther lot «
ot
* ground just as the erowns began to push in the warf they, too
“ failed = — and traen rather a sickly appearance during the E.
i The. : aean Press’ has already suggested that this vine
“ should receive the attention of vine growers in the wine-producing —
* countries of Europe e e phylloxera has denuded the Men sot
* view of the won nderful improvement agit have been and can
* brought about by skilful and per dus cultivation, it is not un-
* reasonable to surmise that this new vine may ultimately
c ipi Mae d It is easily cultivated, and seems to be well ad
* for a tropical climate, or a climate in whieh the pater st
« comparatively cold and de growing season hot. M
XLV.—MADAGASCAR EBONY. (
The information contained i in the following SOE resp T
M w i
tion it is impossible to express an opini
The flora of the par of Mac
it is most
: “ti
Principal Assistant in the Kew "Herbeciüm, bas for many years. deve
attention to the flora of the mountainous eie of Mada
. deseri coe ed collected. for the most |
mbers. of the
jin oem
ae work ow DOCA ii sir de nn Ma 2
faltestiogs of plants, - which a is confidently an te
greatest. possible in interest. S
i is, well. known. that ue heart MR A ains many diront species
at Diospyros constitute the ebony of commerce: -There are.10 endemic
gpecies of Diospyros at Madagascar, but itis impossible to identify
| e.. of.. eem yielding commercial ebony. Mr. "Godfrey
tes 1
nowr country is ebony, and in this my house i is the largest
rator. Hitherto we are dependent. for ro on the French
'erman ho ood
' different species of dium alum: Indian
from Santalum album, L., and West Australian
Fuso s.
Sandal-woods ".is given by rc Petersen. in
J aceutical Society, vol. rds [3], p.
! “According to Mr. Baker there i is no ies of Cien — from
gascar, Pt wi
mem name of -Hasoran 0, while another wood
ARA isa specimen of wood labelled * Santal
M
esie from Madagascar and Zanzibar into
to be used fe burning the bodie —
specimen om Professor MacOwa
si d . Mr. J. Heathcote, from
received February 6, 1886, labelled ** Wood like sandal-wood (Groton
sp.). Ji is ground and mixed. with water, and used by the natives
at Inh elves.’
ese latter are not properly gadno They are mentioned as
wating the possible source of what- is called sandal- wood t
adagas The correspondence is as follows :—
Turk Fo OREIGN Orrice to tie GARDENS, Kew.
reign Office, March 19, uet ui
of ini p^ instant I am direet ted b
herewith
EX E Taster.
a yon t th I pe ies sent tim
aving been ncessio: export. dor fom th the
. all that i is pups is smuggled out tof the country.
cm El gir CR IT
Lewis Ransome (of -= pa of A. Ransome & Co., Chelsea) has been
i t Kew for a botanical survey of the. Te. contession in the
an, Nort h-east QUE of M: mcg
n to Mozambique and Nossi i Pe;
and, if ee and sound andi it fetches ron 40 to 55 dollars a ton.
E heard € mien I was z Majumba Bay that im grows on the
sent to Nossi Be, that there were - !
anks of ? ya
irees there, ats I was net to go as small-pox w was raging in all "the: à
ri wn ;
ab qvyselt found ebony close t to Ampasimerime, about 20 miles N. E. of
— nga, marked in Oliver's map incorrectly Pajong; it was here both
mall in size and quantity ; from there to Ambolivozy, a village on the
dcos entrance of Moj y, Idi cover any, but i
see recommence there in small quantities, and extended along
the southern bank y.. «At Ampasamala t
were large quantities of sm and at
At Amboeliana, not far from there, I cut.
and sent t same to London, and info Emo tat its value ther is from 350
to 60l. a ton. = Wn. iq
* $ icy ue spa. e ooi us * *
1 trees ;
Androhibe, about 10 miles inland, I saw sinter aei old trees of wes
sandal-w
From Soulala to south of TERS (Manitirano exóepled) itis.
enin to DS. unsafe for a white to go, and impossible = a See
uth of Morandava aS same Bur o ccurs ;
Sakalava pwa there are creole traders’ agents for Mob, “of
Live
In iti opinion the only way the ebony trade can be worked on this
coast-is by opening stations on the rivers where the ebony grows, and
employing Sakalavas and Makoas at a sena wage with an English.
overseer at each station ; he, of course, would have to take cotton
| as the wages are mostly paid. in goods, coin bei
"f hav
(Signed) Pee C. Kyo
British Vice Consul.
J. G. Haggard, Esq.,
; ub EUM. Consul for Madagascar.
| di Mh ng Lesen in E petu Ws |
. appears to be little, if at all known, in this country. © Hug
stated: “I have, just received from Chefoo, North China, ed
ess Shantung Cabbage seed, and I should like, if poss
aad * boiled itis nearly as good, if not quite, as sea kale: eaten raw, in a
as „it is of so delicate a flavour da IL Las of no vegetable in
is an
e atered ev
— “ nearly full grown it should be tied round so as to give it a good white
. “heart. If it can be acclimatized in this country it will be a great
addition to our vegetables.”
.. The seeds received at ag bas few in number were carefully
: cultivated. They were sown ina heated pit on the 3rd May, and in
tied in e way as Cos lettuce, and when se filled and
blanched were cut for use. They were pronounced to be excellent.
aco. > seed — only sparingly, probably owing to the dry der of
It is nents en this Chinese cabbage may prove a useful addition
to English ga e kinds most highly esteemed : in &
3 the uéighiboarhuot of the little town of Ngan-sun. *
are said to be reserved for the table of the Emperor. ‘They are eaten
ier d :
— Under suitable circumstances the cultivation of this cabbage would
doubtless prove as simple and as successful as with the ordinary cal
te à
om. 3 um $ hk] nt
nder the native name of Pai-tsai he describes = * when youn g it is
eaten as a cabb:
age.
and used for light and cooking.” th the Index
complete account of t the Shantung cabbage is given in
otages reis uriene | hist cultu usages de 100 plantes
Pailli
les peu o po woke par eux et D. Bois,
885. Iti : i» hows yeei ire 3 Pé-tsai, or Chou de Chine (Brassica
hinensis, r information erg 8 be obtained from the Bulletin
de la Société Onirele d' Horticulture de France: Note sur la culture
du Pé-tsai aux iles Maurice et de Bourbon, par M. Breon, Vol. XXIII.,
Mention is ates made of the Chou de Schangton, or Pé-tsai, in the
Bulletin de la Société d’ Acclimatation : Productions de la Chine, par
.lAbbé David, 2° série, t. IL, p. 237. Ce mémoire contient, au
ga du Vut ce Lem suit: ** Comme plantes alimentaires, on trouve
“ dans nos ns : le Pé-tsai, dont les Chinois consomment
* une énorme quantité, et qui vaut plus que tous les autres légumes
* réunis; les Eur uropéen s le trouvent aussi fort bon et de meilleure
* digestion que les divers Choux d’Occident.” _
A figure with cultural hints on Chinese Cabbage, or Pé-ts-ai, is
given in the Vegetable Miei by MM. Vilmorin-Andrieus. London:
John RN, 1885, p. 1
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
No. 18:45... JUNE.
XLVIL—MANUFACTURE OF QUININE IN
The following important papers have been communicated to th
establishment by the Government of Bengal, and are published f ae the
information of the colonies in which Ci own ER
The historical summary of the introduction of quinine-yielding plants.
from South America into India, may be Suppen ted by a reference to
successfully carrying out this fupe mem erprise.
aaa species of Cinchona were also distributed to Coro,
Hen ropical ork (
(Cinchona ubra
species o | in the Sikkim uoi ions. oes
n the manufacture of febrifuge, which contele bui a small
SOEUR of quinine, but a large amount of Cinchonine and Cinchonid
he new process now described is intended for the manufacture of
quinine from yellow bark (Cinchona Calisaya). 1f successful, it wil
lead to the substitution of Indian-manufactured que for cu febri
in the hospitals and dispensaries of India, and asa necessary co
to ve oco HA: of yello w bark for red bark in iis i
plantat
FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT, ‘CALCUTTA, March 26, 1888.
~ Apprehensions of the extermination, in their native forests, of the
-quinine -yielding Cinchona trees having reached an acute stege about
30 years ago, the Government of India decided to take effectual steps to
: h i
pru d
Cont veas ipie with these efforts on the part ofthe English
or the Dutch authorities were at work on behalf their
Malayan Colonies, and by the year 1862, Cinchona cultivation had been
ent of Cinchona growing in India were the Nilgiris and
And the excellence of this selection has been proved
two sorts: (1) quinine yielders, and (2) mixed Alkaloid yielders. Of
quinine yielders there are two kinds, viz., yelow or Calisaya
ing ntact Ni and Crown o or officinalis, barks. < Of the mixed
yielders, there o two kinds, viz., red or succirubra, which
to para
y small proportion of quinine, with large proportions of Cinchoni-
dine and Cinchonine: It had been chiefly used by druggists in the
ne makers as a source of quinine. This red-bark tree was,
however, the kind which, in the early days of the cultivation, it was
found most easy to propagate; and in all pna both public and
„it Cres preponderated over the other so:
^ eriment, resin problem that presented itself was “the
their bark.’ For the private grower, the most lucrative
sent time, has been to sell the. — bark in
secure a
cess, b but to » provide the people e of the nner A ‘at 4 the lowest
with an efficient uere fe for the most prevalent of all the
untry. for Government to take was,
to discover whether it was real a fact that quinine is the only
hind. unn extracting separately from Cinchona bark, and whether
Cinchoni idine and Cinchonine might not each be an efficient febrifuge,
true that a alone had got into ath as a febrifuge, and that
le ( ef. — hona alkaloids had found a place in the British
mu ti : agile :
three alkaloids must undoubtedly enter, had for many years borne
reputation of ida. comedies for fever. The presumption,
peared to be that the position claimed for quinine as the
ly real febrifage Dm ded by Cinchona bark, would prove, on careful _
examination, to pn untenable; and that the other vede alkaloids would —
> found to hav e value as e rpose of
141
investigating this point, commissions of medical officers o all three
sidencies were formed during the years 1565 to ey Th
was that Cinchonidine and Cinchonine are both excellent febrifuges, à UA
former not much less efficient than quinine itself.
4. Having thus established the value =A Cinchonidine and Cinchonine» |
to be settled was how bes :
sts, we
as Government quinologists on the Nilgiri and Sikkim plantations -
respectively. Mr. Broughton (the Nilgiri qiinolariat), as the — of
hi i
a a misapprehension as as to the “proper dose in which it should be 4
me prejudice existed against this drug. In 1875-76, however, E
pounds of it were consumed, and its eonsumption so materially inere
made and sold in London under the name of Pige i but un
Cinchona febrifuge had first been manufactured in Indi sim
preparation existed. It is, therefore, a remedy for which ie world :
large is indebted to India, Cin chona febri used in India
as à substitute for quinine, It.
„been restricted t
e beginning, and until now, its price has unifo
6 rupees 8 annas per pound, an dinit a a bes QUE
contrast to quinine, the pri — vs which. has — neu al
s been in
Xo ad at this yoni rate) o ,704 pounds of
587,6162., ` while this quantity of. febrifuge has. actually
dian consumer for the sum n of e ‘Rs. 14,47,116,
112
The actual saving to India has, therefore, bee very great, and the
eapital €— E the plantations (about l1 lakhs of rupees) has been
covered severa
repon cium of red bark trees in the Sikkim plantation,
ached d M
while he was attached to it, naturally induce Woo give his
t utilization of their bark. But by nom
he quinine barks. these barks only one,— Calisaya and
ts variety Ledg $a eR y thrives in Sikkim, the Crown bark, or
inali having mparative failure.
e many experiments in the manufacture of pure sulphate
ofc quinine ; cis. up to the time of his retirement, for private reasons,
the s Government in 1879, he had not succeeded in
is in dun efüeieuit process. Mr. Wood was of opinion that good
ine barks could be grown in Sikkim, and that it might be possible to
extract the quinine from them on the a Dr.
rintendent of the plantation, was very strongly of this opinion, and
all effect, has, however, been given to it of recent years, and succirubra
pie been supplanted by Calisaya to the extent of about a million trees.
; roce
tried ; ; but, after much experiment,it was in turn abandoned. During a
visit which he paid to Holland in 1884, Dr. King acquired some hints as
toa process of extraction by means of oil. And now, benefiting by the
advice of some chemical friends, Mr. Gammie has been able to perfect
this. dese with the result that the whole of the quinine in yellow bark
i form undistinguishable, either Mo eed or
om the best brands of European manufacture. This can
- ed that, as long as the sare of bark is kept up,
never cost. Government ment much above 25 rupees per pound.
the moment, qu is o
ha Hie: il i in nee gone, that South A:
dri! of the market. EI.
is no
igen os ;
n the
P RE are via. io Dr. "i and is :
Mr. Ma Ee the patie
t
desire to make a profit by ow —
produced in order that private growers of Cinchona may be enabled to —
take full advantage of he per ocess, and that a permanent Bear inthe _
the dorar. and the TA are now
price of quinine may en
Cotman MACAULAY, |
Secretary to the Government of Bengal.
Method of se sp of the Alkaloids from Cinchona Bark by Cold :
Oil as us e Government Cinchona Factory in Sikkim.
n order ar = oil pe speedily and effectually act on the Cinchona
bark, the latter is reduced to a very fine powder by means of Carter’
2. A hundred parts of the finely-powered bark are then set aside 1
Eo mixed with Aper parts of commercial caustic soda, 500 parts of water, and.
= mixture compused of one part of fusel oil to four parts
soda, or caustic soda may be Rr s omitted, and 15 parts of slaked _
lime may be used instead of it. The caustic da is dissolved in the |
water and mixed with the bark. Then the oil is added, and the whole is -
e thoroughly intermixed in an agitating vessel. Should lime be -
it is mixed in fine powder with the dry t bark before : adding the
wate and oil.
3. The agitating vessels in use at Mun ngpoo are barrels. with winge
pete revolving in them vertically, and with taps on the sides
drawing of the fluids. ‘Tho first stern is carried on for four
and then the v i er s * RA " An doa idi
i 18 nvpe mansit vitii it£o > the oil is As
. off in the same way, rashod as before in the Tenis
and they are separated as before from
Jiquor by tration rimo i cloth. The crystalline mass dinis y
filtration is then placed in small lumps on "euh bie koreans paper
E racticall
stretched « p
dried. They are afterwards thoroughly dri ied b oy pale: laid on blotting
lend a room heated to about 10 degrees above the temperature of the
open ai
UE In Cinchona febrifuge is wanted, the alkaloids are exhausted from
_ the oil by muriatic acid, the solution being neutralized and filtered in the
: e
alkaline liquor has drained off, the precipitate is washed with a little
plain water, dried, and powdered. The powder is Cinchona febrifuge
ready for use. . :
March 24, 1888. : J. A. GAMMIE.
. XLVIIL—JOB'S TEARS.
(Coix Lachryma, L. var. stenocarpa.)
The round shining fruits of a grass Ty vet ipn in tropical
countries are familiarly known as Job’s Tears. The fruits when youn
nd. Japan, belongs to thé “tbe Maido of the natural order,
ramineæ. It is a tall growing grass, now commonly found in damp
in tropies of both hemisp n man soanen it is
egarded as a troublesome weed and a source of annoyance, especially
Tice fields. As far as we are aware, the fruit possesses no prod
1e* wild state. The stem is stout,
ect, a . In favourable situations it often
attains a eet. The leaves are broad and.
flattish, about a foot long, with a distinct midrib. The flo wers are
moncecious, male and female in different parts of the same panicl
W es bee simple branches icle break
Spi die so yat when the fruit is ripe, the male spikelets
comnis disappeared.
The globular Job’s Tears as commonly found in the tropics are used
; laces, and in various ways as articles of ornamentation. The
colour is s white, but j^ are cheap s found slightly tinged with
MS.delethth.
Coix Lachryma,Lvar. stenocarpa.
g ce ;
m prettily ornamented with these Barir i involueres, an a a
attracted paki Pa attention. As these were not represented in the
In
w museums, application was made to the India Office for a small —
sample, which, at the request of Lord vides, was e forwarded to
Kew by the Chief Commissioner of Burma. Th nvolueres i in this
sample vary from five to nine lines in jeg à ey are usually more
rless fusiform, tapering at the ends one line in diameter.
The mean thickest part is about 14 line in diameter. For ium
specimens of plant yielding these its, we are indebted to
at M. ;
y : th. In a note attached to L in ie po EI
Plantarum, Vol. VIIL, Professor Oliver states that the Kew Herbarium
OSS , in addition to the packet of involucres from the India Office,
“ a letter from Mr. R. Bruce, of Balipa: e
* ofthe British Museum, saying that the involueres are known to the
* Assamese a ris, and called by them the cowr-monee or crow
n orandum, dated Simla, 22nd "December 1887, .
t. Watts pic that * the grain (of this variety of Job's Tears) is not
Tikely to prove of any great economie value as a source o
i
construction of artificial flowers, laces, bugle trimmings, and other
om sed for which glass beads are being used. If capable of being
Sw a deep black colour, there might be a very extensive
“ since such beads would be infinitely more durable
“ During the Exhibition, several gentleme:
* inquired after see ble for the abo ‘
“ was not able at the time to furnish the es
cal form of Coix now under consideration, but show
ordi P erical form. y seemed to think there was
fi X.
prospect even of the common spherieal form comin "Se,
= 4 objected to its large size. This led the writer to show th
the Karen garments with the cylindrical form
e are enabled, by permission of the Bentham Tien, to Rp a
plate of this variety of Job’s Tears, from. the current issue de the Jc
Plantarun [Vol. VIL, is 3, oe I 764 a
rd E oR RHSEA,
_ (Boehmeria nivea var. tenacissima.)
d The plant t known under the several names of China Grass, Ramie, or
Hiec eem to- » the. natural order, Uréicacee, and hence it is not a
gura ^ but a nettle, somew what resembling in- appearance
Ni ede
146
" The China Grass plant, first e: and long cultivated by the Chinese
Stier the name of Tchou Ma, is the Boehmeria nivea of botanists.
The s c name, nivea, was ive to it on account of the white
ince on the gogig of the leaves.
Boehmeri
as the Green-leaved Gilias Grass, a name which may be conveniently
ined for it.
The fibre yielded by these plants has been long recognised as
` pre-eminent amongst vegetable fibres for strength, fineness, and lustre.
Hence numerous attempts have been made to cultivate them, and to
srep the fibre in 1 u r :
be given to tho
heo climate be deri and stimulating, in order to m a
equent crops of stems. The plants veg be raised from
J ut the more uttings. Th: roots
e eroii the stools become | stron ronger and moré vigorous every
and buc fron these, fresh sets are iiis btained for amie the
Nüierous a tempts have been made during the last 10 years to
exiract the Mira fibre which exists in this plant. The experimental
processes hitherto e nei may be briefly classed as either mechanical
orc mical. In the first, it has been sought to extract the fibre from
e green stems, by means of rapidly revolving beaters attached to a
drum driven : steam power. In some cases, water is used to wash the
fibre while under the beaters. The chief difficulty experienced in this
sen quantity of fibre cleaned per day. This has
É
eost to
. In the chemical processes, the Ramie stems are
or dry. The object sought is to treat the stems either -
ler great pressure with steam or with chemicals, so as to dissolve the
nin which the individual. fibres are immersed. After ter being thus -
ed, the | 8 e
€ and are sent to market in the form of ribbons. The question
diete s here also very important, and it is felt, under present circum-
Mire, ‘that = Grass can only be satisfactorily grown and prepared
there is an abundance of cheap labour.
isa fact universally known, that the fibre of the China Grass is one
he finest and strongest known. If a process could be devised that
ild extract and clean the fibre at a a. eem the results would
i of the greatest possible interest to all our tropical colonies. The
pon cule dei UE TOES made to fw for infor-
that interest par maintained in the China Grass or r Ramie, nes
and under these cirumstances it is felt to be duni. to o plos Du
record the latest facts — have been gleaned Fang the present
position of the industry
ROYAL GARDENS, Kew, to FOREIGN OFFICE.
Sir Royal E seg Kew, April 16, 1888.
AM desired by Mr. Thiselton Dyer to inform you that
siderable interest is being taken in British “Colonies in the culture of
the Ramie plant, known as Rhea and China Grass (Boehmeria nive
2. Hitherto the industry has not assumed large proportions anywhere,
owing to the want of a thoroughly suitable machine to pr puo d the
fibre.
3. In the Foreign Office Report, for the year 1887, on the
of the Barcelona district [No. 275, Annual Series, 1888],
Wooldridge states, that in the provinee of Cataluña, “
* already in v capable of decorticating the [Ramie] fibre
o qum iem
. Mr. Thiselton Dyer is of opinion that it is very desirable to
e. Mr. Wooldridge the names of the makers of the machines which
appear to have successfully solved the problem of pde Ramie
stems. Any particulars he could add as -— ards ce cos of the
machines, the power necessary to drive them, and the out-turn lean
fibre per day, would egy of the greatest Sasis btk to plants
in our tropical countries
ve, &e.,
Sir T. Villiers Lister, K.C.M.G. (Signed) D. Monzis.
Mr. Coxsur Woororwen to dis. POEA or Sarumomr.
Mr Loro Manges
A E the honour to ackno wle
t ve an
of interest to planters i in British tropical uds olon
Although the Ramie plant t has been ultivated 1 e dones years in th
north of Cataluña, i is d ithin t last ears that, through.
the invention of a decorticating dig bya Morse Favier, m" er
|. of the “ Société La Ramie Francaise,” it has as been brought before
publie, M. Favier has a factory, called the “Fabrica :
'Torroella de Montgri, in reps in the a of the
Ler ori tend re his at work. ——
These stalks in a dry
A pre cut and exposed to the ch rays of. the sun.
.. 48 hours, as experiments and praetice show that the
green Ramie is impracti
P eee tt
M. Revie bor been. the first to solve the
to be s
.'* Cent Jas in its number d
“ Although the "use of stares = Meee "M
. . .
aahi extension in its use; h ; ‘avier
co d a machine for the purpose of separating the fibre, a real revolu-
tion has been produced in the industrial world, and the cultivation of
* the Ramie plant has taken voip) aope
An other decorticating machine, similar to the Favier one, has,
wever invented by a Monsieur Billion, of nae i who
i consider it to be superior to the Favier one,
Full descriptions are given of these machines in Professor Obiols’
mphlet (in Spanish), and can be purchased for a few pesetas.
The Billion machine can produce 300 kilogrammes of fibre a day,
| advantage over = Favier one.
machine is not for sale to the public, the “beg
reads, &c., himself, as the ** Société La Ramie Francaise
a Neither, I believe is the Billion machine to be ne uired
or money.
is another machine, known as the “ Agramadera (flax-dresser)
ented by M. —— of Paris. Its size isa cubic metre,
uires half a horse to put it in motion. n, and can be worked
, by a windmill, or Dy Hen It is portable, weighs 350 kilos.,
2t : L) wn to produce 175 kilos.
has been invented in Barcelona by Don Demetrio
for extracting fibre from textile pens and many of his machines
are in use, with su ccess, in Mexico. The inventor is about to introduce
certain modifications i = eg machine, in ardet to adapt it to the decor-
tication of the Ramie
rk s Phe the Favier machine, and the cost per
e.
osi
: Two: men to separate the extremities of the stalks
the stalks.» 1
"a. 15
or abou i pa day aca xr ; and hs ^ 1000 kilos. of oe
alks the proportional out-turn would be as follows a s
2 50 kilos. of extremities, or 5 per cent. of the sold weight,
190 kilos. of fibre, of POR DM of the whole we ce
ilos. of wood.
, kd pellicles n may al te wild.
the working of: 20 of Faviei would require -
rares the open wa p dme pa
Actual cost of stalks of Ramie (in Spin), 100 pesetas per I
and each machine decorticating 216 kilos. per day. i.
Expenses.
Pesetas c.
4, me — of — - - - 432 00
eae - «208 00
psidéobn] Stoeb - - (4.3128 00 —
Total ^ - 662 00
Products.
5 per cent. of extremities - c0 B0
20 per cent. of decorticated vom or it kilos.
of fibre 864 00
57 per cent. of wood = J ai, BL 90 2
10 per cent. of pellicles - < e i RE.
9 per cent. of loss.
. Total - - 953 50
Total jams isa EUN E - 953 50
Total expenses - - - - 662 00
Clear profit - perday 291 50
or 117,150 pesetas per annum of 300 etim of labour, which represent
approximately 48 per cent. of the capita
'The Favier machine has the advantage of extracting the fibre and
making the threads elear of gum, for in the raw Ramie which comes
from China and — there is so much gum that it is most diffi
cleanse. These machines, as I said before, are not yet within the
of agriculturists, pen of M. Favier being used by the i nven
that of “= Billion having ses to dier don Spain
charaeter. These are just now in a depressed state, and hence it is
felt that some effort should be made to encourage the growth of coffee,
cacao, maize, indigo, rice, cotton, ginger, in gira, cocoanuts,
hear ane and any other plants suited = the soil and c
. Captain Moloney, C.M.G., the present Governor of. de Colony of
has given considerable atant d West African produets.
. has been in correspondence with f
erra k tedni is a settlement with a coast line of about 180 miles, and
an area. xe about 3,000 square miles. Agriculture is generally neglected,
the inhabi l> y the ti hich passes
ch "Hie Colony’ BOG the interior. An effort has been made to
1 à botanical station and model farm near Freetown in connexion
with a botanical society, of which the Hon. S. Lewis is secretary. The
finances of the Colony appear not to justify direct action being taken by
the Government, but it is evident that, without official support, the aid
of a skilled gardener, and regular supplies of seeds and plants, the
results attained will not have au appreciable effect upon the welfare of
the eet ent.
— The Gambia is a comparatively small settlement, the total area being
P nes iles. The chie fé pih are unión rice, maize,
: , anc ook -ru c
ountry last year, he prepared a memorandum on the subject for
ap ree: the Secretary of State. This m memorandum :
* Sketch ot the Forestry of Wat Alien, swith Pastioilae: Remet tn ftp
roducts. By Alfred Moloney, eM. ot the Government —
"the ur. of Lagos. Mte Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and ——
151
on ‘that already adopted for the West Indian Colonias, but modified to
suit e special | circumstances of West Africa. pg
MEMORANDUM prepared by Caprain MOoLoNEY on establishing a a
Botanic Station at Lagos.
ohne
A practical agricultural school to be the means of divertin some of th
young edes of the country in the direction of agricultural pursuits, an
so lessen the general teudency of the rising educated youth to be
2 fitsechanits and clerks.’
An established centre for the introduction and subsequent develop-
ment me es elements of economie botany of commercial importa nce.
elsew
A nurser ry vA economic tropical plants of commercial Mime :
that border the net-work of water which permeates the ue and i
pu spem hood.
pots, and pie preparing them for distributi
Gardener and Libor:
He would require under him a gardener at 302. per annum,
labourers at 1s. per diem each. Potting and tool shed would represet
an initial cost of 207. Cost of tools. and incidental expenses n
down at 127. per annum. ded; ot
Again, quarte rs will have to be provi ‘total cost L
be estimated at 3007.
3 Site:
iie mis Foniureos td. be sosiród ute d soil, com ' m
5 from atmosphere impregnated with aae rin dc finir Veit on
Eee rss eges is B eel ee tornadoes |
— tee and accessibility -
Management.
[n an executive sense, for the present, this sitibiisndit should be
deemed to be a oboe of the Public Works Department, and be annually
weed for as su
Sigo Committee.
thy supervision, there
s th
rary Soles of such gentlemen a or
may appoint. E the year, over which he himself ce d reside. The :
chief ome that require attention as regards isi
station a my
y be
ised at the station, while for imports direct; the
cost must be classed ms incidental, and be charged accordingly.
Gratuitous Distribution of Plants.
ere it may be advantageous to the general interest, a gratuitous
distribution may proceed under the authority in writing of the
Cocoa Nut growth i in hands of Government.
opra and coir, the development of the
t m proceeds i in the Colony of Lagos in the hands of the
ment, whose lead has to some extent ping followed by the
; Direction of forts of Superintendent.
In addition to the points mentioned under “ objects” in favour of
the S dent of such an institution as is proposed, the efforts of the
cee should be d to the—
motion of extension of growth of the cocoa nut pal
io: ass of cotton and its todt growth,
ed to aen and improvement therein by
gingen cacao, pepper (red), and coffee. 3
of the rubber, Kaiera acs acl aie ae
Growth pem Judicious. planting" of — — and
Model kitehen garde ning.
end a list, by the Assistant Direstor of i. of plants suitable
ative culture in West Africa.*
Blind adherence to one industry only means commercial ruin, as was
od, to the cost of many, in some of our t- polonies: "a Magmina
"s proved disastrous. - :
e um Publication on of Prose
| i e encouragement saree home proper sense of = —
sibility, dis should ee tendered for pulled te he Govern- 2
Gazette te quarterly, ies the Colonial Sec retary, a brief account of a
done, —QQ bow dune roe — into, and i issues from
station.
+ Not pb.
Apprenticeship of Hofugee Togs:
Further, as to the establishment suggested, I would remark, that i dno
addition to the staff proposed, refugee (ex-slave) boys might be
renticed under Government for such agricultural training as the
station will ee and I hope that, after the UE rem I mean to have
r ra
the irectors o the nc e Hussey pui
established at Tagos, on the advisability of working their boys h
the sapie Lad ork of the station, general benefit in
such direction ate may be deriv:
Industrial Education of Sons of Chiefs.
would venture also to urge upon the Government the desirability of |
utilizing such a centre the re ies education therein of or four
s of i tant chiefs in or outside the y. eir. maintenance
would not cost much, say, 1007. a year, and could form an n addit :
charge to vote * Aborigines." The result of such a potus would prove
of great value to the country
n wing this scheme, conferr
Mr. Morris, the Assistant Director of Kew ens, whose ex
ere must be
matters of detail that will present themselves later, and can,
left with advantage in the hands of the Governor of the Colony. -~
At the request of the Secretary of State, the selection of a suitable
man to take charge of the botanical station. ted to
00 pae.
Caleutta, Ceylon, and Jamaica, was forwarded from
As indicating the nature of the duties in which Mi Mec
gos, the following. extraet rece
Jan
cede &c. Iam glad to inform you. that. tT Tn
i : a ise seeds of Hw No. u Mango an | Black
i | e
ds tur yay th
of a e kind, like
: € Lii well. The T d Annatto,
* Divi-Divi, “Theobroma vs mm de ‘Tam still staying i in the town of
* Lagos, the erae being not yet completed."
a Again, on the 6th March last, Mr. MacNair wrote as follows :— i
.* Ihave been engaged during the last two, months making a road
th As ^
o
ing up a couple of beds otti the e for r flowering and
(€ “í ornamental plants, which will give the vem ane
i e fi
ive men of the prm
i different fruit trees which I have in stock, also a few
uple ^ ME. p "a have got a good. supply of bot
ok pee hand ; dun the d Bulletin, sent me by the Gov
3 ads Downing Pt d May 5, 1688.
AM dir by the: Secretary of State for the Colonies to
you, for your s ijao a copy of a ‘despat tch from i
Mme. the Vid odd des o me. station at. 2
m, ‘ ATUS i:
& Gl RA G. W. HERBERT,
Raya Gardens, 1 Kew. s
—
| Govanson 1 Moroxer to Cortos — |
E TES di WO UE RE 19, 18 i
"NT.
: ber, 1887, H have: ves (age fetis the first reporte on is
station of this Colony, vins for. the quarter ended December 31,
e work done up to. the premi tine — wellfor itsfuture — —
importance as a teaching centre and depót whence we s
cortinas vins ami tiodeiof culture of trees e
165
_ plants, and eventually a’ distribution: eT seeds- and: qnte dor
cultivation among the natives effect
4. The superintendent, Mr. J: Ma Nai is à very good man for the ae
post; a hard bie er, with a ere amine s knowledge of his work, in
which he takes at interé or his selection, as d as for supplies —
f specimen planis a and se Ma the Colony is pire m much indebted to the —
Director and Assistant Director of the Royal s, Kew, to whom I
would ask you to dobe jet enough to supply a copy of the report now ©
transmitted. | ; * : *
ve, &c. ; T
v Signed) ALFRED MOLONEY.
The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford.
Report on the mee Sration, Lacos, for the Quarter ended -
st December 1 1887.
At the end of the first quarter of 1887, the Right Honourable the
Secretary of State for the Colonies was pleased to approve of a scheme
for the establishment, as a branch of the Government at Lagos,
ta ati
T
the local press, and appeared in -— * Lagos Observer" of the 21st o 2
28th January 1888. To make a start and to have a suitable place for-
a nursery by the arrival of the vitpefinaide tt the house and compo ound
t Ebute Metta of Bishop Crowther, a dmirably suited for the pu
were put in order, and rented temporarily by the Government during
September quarter. r. MaeNair, who was selected in Jamaica for the
post of sapehintendane: ^x tel with his family in the Colony on t
8th November 1887, and Pie crm his present quarters at Ebute — :
on the 19th January 1888.
ute Metta, on the mainland, was rat on as the most
site for such an. Terence . The site there chosen offered |
features to be viz. good druiniüpe, being m sippe }
of the Petit 5 which it is approac reached from Lag
quarter OE ur by steam launch, and half an hour by boat
parativel; mei prs "reedom from an atmosphere impregnated
salt, being over three
m leaf entities i at a
114 15s. The work of grubbing, Sending levelling, path-
proceeds irr wire-fencing has been ordered froni Ens
This fence, when erected, is intended to have a height of 5 feet
strands, the s lower being placed close together to prevent
enteri and menti by tee
resist. M ee «of the white ant.
were P a dilapidated condition the latter particularly so. —
welis h ave been dug at a cost of 6l. = re 23 feet deep each,
rood water inches. In time they
Ü employ
o su b-gardeners and 16 laboore uu
It is intended in 1 time to take ina ee number of day scho
) it is to be hoped educational bidis
the Besieebectn
2 been supplied for the use of the
and : apprent
— v ng 30th June 1888, plants will be avaiable for
very low rate, and otherwise ; a list will be
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
JULY. |
No. 19.] «
LI.—BHABUR GRASS.
(Ischemum angustifolium, Hackel.)
S grass, ine ciosely approaches esparto in habit and in tl
echnical qualities necessary for paper mauufacture,
ng in Se orden apron of. the:
8, di iere.
Thi
possession of t
was flrst aht ien notice by Dr. Ki
toyal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, dnt. the yea
po rely distinct p.
confounded with an
ies of E Coporacee e,
t i 5i i h i , 7 " m
eferred to in the Kew Report for 1878, p. 45, a
|. * Eriophorum comosum.—This planti is well known in Nott Ww
In dia, MS under e Mayo of bie te has, i Pros e
ou
i d the following year Mr. Duthie, E ante of the Gowina t
Y Pinisi Gardens, Saharunpur, sent a specimen to Kew for identifi-
. eati Zi :
am C
* have been asked to identify. It isa ipit ‘of the EA Tersi, and
c. It has been sent to m 8 o h occasi
without flowers. It is said to flower only once in three
This r a grass which, under the name of Bunkuss appears, from
nat th
the Bengal Catalogue of Indian products, to pe been show
London nene of 1862 (section 1, pp- 137, 168), as used in
ufui for making ropes.
r. Dnthie's TA, though CM imperfect, were submitted
e late General Munro, C.B., r n the hope e = cane
able Deme of grasses m might e sits him to it
was. e ed in identifying it ith Sbodictogór- utilis
(Trinius in ies etrop. vi, ii, p. ; Spec. Gram., t.
added :—* Tt
in Royle's Illustrations (p.416). It is very common in all
rts of the Lower Him alayas ; and I have seen it from Afghanistan,
riffit
ed iy subsequently informed us that. it was also known under
= Bha ib 88, thatit was used. for the manufaeture of
i & varie ty of other articles of which a E collection
to the Kew Museum in 1880 (see Report,
60). i
re indebted to Sir Dietrich Brandis, K.C.LE., late Inspector-
lof Forests to the Government of India, for pointing out that
riously known as Bhabar, Bhaib, and Bankas were all
i The following nite upon the subject is contained in a
| paper entitled “ b prie regarding Forest Administration in the
"N.W. Provinces and Oudh ” (Calcutta, 1882, pp. 7, 8) :—
“The export of ia: rin known as Bhabar, Bhaib, Bankas
ndropogon involutus, not as has often been erroneou usly stated,
‘omosum), from the Siwalik Hills, em from tr "ees of
erable.
eft for ro making, and it ds by no means impossible -
vedo tor "erg paper-mills in Tome India will ec
the ein ipa of this rass fo manu :
Early i in 1883 the India Office fı ished us with a copy ofa ‘report
p= C. E. Edwards, the mana, of the he Lucknow Paper |
rector ent o rieulture and Commerce of the
obser-
A üt ibe: but this could be obviated by o ‘the top
FOE eere despatching itto the paper mills, and if it could be had at
* the same price with the tops off, I have no hesitation in saying
“ would be a good and cheap enough fibre for paper-makin ng purposes,"
ies King, in his annual report for 1882-3, summed up its Prospects
* utilization of bhabur must remain in abeyance. This is only in
“ with the common experience in the Mofussil, that co mpetition
i
o assist us by making experim on paper
ma isis: Py reported, as the final result of his trials ‘of Bhabur
Fase i—
* I believe it will make a fair sheet of paper, much the same as |
e. Ta in fact, in many respects, as a natural product, it clo
dt roping, ^iilaitin ing, Maskot, t of tapas:
'* collecti ection, carriage to port of iius sud , latterly, siting d chat
a freight to England, &e, i acer from India, with long
“probably costly inland carriage, with hea Bey freight added, it
** come into competition with espero is doubtful, and I do not think it
* would pay to convert it into stock.”
The prospect of utilizing the grass would be no doubt improved
could be cultivated. From the followi wing account vli. 2s
- Boerresen, of Rampore Håt it (printed in the Proce oceedings of the A,
tur Society = India for October, iur it
oc Dabo grass yields two crops i
September, and ihe other at the end of October,
« without = irri as the rainy
e might
3 «(3) I have never attempted to propagate it by sed, but t always by
roots. When a clump or tuft is dug out, it may be divided into as
* many small divisione of roots as one pleases, and these are put down
again in rows about three feet from one another, and the same
.* which it is planted must be kept free from aes grass. When it is
seven oreight years old, the roots should be beaten down with
rooden mallets, or a plougl should be run through thero i
the whole i
It is not cultivated as a source of incom
* or trade, so that I am unable to say where the roots may be bou ght,
* or at what price. We got a small quantity of the roots originally
rea
ot, l SS
stations, where the water oozed up from below and rotted id ser
that it ben not grow there. A sloping site is probably the b
When w started the mission here we had to pa Re 4 a
de hits shes est SOME im order to twist it into rope or
i to pay so much that led me to try and
ours selves. PE pide runs to seed in the hot months, shortly
y seas son, but these must be cut off and removed, or the
ter
esa ae i ety of native names, Bhabur grass has, from the
se ascertaining its affinities, received an almost equal
ones. Under the name of Pollinia eriopoda, it is
in the Journal of the Linnean Society (vol. xx., pp. 409, 410),
red and described in Hoo ka) s dodge Plantarum (tab. 1773)
gustifolium, the
Sea, about 200 :
Coan 1 Islands consist of of the Grand Cayman, Little s Cayman,
yman Di They in the Caribbean
: do included under the Government
ng, and v. readth
ote d
MS
K.
r
X
Ia
eushtitohum
O
haemum an
LSC
1
affic
resent dapes of Gra
is a 000. Little Cayman contains only 35 inhabitants while
the population of Cayman Brac is said to be about 300 whites aad :
30 blae
It isa remarkable characteristic of the inhabitants of these tropical -
islets ‘that they are a temperate, strong, tall, healthy-looking people, -
chiefly vida ^o or coloured. They are doubtless descended from the
original settlers of the last century. The proportion of black people .
i at is Mixer ate iu small. d^
The t Governor of vermemndi Sir Henry Norman, has t
[May 1888] he was mpani nied by } or: William Fawcett, F. L.S
Director of the Hotanicál Department, whose mission was
connected with an investigation into a disease which has existed for
some time amongst the cocoa-nut palms at Grand Cayman.
We understand that Mr. Fawcett is at present engaged in the pre-
paration of an official report of his visit. In the meantime the following
extract from a letter just received from him will afford a first impression
of the vegetable resources of these lonely and little known islands :—
Jamaica, 21st May 1888.
have a returned from a visit with the aoe to the Cayman
cultivation of “ ground provisions ” :
Brac exports a “large number of cocoa-nuts, as much told
to 800,000 annually. The shore is lined with cocoa-nut pah
and there is no disease. A very great number of nuts are, hc
destroyed by rats
Grand Cayman i is surrouuded by coral elis amd th tie, shor
5 what is usual in such places, but at as
ns of an indigenous fl whic
examination. My special work Dede: to i
produets of the islands, I could not dovete i
buk the ip is purplish, not one red. I enclose ‘flowers ae or the
present, e if = like I will send some of the living plants, as well as
dried mens.* From whai I saw of the interior the soil appeared to
fortied: by the disintegration of ose this red clay and the lime-
stone rock being of the same chara is found to such an extent in
maica. Wherever, therefore, it is of any depth it is suitable for
cultivation. Mangoes grow well, but they are said not to be so good
as some of the Jamaica fruit. Oranges, both sweet and bitter, and a
few lemons are produced, and great quantities of limes are exported
jekled. Yams, cocoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, pine Te melons,
sugar canes, bananas, guinea grass all grow well. I took a
ir dert suckers with me, which they were glad to have. The sugar
ced poor, but they said that it was due to long-eontinued
-and that canes grow sometimes from 12 to 15 feet in height,
ogwood, fustic mahogany, and Hard Wood timbers. K alici. would appear
to prove that the island is something more than a mere coral reef, The
. people are excellent shipbuilders, and use their native mahogany and
other hard timbers in the construction of schooners up to 50 tons, but
planking is now at least imported from the States. These hard-
wooded. trees grow on the north side, but as it was doubtful whether I
could go and return in one day, ad to abandon a projected visit. I
was sed ER also, not to see the cultivation there, as I heard that the soil
ined, tl crop was not a RUE iou
ge robably the first ipt to grow coffee in these islands, and
I think that the ere pos piratii? The pis and the coco plum
oo wild, as in
v little Cayir Abergi is mahogany, but no cedar AR Cedrela odorata)
n Ca ayman Brac there is plenty of cedar and scarcely any mahogany,
| Cayman there i is no logwood nor fustic ; at pef I was told so
bita I met with none. On Cayman Brac I found
decry re
s limestone, Podrias into io hows dn Re
best y dieu and ier un Wherever sufficient r
otl ual “g ground provisions,”
man.
sease in the cocos-nbt palms ied ome-
, and spread throughout the whole island,
^s die while they are quite young, and sometimes a crop is produced
From an examination of these flowers at Kew, it appears that the Sekondarya
Thomsoniana, Reich. f., Gard. Chron., 3rd Ser., vol. ii., p. 38 [188 "The |
of Professor Reichehbach's Pags - e erac Me Mari nu m
new species of Dendrophylax, e Jamaica Dendrophylax
) funalis, Grisebaeh. Flor. Brit. W. Datis pP. «m, but "be ‘lower i is ded 2
Tiüch I t
e tree. is ed.
ther to do thing.
ght back small species i in prier (diluted), bu. have not yet examined
them under the microscope. The disease is evidently not caused by an-
after the disease has taken hold of Ne peg and decay has
I did not see à trace of the Jamaica beetle or the scale insect.
W. Fawcert,
LIIL—-VALONIA IN CYPRUS.
'Fhe following correspondence has passed between on establishmen
aa the Crown Agents for the Colonies on the of ;
shipped. to this country by the Government of n ein "s Valonia
Rorar oes Row to Tae Crows AGENTS.
spun Gardens, Kew; :
qms une
Ti e
May 25th, ‘vith enclosures hes with returne d), : and
gun samples of acorn-eups sent from Cyprus as Va onia.
chops tanning material is in large use in this E as
onsists of
acorn-cups of the Vila Oak,
mercial > is. der: ived sneer e ‘exclusively from.
i: Nt. TNR erc
two
WUO suuL
: ‘pole » Bristol, te h
ne tanning poeta and I t if samples -
ed to see if any ——— à
olonial Office, April 20th,
island. It could probably be very easily raised from d and the
. Government of Cyprus could hardly do a wiser thing than to raise and
pest. out year by year a stock of this valuable tree.
3 I am, &c.
à The Crown Agents W. T. THISELTON DYER-
^ or the Colonies.
The peona AGENTS to ROYAL ei Kew.
Downing Street, June 16, 1888.
I HAVE tiechored: to acknowledge tho receipt and to thank you
for your letter of the 4th insta
[n accordance with your urge ion we have sent samples of the
us eer cupa- € to Mr. Evans of Bristol, and I enclose a copy of his
report upon them, which we propose to communicate, with a copy of -
your letter, to the Isiand Governm
I have, &c.
The Dire E. E. BLAKE.
Ro mt pet Kew.
[ Enclosure. }
Mr. Evans to THE Crown AGENTS.
66, Stackpole Road, Bristol,
June 1
ipt of y Be D T. 29 ae. UN ‘he parcel : ^ h
came in due course Yelle, I have carefully
them, and beg to enclose copy of "thé Aw ian by which you
“observe that although m ontain very small gest tanni
be pleased at any time to give information on tan
or aye the same. : et
Yours, &e. d
(Signed) W. N. Evans.
ANALYSIS of Acorn-cups from the IsLAND of Cyprus.
No. 1.— Quercus Pfeffingeri. j
Per cent.
: 'Tannin = 2O 90
Organic acids E - 4°02
D Water - - 12:20
ao Ashes - = Wo DE
Woody fibre - : - 80:24
: "Tan ina - ;
p Organic acids ee ee
CT ME
Ashes x ae Pa 2:30
Woody fibre - é - 79:48
100*00 worthless.
Cape To own, 5th April 1888.
Cónüning what I have to say to experience in the districts of Somer-
set and Graaff-Reinet, there nevertheless exist, in many other r places,
areas over which the prickly pear plant has spread during the ek
50 years so as to become a serious difficulty. The courses of stre
and flats between their eurvatures, have in many cases been aopla
run, and such places are generally abandoned: in despair. Thus
O years. The thicket on the site of the railway station
at , Cookhuis Drift, though ai so large, was even more den ma and
Ido not think the ordinary means at the disposal of any farmer will
be adequate to the extirpation of such concentrated masses of this plant.
own i
rface of a sheep-farm, things are not so hopeless Many
enterprising men have, in the districts named, spent from 1002. ‘to 2007.
ne som to clear their property, ard find advantage in the outlay.
i am informed, are apt to get under the lee of a thicket of Opuntia
in oe hee) weather, and, besides the mischief aecruing (mostly to
from irrepressible nibbling of the needle-armed stem-joints, ud
t to receive in their eyes the spicules knocked off and carried
wind,in which case violent inflammation, suppuration, and en
blindness may result.
y tenacious of life are the stem- p vag oe mere hewing down is
irpati e three stem-joints cut
eminently capable of ‘rooting at any I
can be formed. dt is this tenacity of life that has _
with ve you
rpated every Opustia on their : e
ant have rid macer of the pest by simply throwing it,
on as into the river Viene it Oe cen to “ come down.”
ways of etiatn Tho. 6l ae ebay and
method, to my knowledge, is to uproot and Mod the Opuntia
short lengths, to pile the pieces in iia rectangular ee about
reme , a 5 feet to deu
nd tained “with stones
* is heroic poised is, however, powerless to Ape the —
| ue deori por in texture. I — seen a multitude ;
of little plants, not aspan high, rising Sect almost every square
site of o these piles, whence the stones had been remo
a kraal, bs the wind isper: the fibrous residue
parent plants. This was the increase from the seed in the ri:
pears on the plants when first stacked up a year before. b
without some difficulty that the proprietor was brought to see the
probable future of these little villains, and at my earnest solicitation
ough y f se ar
reus t up € ads of dry kraal-dung to cover them completely, and
acted such a to-da-fé over them, by the k, as
effectually | prevented all possible mischief thereafter.
experience is to stack the Prickly Pear for rotting down at the
when i Qus nof uin iden.
e former occupier of the ‘Prickly Pear centre at Cookhuis Drift, j
NM a man of great en nergy and intelligence, tried to put into practice a —
plan said to be effective in California for extirpation of the plant. This
consisted in feeding the stem-joints or leaves as they are
ttemp speak
perfect appliance thas a small root pulper such as is used for ma:
but enough was accomplished to show that seed a piepen a I
machine and sufficient power, an unlim q of Opuntia mon
be Yd with great cher my and converted imo poke manure, —
lue of Prickly Pear as Fodder for Sheep and Ostriches—I am-
aware iib the plant has been occasionally turned to a hen in seasons.
of drought when food and water were equally scare But it is
essential that the spicules be removed, and this necessity DE
ar saree of Opuntia as a food both tedious and cos i
el
urnip cutter et io cut coarse.
dicis over tio mass made a sapid mess for which the pe
and his progeny fought like-dogs over a bone. I do not think one
the more for this incident, ponen n the "i is
scale but that of an experim
Y eaii a
clever perso , to pay for i its footing and something mor
2 de o height of the mania for ostrich raising, mad a fw
r lied. the place. now taken by Ded gta t
to e: pen prin Eder alae
ore tha
inge, but produced Sarria and other mischief when too freely used.
ing by a process of steaming is worth a tri
ess Opuntia.—And here permit me to speak of the thorn-
ie
-d
1 be spared t
"n Luderitz at Angra Pequina, where it grew akat:
e very communication from Herr Luderitz, scarce six mont
before his untimely decease, informed me that a hungry span of oxen,
foodless and thirsty, had broken into the enclosure where the cuttings
were being grown, and had eaten them up to the last square inch.
My argument, therefore, is very much to this end. If in this Colony
u
places legislative interference and Government expenditure for
its extirpation, what store of food material, good en enough for an occasional
hařd time, might not be encouraged to propagate itself in precisel
were only known and propagated of all men. And fu urther,
ce seems determined to spoil South Africa 2 indulgence
le ankind had the wit o propano the
valuable Spek-boom [ Portulacaria afra, Jacq.) all over
ut and kopjes [hills] which are its natural
habitat, an exceptionally good food, greedily devoured by horned stock
and horses, occurring here and there in the greatest abundance, yet
never artificially propagated. T ean only y fall back or my oft-used o organ
onder, and hope that in future years some Africander will arise to
ike ten. spek-booms grow for on one alivo i ee
E nU. |
. desirable that a careful study be made of t
different countries, and that, if necessary, a complete set of -
be prepared and forwarded to Kew for ultimate determina
might be mentioned that the best method for packing the specimens
the typical stems would be in dry sand, while the prepared and dried
flowers and fruits should be accompanied by careful c and
descriptions. :
SPECIES OF OPUNTIA.
Originally natives of the American Continent, inhabiting hot E zr
ae places, the Prickly Pears were doubtless first introduced to the Atlantic
h
islands, such as the Canaries and M „an
have rapidly spread to the Mediterranean regi
; e Cape, ia i
usu uu xui Ecos are er ene T
Tina, TI^ "0. vu garis, ‘Mill, € aW., n igrica an
O. monacantha, Haw., O. decum ana, es O. Fi cus-indica, Mille
Opuntia (Nopalea) 'ebecinellifera, Mill.
: mri cienfictue al. Ithade i
in all the islands dri previous to the introduction of the i insec P
iet by Webb that the first introduction of the insect.
opposed by the country people on the ground of its rendering
Tuneras or Prickly Pear plants barren and injuring the crops of t
favourite fruit called Figos, iae are even now much use d, both
d dried
puntas sent Haw. [ Bot. Mag., tab. bie) pe a i
stem, gone free from spines ; the flower is ee
purple.
pnta Dillenii, Haw. {cactus Dillon RE in Bat B
— À very spiny plant, with a sulphur-yellow fk
sed generally
- . the rags im nated with d young insect
^. tue O. due op L. _Lowe states t rek u of (
et ame : NN
Opuntia enema cocci dDiferc, em belongs to an m
different section of the genus, and is by some writers removed entirely
; The are tan
ines. viride areole at vue eed ede ng s isto
PRICKLY PEAR IN INDIA.
. From specimens sent to Kew in 1886 by Mr. Joseph Steavenson, the
indefatigable. H Honorary Secretary of the Agri-Hortieultural Society of
, it appears that there are three species of Opuntia, more or less,
n in the C tae dee of ras, These are O. nigricans,
; O. Dillen i ;
ng to mense tracts of country covered with Priekly Pear
plants in India and elsewhere, various attempts have been made either
to eradicate them as recommended by Pro rg MacO wan, or to utilise
2m: in various eir for industrial purpos Inthe way of eradication
ugges e time ago to the Ges bimet of Madras to utilise
the Pr Prickly Pear plants i in that re Re =n oa first place as a shelter
seeds sown broadcast amongst of them. It was ho
d ces 19 June
on in
ichinopoly that à osa M elia 3h Sadirachta) ad tamarin: d
seed sown D rcadéust i in i patehes of Prickly Pear, resulted in the growth
of 364 tamarind and 1,886 margosa seedlings, In South Arcot the plan
able character are plen ntiful, ‘and
Ve the E season, it is possible
It is by no means an economical
than India it ola: dt be
less districts in some parts of
or. mtd the RE i
dry rain
b ‘Pro:
Aecording t o Lowe, as mady noted, tha ddy Diet Mio
Canaries to: rearing the cochineal insect (Coccus Cacti) is
little doubt this i is the principal cochineal plant, but there
Qu
Mountains » the ‘Colora o rec
-stock the pla ;
direction should be undertaken in mprehensive manner, and it is -
sedo that a fresh supply of saith eer be required snow until |
uccessive broods are established on a large scale.
Gere diam. Pears,
> Kew to the Governments of St, Helena and Jamaica with tl
of Erde tiis ese A of fang rea Pears, aad 80 impro!
yk field of fruit
o ar:
é, di Pear, locally called Chambos, and ‘the employment of the fruit
for the manufacture of alcohol.*
e Author states that his experiments, which have extended ovi
of twelve years, afford most satisfaetory results, and he suggests
he cultivation of this plant didi use. ores d in this
ict, ou land hitherto used for vineyards, w may n
d by MN or on land which could not otliérwile be
ly cultivated.”
The Pit matter of the Paper is divided under three headings :—
cultivati an process of fermentation ;
ry and u pies necessary
eated.”
ae countries where the fruit is poded 3 in immense
e might be taken of the circumstance for t
o;
purpos obtained with great difficulty, and at prices which
practically prohibitive.
If alcohol from Prickly Pear is ipsi e of being rectified so as to be
suitable for perfumery purposes a very extensive field of usefulness is
— to it. It might also be utilised for preserving fresh t for
rt purposes, and indeed there are endless ways in which it might b be
rendited capable of assisting the growth of local industries, s
SiLo EXPERIMENTS.
Ten mm
LE
Hooper that mixed with grass this product of i incipient usse ticos of
the pois Pear stems would have no injurious effect on cattle, but on
the contrary, would prove to be a valuable addition to their regular
apena of fodder.
LV.—STAR ANISE.
(Jllicium verum, Hook. f. )
The following interesting. account of the. true Star Anise
been p gaat Jos eph Daltor ; a
" The plant producing the true Star Anise of China is here for
time figured and described. For many years the fruit
was supposed to be that of Z/licium anisatum, Linn. (see Ben
Trimen, Med. PL, Bag i t. 10), the Skimmi of dapes, a
giosum, Sieb. and Zu uce. (Tab. nost. 3965), supposed to
China, but which is identical with Z. — of Lin inneus
reiro. For an account of this pes its y and «
"cg to Baillon’ s learned treati
viii,
Vincent Brooke, Day & Son Imp
i.
u
Hk
E
-
R4
qu
SS
=
=
.
IB
TL Pitch by
del, C
commonly c ompared aniseed, the |
that of fer ied; ŝo that the name given to it
p. 172) in 1675 was Feeniculum sinense. In
employed asa condiment and as a spice, and it still used
spirits in Germany, France (where it "is «e: flavouring : a
"e de Bordeaux) and Italy. In pum according to Hanb
sed only as a substitute for oil of an
ds, on visa, fide K
* stellatum officinarum, quod rig "ips as ocellari e
enenum.” The italics are m
* gastos
Gee is not answerable for the br ae d the
e second objection is, that it would require the
of indir i name for the old and well-known Japanese ee
however, the synonym I. ee of Siebold and Zuccarin
adopted.—J. D. Hooker
ExpistaBion of Plate.
Fig. 1, Flower. Fig. 2, front view of stamen. Fig. 3, back view of
stamen. Fig. 4, the carpels. Fig. 5, side view of single carpel : —all
enlarged. Between Figs. 1 and 4 is represented the mature fruit.
E
x
aes en
"oru
[AH Rights Reserved.
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
No. 20.] AUGUST.
LVI.—COLONIAL FRUIT--(contin ied).
n the Kew Bulletin for the months of November 1887 and Jan
: 1588 a derived from official sources, was supplied,
certain Colonies for the pri
uae 1887 was wholl
er By Li
ealand, Cape Colony, and Ma uritius, - In vet VN Bulletin it
'oposed to continue the publication of such reports, and we now ]
a summary of information relating a the fruit hg ene ons -
. resources of me A est Indian Col E esp
Bai
consulted, wi will aoi K a key 6 to the arrangemen ! ef ihe reports and
- furnish those interested with ihe Beo pus to which the inquiry has
_ been dieses
JAMAICA,
The chief fruit interest in the West Indies is teen with Mes cvs
The exports of fruits from this island are of the annual value of a
quarter of a Ies sterling. The following Kn was prepare ur by
Mr. J. H fore his transfer to the charge of the Botanical
Tidi
na, var
Avocada Pear (Persea gratissima), Bread Fruit’ (Artocarpus. incis isa)
vene d (Achras meget Bilberry (Vaccinium meridionhle), St
berry (Fragaria CE Apple (Chr dal i idi Feet suava
Psidium Guava), Pomme e or (Passiflora laurifolia), Granadilla
Passiflora macrocarpa), Nutmeg (Myristica fragrams), Otaheite
pple (Dugenia meraes Rose Apple (E men Jambos), Otaheite
erimoyer Cft Cherimolia), ae So (Anona
App nona reticulata), Sweet Sop (4n
p (Melicocea bijuga), Tree en (Cyphomandra
Cocoa-nu (Coens nucifera).—This is placed first on the list on
account ofi its being a fruit whieh is likely to become in the future of
rmanent value "^ any other, (1) on account of its (fe
is "sapientum).- —Obtainable herd the en but
iful during August and following months. Supply good,
cultivation might be largely extended. :
trus Aurantuim). —In full season during the closing
Hecate "y hone — of. teno largely a
a iva) .— hw n season dune, duy and Angust in in i i
[ hd vehe costi in fair numbers, | Could a
pio na
i large es if demand arose D
Dis (Citrus eie var. nacida .—In season all the year round. dt *
a ying demand aro supply could in three or four years be made
net ed a, var. Limetta).— Tis. possesses more —
is ades with skin resembling an orange; it is a very fine fruit, - :
is small, but t worthy of extensive cultivation: == =
ango- Hanpifero i ).—Throughout the island t
ow practically unlimited, but were an po^ demand to arise
i uld be planted and the value increased. dn ‘season June, .
^t Citrus Medica). € still all the: year round. Cap: ib]
sing extensively = at lower oe of — ec
Lemon (Citrus Medica, var. ánimo Bap
excellent quality ; could be extensively grown. —
haddock ( tras decumana) — See Lemon. -— seen
Avocado Pear (Persea gratissima).—Supply very Lu In season
from June to September at different dibviitións- Supply could be very
largely extended in a few years. z
Bread Fruit (Artocarpus ?ncisa).— Supply small comparatively, except
a in moist districts; in season during most so of the year. If cooked
= by baking will keep well for two or thre
... Neesberry (Achras Sapota).—One of the iroh delicately Ravoure .
and wholesome fruits grown. Gathered when “fall,” it will stand
transport well. In season June to Novem
ilberry (Vaccinium d —A wild mountain fruit which.
could be readily cultivated; makes a fine coloured natural jelly, a good —
wine, and is excellent for tarts. June and ugust.
Strawbe erry (Fragaria vesca).—A small variety resembling the Alpin:
species. In viene on the mountains at 4,000 feet during nine months
of the year, wi
Star mie (Chrys Cainito) —In season June tos
A fruit difficult to transport.
Gua
vs Eoi Guava). nto a limited. "Wild; no ost f varieties
cultivated though present. J uly
‘or (Passiflora Lurifolia) and Granadilla E macrocarpa) = —
Could b be cultivated in quantities for r export. July, September
Nutmeg amita Lee i —Mentioned here for sake of its peri-
r fi
carp or ow eshy envelope which is succulent and possesses a fine
mild spicy Pati ria an excellent and rare preserve, which only .
waits to become known courage a lar. mand,
o urage a e
Otaheite Apple (Eugenia abiere and Rose Apple (Eugen
Jambos).—Make excellent Jos rom a
: eho
tter
| Cas nt iens Laub dis llent
will no not 2 mper Nuts, when roasted, are a choice dish
pe Ch itis vinifera) —Grown in small quantities in the e oul
Bodo of f Kingston, chiefly the Museat rice but never likely to venere
a reliable crop, all the year round.
Cherimoyer (Anona M ina —A mountain fruit of great deli
. but difficult to transport. July to CEN ber ae
... Sour Sop (Anona muricata), Custard A e (A. reticulata), S
Sop e m emer ei and Gen nip (Melicorca Hing) s ropieal fru
7 pe "orit eid (ey
p E quality, which when pre
‘ he Apricot of Eu
fe upwards a
- A all the year round ; easily cultivated
= fidei to any extent i in two or dre y years.
. , Of the fruits most capable of bein
o an enormous
EN lacing them in suitable wi ts
J .. mentioned could be in |
J demand we
A 58008. We. 16310,
The s siepe necessary to derdop d the | fruit trade are: ;
. Suitable and speedy tr
tain e
3. The institution of a system of brands at port of export so that
frit E a certain brand should be of uniform quality; in a similar
r to the governmental inspection of fish stuffs in the province of
ova ra Sotia, which does not permit an inferior article to be exported.
tter system of packing, methods for which might be introduced
inder Government control for a time to show cultivators that bigher
price would surely acerue from well-packed fruit.
troduce a syndicate for packing, delivery, and sale of fruit
e best markets, instead of trus sting to brokers and
E
i
nts.
tees communication from responsible agents to enable
ce uei produce ‘at ports where there is the best demand
7. And n “Teast; att at easy rates to assist eultivators or an
serena ken ban
o preserved fruits the local methods hitherto = vogue are
i What is required is to institute the mo n English iud
thods, which should be done by someone mean ius with
sive pl quired in a preserved fruit factory. The price
focally preserved fruits is prohibitory to their extensive sale, and as a
the taste of buyers is consulted. An article sditabhe for the
s in 1 their frek state
BAHAMA ISLANDS.
principal a of the Bahamas are Pine Apple, dene dre.
Fruit,* Cocoa-nut, Plantain, Limes, Mango, S: cR :
eium Pumpkin, Alligator or Avocado oe Guava,
id, Lemon, Sour — Seville Orange, Shaddock, Sour S op,Sugar ——
, Ma a; Cu ipumber Rose A Apple le, Bread.
Cash TRAC ne
is obtainable froi the ch part a May to nd ‘of :
Crop amounts to about 6,000,000 fruit. The wholesale local
E 2s. per dozen for the first cuttings, or pick of the fields,
s. 6d. Lise dozen for the second aimes "e 9d. to Is. e :
mon, an nd Sour idi ean
iven. Oniy a Sail doaritity of each is Ee At poer pretont
-are grown chiefl -local consumption. The wholesale
are respectively 9d. to ls. per hundred, 15s. per thousand, and
per thousand ME cultivation of oe Shaddock having materially
=~ eelined within ie ies 15 yeh dep does not no'
more than 4,000 to 5,000 fruit The wholesale price
hundred.
The Banana, Plantain, and Cocoa-nut can be obtained d:ovhghó P the
year. The annual yield of the Banana must be fully 400,000 iM:
by far the greater p of d Kec Puts The gos
Wholesale E from ls. to 2s. Gd. per
The Plantain is extensively grown, det being an important article of
food, reece he entire crop is consumed in the Colony. The annual
yield is nearly equal to that of the Banana, The Lone available
for expor rdiet is much less, and does not exceed at
more than 300 to 400 bunches. Wholesale price is from pw 6d. to 4s.
neh,
The Cocoa-nut is also extensively consumed at home. ‘The al
crop is about 1,000,000 nuts, of which from 8,000 to 10,000 can
thor p any month for export. Wholesale price 4/. per thousand B
both for home consumption and for export. The-q
exported is about 2,000 bushels. Wholesale price averages 4s. ‘per
bushel.
The Mango is in season from d to August. No reliable estimiite
of the extent of the crop can be given. It is never less, however, than
1,000,000 fruit, nearly all of xd. are locally consumed: Owi wing to
the ra apid ripening and decay of this fruit after being plucked, it is-
ae impossible to export it with any prospect of success. It
not stand a sea-voyage of over a few days’ duration. m
is habetis exceedingly small, and is almost entirely confi
near port of Key W
"The above quite dis apply to the XUocado feri the —
Sour ya and the Sugar A
Wholesale icd 4s. to 65. per E us Er
The Sapodilla, first crop, is in season in February and TOME e
the second crop i n August and Septem mber. 'The tree grows wi
cultivation and in the e annual yield i isim
being several ilios only : a propor tion of del is utilised,
x price 9d. per hundred.
e Sug E ei is not avitubla for pecu = the Sour Sap
Limited quantity only (not over 1,000). sale ]
latter is about hu
-The Wate
n
-Th r Melon is obtainable in quantity for export from
Bápteber Pp crop is about 10,000 only, abow
is exported. Wholesale price averages 14. 5s. per hund
died Sega can be obtained throughout the year, but p
-during the summer and autumn months. Annual yield about
as that of the e Water Melon. Wholesale price also about the
à Guava s e
almost ent tirely used fn the f preserves. ‘Thi
foreign trade in the raw I ; Wholesale price a about 2s. p bushe!
n the list of important fruits only to show that they can -
e cultivated in the Colony, and that diy only require the _ :
nip ' markets for their t- peottablo sale to make them become s
article es of export. A
Banus Fnurs Nue ina dures wt in 1886.
Nido. Destination. . Quantity. Value.
os . - | United States - - | 888,800 doz. > | 34,185
`- = | United Kingdom - | 18,865 , - 2,810
es- — -| United States - - = | 3,198,196 -| 4,031
Ee - ette - | 10,930 bunches 434
- - yo eee - | 67,696 - 7 80
- - | United Kingdom - | 34,760 - - 60
- - | United States - - | 30,533 - - 115
= - - - | 76 bunches - 4
: ,600 E 62
- | 64,000 - = 41
i 1,600 87
- | 8,329 crates - 34
544 - 34
-|4,35 - - 33
- | 7,900 - s 10
=| 4 DDIS. - - 1
-|4850 - » DI.
-| 2,700 - z tu
-|218 - - 23
800 - E 6
=F BO . - 1
Banawas Frutrs exported in a Preserved STATE in 1886.
Name. Destination. Quantity. Value.
ws e oia States - - | 93,686 c cases - | 35,534.
p 50.
Unika
- ed iie so gue ae
a site E x .30
(90. - 25
e exce pon of the Pine PUE a of te fruite mentioned om
R g produced ia gon. larger. duin
> tnd died fo ts cultivation is now -
not d all probable, erdum, that. the pro-
2 con y of th Bahama Telands to the United States
j that cote almost m onopolises the trade in both fresh
ed fruits, mother country is too far away to admit of
e fruit | E TN? with it. The
w
t tates, therefore, these islands — princi- :
pally to look for any further development of their fruit midan
The steps necessary to secure this object are:
(1.) The reis of dior ghee communication. Doiii Florida
and Southern p^ ifornia, these islands have to compete with Cuba,
J f and oth i í
the Colony. po mee a decided advantage over its West Indian com-
petitors in the fact that it is nearer to t "This
advantage, howe vel is entirely lost s
the facilities which its competitors en
: < ihe feuis
Colony, while on the other. hand the consignees at rts of deli
should also be posted as to the aitain and extent of the cargoes whi
t bein i
has to - — handled and sold after reaching eds destin
by cable. Unfortunately this course cannot be taken in the mas,
and the dealers in the Colony ré handicapped, and labour under a great
disadvantage
(2.) Increased steam Me for hbipping the fruit. :
During the summer and autumn, when the principal fruits
season, a steamer of one line makes a trip [ :
i
ment go, and only after the esta
factories i in amie islands. "The effect of t
184 a
have apui operations, and those in existence are not doing a very
large: C TA of the duties referred to would etel
. prove a great help to the fruit trade of these islands.
em (4. ) Increased deman
tropical fruits imported into the United St ri un
o
hods of cultivation, so as to increase the yiel
a well-known fact that or fiic
laces
t ran
years wei has been a marked deterioration in the size and flavour of
the Bahama Pine Apple, owing, it is supposed, to the fact that all of the
d has alr
y been eultiva ere can be no doubt that the
fruit can be improved by higher cultivation. Man fertilizers
hould b enerally and fr d. The fields and orcha
uld be kept ir as of weeds. The Orange and other fruit trees should .
| regularly and ully pruned and scra These important.
matters are ee neglected in the Bahamas, and the result is that
d plants ar are usually in a weak and sickly condition. They
the necessary vitality to withstand long periods of
roug easily become the prey of the scale and other insects.
The exportation of all fertilizers from the Colony ought to be prohibited,
r every ounce of them which nature has bestowed "den us 1s required
and ought to be generally used cn our own purpos
(6.) The exercise of more care in the packing of. the fruit and in its
sorting and grading, the latter Seius attended to
As regards suggestions for the improvement of the fruit industry in
Bah it might be !omentiones that the cuttings from the Pine
rved at the Pine Apple Factories could be
| delicately flavoured syrup. Valuabie
m the leaf or stalk of the Pine Apple pl plant,
and also from the Banana and Plantain ken Pe va nut.
Perfumery could be extracted from Orange and losons
Guavas T be more ii utilized in the oe of els an
ther preserves.
=. Baxuinos.
The chief frnits grown in Barbados are Bananas, ras ies; Shaddoc! €
‘ama Star Apples, Golden Apples; Avocado Pears,
Cashews, Sapodillas, dm Apples, Chili Plums,
fandi Mainmee Apples, and Pa
- (a.) What
er to Mareh. Sees The sur fruit available for UON are
little fruit there is is. chiefly obtainable from Septem- m
Tamarinds. :
Re E
1881 2 - - 5e ep 2: DOT AG:
1882 : : : =. 41,192 7
1883
s 1885 2407 7
(c.) All of the aa was shi ee to PE Paün wich the exception
of small quantities sent to British North America in 1882, 1884,
e 1885, the value of pis ch amounted in the aggregate to one hundred and
ae forty- ane pounds te shillings.
- All the fruits esochianse above are capable of being produ
in much bier quantities than at present, but land is eonsidered to be
by most landowners far too. valuable for vis a purpose as- eem g
fruit.
5. (a.) The oor fruits are imported in a fresh state, ei
from vd atria States of America, viz.: Apples, — i
(5.) I preserved state : yide Pears, Vota n lums, Apr
aeea aspberries, Gooseberries, and
d (c.) There is no way at pesce by which the quanti and
value can be ascertained.
G. As there is no prospect of Barbados ever becoming a fruit-pro
ducing scaatey to any extent there is hardly need for further remarks,
; y, fairly ‘a P dm
Ln and Pine v Apis to men same pae. one Los
re shipped in very pane short time Bananas:
pons demand for $1 Then, but the att bes glee fallen d
h. Our other neighbours grow all the fruits that we do and cy
their own wants. There is consequently no demand for our fruits, =e
otive for growing more than we need for our own immedia
There can scarcely be said to be any ek trade in preserves beyond
es of succades for presents.
ractically there are ae imports of fruits, except a few barrels of
end in the fall of the year. But jams and jellies, candied fruit,
Raisins, Figs, &c., in England and France, are pretty dexgely
seasons for ens vary neni sok and the months named in-
pan: ables are year. I have
that some fidit can be
n St. Lucia than in the neighbouring islands but Ta in
ears m
le
en the fruits begin T be abundant. Smaller
juantities are procur rable before and afterwar
The prio es of preserv s piedi are such as would be taken if large
ad to be executed and nd aTa fall lower if competition
rise. At present what are set down at 8d. a lb. are actually
í m yen a e 1s. 3d. i. s e 1s. 6d.
I make no ttempt to indieate the quantities ne AED I do not
te would he even approximately corr
»
ind Sr. Lucia Fnurrs.
: Seasons, Values, Quantities.
- | June - - | 4s. per 100 - - | Moderate.
- | All the year - A 3d. k bunch - | Large.
- | July - - 100 lbs. - - | Small.
-|May,&e. - -| Bs, s. pi - | Large.
+ | All the year = | 7s. 100 Moderate.
aaa is iei 3001. to 007, a year,
- Lust of Sr. Lvcra
‘Local Names. — | Seasons. c Wale
Bread Fruit POM - | June - 2 | Bd. per b: - J-
ait ie = te - - 1s. 3d. d Ib. el Qu
-|May,&e. - - » = | Large.
Chery oo - | June 3 - | 15. 8d. n Go XD mean
€ -- | June e EIS Id xg -= | Large.
Cocos nuts - -| All ie year - | 8d. »* ae
Figs - = cs Jum - - Y - | Small,
- FM ISBN 25 a
Golden Appie -|3 eviit to Maroh BE A - 5
Gooseberry (2) ^ - | June = | Large. -
Granadila - All the Eng sj lI&tdÓ. - | Small.
Guava E - | July wo cr LBRS o sj - | Large.
Limes - - | June Ceo A 18. Qd gy - | Small.
Mammee Sopote — -| May, &e. - TIG — eS -| Large
uttoy (pup) . -| August. - sles Id Gy =
Orange = - | November—March - | 8d. jo c.
Papaw wa } All the year -... --| 8d. $ -
Pine App! June - - | 8d. 5 as
Plamrose € Chit) @) June = - | 8d. 5 -
Shaddoc December - - | 8d. » - »
ore - -- | December - ~ | 8d. 1:9 Mae lie ad e
Tamarind . - .O|January—June | .-]| 18d. , © - Large.
"Tomato - - | May, &c. - =| 19.60. . 3; - | Small.
mn 2 ccn disti —
(3.) Eugenia Jambos.
(4.) Hibiscus Sabdariffa.
quantities are the Bana — in several ariei, he: Mange
|. varieties, a Pine Apple, the Guava, the. a w Avocado |
the Mamm mie rats opia Plums (Spor
s purpurea),
the Java Plum (Eugenia Jambolana), the Go os. Apple (Spondias
dulcis), A ‘Sugat Apple (Anona EPUM the Sa UE Aver
apota). "There are several other sorts of less importano as
A Papaw, Granadilla, Bread ‘Nut, and dis. Pomm
0$).
Y. e Banana is. MEC roeit us year Mangoes D
Quia, Pine. due uay:
Il the e present pr
Matta: "The vary piem pre t
or otherwise of tie Tu but. erre e no true wholesale
(except i of Mangoes, h are. bought in quanti
kt Rome e fruit is El rong in from the coun:
f Producers; Oran retailed wh
ny; iden d
e pine
e prices of ti f these ruits are bout half of the above when purchased
from the gro
There are to means of ring s ‘at the value of the fresh fruit exported
from this Colony, as no separate account is kept of them at the: d
ty being paid pin eek But Mangoes, Ban
small quantities to- the nek gh boating
ies of os and Trinidad. Other fruits are occasionally sent
these places, but in no appreciable quantities. A blight some years
back seized upon and killed nearly all our Oranges and ‘Cocoa-nuts, and
s only of 35 that Oranges have ai sprung is Pre d fruits are
exported, and the value of confectionery is alm
great room for the extension of the PES of all kinds
own er dt local wants extend as opportunity for gratifi-
ort is in its. infancy. The nearest possible market
ed from Jamaica, and the other larger Colonies, who have already
direct, ns and regular commünieation with New York and other
i Trinidad is s already starting the cultivation of the Banana for the
American market ; and could our people be induced to see that money
o pints. crock wi >in a
g Colonies for our sappy.
of nuts, which are imported dry. A small quantity «d may and pre-
served fruit is procured from England, these are Raisins, Currants,
— &e., - nta total value is insignificant. There a re no other
garding the fruits of this Colony other than
kere lands.
GRENADA. |
rmation respecting the fruits of Grenada has been prepar — bf
R. Elliott, Curator of the recently-established Botanic Gardens.
principal fruits grown at present M Gradi we —
Grenapa Fruits, ——
Name of principal Fruits. When in Season. Local Prices.
ges - - - | December to wks ma ~ bis ls. per 109.
Pine Apple - - | February to Apr mae en.
ango - - - to - ed ~ ls. per 100.
Sapodill - - | December to April z- | Ts: per. 100. —
- - | Whole y - 6d. to 1s. per bunch.
Plantains - - - | Whole year - - | 6d. to 1s. per bunch.
Limes - - - | October to December ~ - | 3d. per 100.
Guava - - - berto December ~ - . per 100.
Avocado Pear - - | July to September - - | 1s. to Is. 6d. per 100.
st have been given. ere are numer other fruits
adapted for export fo. the neighbouring islands, the following veing
among the mos spe AE F rtocarpus t
Sweet Sop (A odes ), Suge ple AT
: Cashew (Anacardium occidentale), Water Lemon (Pas.
: folia), Rose Apple (Lug ambos), Granadilla ( Passiflora quad
= MRE anu Star Apple (eem Cainito). |
It is almost i - to judge of the amount of fruit avai ‘lable
o
There are at nt enormous quantities = fruits allowed to-
rot owing to there not beig sufficient-demand for t :
The whole of the fruits mentioned above, cime Oranges, Pine-
apples, Mangoes, and Sapodillas, are capable e of being produced i in much
larger quantities "than at present. ‘To develop a fruit trade in Grenada
we s re a market for our fruit, ar /
r
properly dece c.
establi.
shed by any entèrprisi rising local finis;
Ju
h th lucements local men w sat pay s
eu ——— n abundant £ Mir ot felt oE
all the yeai Su. Pamphlets could.also be distributed. throught
country bivisg hints as to the best modes of cultivation, &e.
The importation of fruit into this Colony is‘confined almost entire
erystallized fruits and English fruits in syrups ; oe ecasionally a
Apples find their way here from mee but-the pem is very
ranges, and
— latter varieties `
quality, and the tw
EE. English: market. | i
col would — to PES attention. to the
“the country sete t E mo are hun of
unsuited to ies trait — be mA ibur
profitably.
: s following is a list of e chief. frufis g grown in Taago i . the
— of their — or extent :—
- Cocos nucifera
= - Citrus Medica, var, acida,
= - Mangifer
- - Tamarindus indica,
G - «= Psidiu tuava
"Pine Apple tw - Ananas sativa.
ananas - - — ~ Musa sapientum.
> - Achras Sapota.
Orange, Sweet - - Citrus = ee
Shaddock ec o Citrus
lO - Citrus Medica, v var. Limonum.
E - Citrus Aurantium.
Di - - Citrus p ica.
Forbidden Fruit - - Citrus téboninind, var.
Grape Fruit - E
. Sugar Apple - «^ Anona squamosa:
rcs Apple - ` + Anona reticulata, `
3 ur Sop - = Anona muricata. -
aie Tlum eto ve n jas purpurea.
Hog Plum - =- Spondias lutea.
~ or Spondi
" 2 t
atas Sp. ~; :
SACIBOERU hua oliviforme.
Persea Gt wh oL uL MM 13 a
1 at T
Chrysophyllum Cainito.
Lucuma mammosa
Anacardium occidentale.
Punica Granatum.
Terminalia Catappa,
assiflora macrocarpa,
et gei lauri folia.
elicocca biju
L]
i
Lycopersicum esculentum.
Vitis vinifera.
Coe
ix un [E
4 Blighta rapidi: o MIT
- = Mene vulgaris. aed
me “extent ; zur the low price in home Ee Tocs wot
if pital in that direction, Mangoes are sent
the season to Barbad they meet with ready i 4
es vi nd readily, and a — have been sent hom
: in mice small. RD every
the island, and some have been
= 1 the principal fruit ‘as Mangos
; from the tienes: at
“would be necessary, to afford | ofthe
carrying steamers, thus permitting the picking to be delayed to
latest eta moment, so that the fruit might be shipped in the freshe
con
anb fruits imported are vie es tinned and English bottled tart
fy a and these only in Small q anti ities.
much of it is now in the market. Ca ital is -eN A company fi
with the view of fruit growing and tinning would be sure e of succéss
The above Report was prepared by a Committee e the T
cultural aid sia sta, of Messrs, John McKillop, Edward
: er and D. McGillivray. :
es In a despatch pii the Administrator of Tobago to the Govern rnor-in-
; Chief of the Windward laid, dated 26th September 1887, it is stated -
that “ Tobago ean produce fruit as fine as any other island, but its
“always been a bar to its advancement. Fruit for New York from
** Tobago would have to compete. Against fruit piod some M
** Jater in the more northern islands." ;
9 quis falling piteni süspocillig tha froite GF TIME We
‘piled last year by Mr. J. Y AR ‘Redhead, oe Superintendent.
; Hots c Gardens :— re pes
Ment. bea] Names, id | e they | Wholesale Prices Locally
| October to January -
regards the steps necessary to start and deve fruit trade in
nidad, the most important is good communication’ "with European and
nerican markets by means of vessels fitted y for carrying fruit.
Iuformation is necessary as rds the prices ‘which fruits are likely to
realise in foreign markets, and as regards the best manner of packing
, the seasons at which they would command the highest prices, and
quantities likely to be required at each shipment.
- Since the above information was recei ived, Mr. Hart has prepared a
pamphlet on * The Banana Trade” at Trinidad, in which he has fully
discussed the po necessary to establish a fruit industry in the island.
Er British GUIANA.
oe “The f ollowing report on the fruit Baten uus is resources o
British Guiana has been prepared by S. Jenn Government
Botanist and Sirperintentdetit of the Botanical Gardens at t eur getown :—
PREFATORY REMARKS.
The export of fruit from the Colony is so small that it is only worth
considering as evidence that on a much larger scale a profitable export
were
that fruit is only grown to meet the local demand, and the extent
demand is i ~ well known to growers. that. only under t eom el
tanees at
ly favourably the , production of certain fruits, is an
and. I wil review each of voe; trate
be said generally here that were there
er
is comm u doh etown as, E Pane Gero ae
are in their season, if indeed it is not more "umnilnt
fe neers p k
as to i die quantity actually imported. Of such importation
record is kept at the Custo! stoms, all being there included unde
upply ht
ouring circumstances, for ching Hees for
ble portion of the fruit brought from the country -
market fc —— is s taken us Vers peer in the
Common Name,
> Scientific Name.
- Principal Season. ;
‘Amount orate for Export,
Wholesale Price.*
Retail Price,”
Pasa
Granadilla
: Scimitoo -
z Sour Sop eo x
2 Avocado e =
| Bell Apple - =
cantes sapientum
» »
< à ifera indica
et] Mi Guava
‘Citrus Visas un
yis Leder <
Chrysophyllum Cainito
Sapota Achras -
i PEU quadrangu-
bd
urifolia -
Anona Eo
Persea gr atissima
Passiflo ora maliform -
8 | Anacar rdium oeit |
-| Anona reticulate
3 ondias dulcis
acourtia Tomentclà
)0
E m to December -
| January to I December -
November to ary
June to October
August to December -
January | to December
March to August -
October to Dece
May to December.
ner -
July to September m
January to December -
January to December -
July to December
J ny to ee
Small quantity
Small quantity
Varies with Season
Small quantity
Hardly any at present -
Considera
pine a i present. .
cat - E
None -
Hardly any
None -
None -
Hardly any
Hardly any
Hardly any
day any o «5 ee
one
Non
Small quantity
small quantity
Small quantity
Hardly any |.
Hardly ai
Not worth exporting - -
24 cents to 72 cents per
unch.
10 cents to 20 cents per
unch.
Varies with the crop
12 cents to 24 cents per
ushel.
45 cents to 90 cents per
eh
Oto $15 per manan
c ach -
s to 16 cents per
quie
2 cents to 4 cents each =
a à per bushel
ents to 24 cents per
24 Penta to48 cents perdoz.|
s per
12 cents to 24 cent
bushel.
12 to 24 for 2 cents.
4for8cents . -
| 6 to for 8 baa
ots
2 to ^ dor. for 2 cents
Not
32 sens $ to 84 cents
per
16. cents to 24 cents.
T
Varies with the crop.
2 cents for 6 to 24.
50 cents to §100 per 100. ;
2 cents to 3 cents each. | -
6 cents to 36 cents teh. :
1 cent each. LE
2 cents each.
4 cents to 8 uk
L cent for 6 to 12.
2 cent to 4 cents each.
4 cents to 8 cents each,
4 to 8 for 2 cents,
: " 12 for 2 cents,
o 3 for 8¢ cents
4 to e 8 cents.
No i
2 dosen for 2 cents.
Not sold. i
ET to 2 for 2 cents.
2 for
1 m 2 for 8 cents.
portation of fruit is coined alic entirely
‘Other F js exported are of trifling quantity and average in value
le over a huudred dollars a year.
ep Rem Fruit exported the average value is not much over a
thousand dolla
ing to iud Fresh vet T have said there is no separate
| kept of. this at the Custo From inquiries I have made of
erchants in the trade it seems to y about equal the value of the e ii
"uit. - It does not exceed from four thousand to five thousand dollar 8
| Presero ed Fruit imported Mas Ses in annual value between
nd and seven a a
*
ulti-
the produce. Shippers are :
e cultivators being, as a r
ing ies, livir om hand to mouth, they cannot
shipping themselves. I have suggested that a company
ld i be formed to undertake the Uses or that Government should
few years to vessels rrying fruit. If it were
y taken up. and judiciously man managed, E believe a very important
be established from the for which none of the
tes is in. possession. of better tncilities.
emarks on the Principal Fruits of Colony.
These being the a article of food o
, their produetion come = ext to sugar (though race
ation) as one of the staple industries of the Colonies. They are
red green before maturity, and used as a vegetable, boiled or
roasted. Cut when full grown, but while still green, they are used by
'olonists roasted in ashes. At this period they have a soft mellow,
d > ice, ept for a Migs or
n and turn yell
is hardly
r of bunches annually
m ent three hun dred
Um
but in quality is s not so good as several of the taller growing kinds, —
am quite unable to estimate the quantity or value ‘i that locally Ue
sumed. That exported I estimate at from 10,000 tc 12,000 bunches a
year, and in value from $2,009 to a 500. For full "ufofratión on the
subject of this fruit as an article of export see the paper attached
seein * Regarding an Export Fruit Trade.
ngoes.—There is no cultivation in the proper sense of the term of
this fruit From its first introduction to the Colony it was planted on
sustain idleness among the labouring classes; and partly as a conse--
quence of this “fruit walks," as the avenues of fruit trees on the dams
on
and then only in an exceptionally dry s is tendency is
characteristic of the Mango in all countries to m ch my experience has `
extended. The kinds grown here are generally poor, and there is no
remedy this by pr opagating only good and first-class kinds by grafting
(in-arching) and offering them for public sale at a cost to cover expenses.
i t
such times it has hardly any value in country districts where trees are
plentiful, and after transport to town, is sold at from one dozen to two
dozen for a penny. In less fav vourable seasons it sells at twice to four
times this rate. None is e ted, First-class fruit wen be worth
exporting, but a r efviperatoe: osi be required for its safe conveyance.
No attempt, however, should be made to export the ruit now available,
as its quality is so poor it would only pejus the market. The
difference between poor and good Mangoes is as great as that between A
crab-apples and the choicest cultivated kinds of that frui it
e
sete to an indefinite extent. There is no export, and small quantities
re sometimes imported from the West Indies.
an se ar
conditions here are liege and the cultivation might be multiplied
indefinitely. Two or three varieties are grown, one or two of which a
It.
les—The land of the coast deem. a stiff clay, is not suitable
for the best growth of this plant. Still a good many fruit are
on the dams of sugar estates and elsewhere. Some of the best of the
^k
first-class fruit among them. The Botanic Gardens are endeavouring to--
A plentifully indigenous, e
: = on. There the In Posi grow this fruit more or less.
entifully i in their provision. fields, The area of land, within reasonable
of he ports of shipment, - ve xr edd adapted for the.
of this fruit is ve ry large. None
15. ese a Em in ota and other places, and
ently are not mueh cultivated. The greater part of the fruit
* È .
There are three or four varieties, all of whic a
reely on both the coast and pe lands, and might
d indefinitely. -
1o Pear.—This tree does not thrive so well here as in the W
In the principal season there is a small importati
the West dae Islands. It thri ves better in the more e humid asc
» other fruits enumerated in the opening table are not of a quality
in sufficient = to call for detailed remarks.
[ All Rights Reserved.]
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
No. 21.] SEPTEMBER. 1888.
LVII.—COLONIAL FRUIT (continued).
Dominica.
The following interesting and valuable Report on the fruits
Dominica has been prepared by Dr. H. A. Alford Nicholls, F.L.S.,
. Government Medical Officer, a a valued correspondent of Kew :—
From the time of zs settlement Dominica has been justly celebrated
for its fruit. O e British Puessnópe in the Lesser Antilles it is
now regarded as having the best promise of the development of a large
and remunerative fruit trade, not only with the United States and
e
and Canada, and it is also the nearest of the West Indian fruit
‘ LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE,
BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, East Havne STREET, 1 FLEET STREET, E.C. and
DON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.; or
ADAM AND RAE BLACK, 6, nc reenter EDINBURGH; or
HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, G N STREET, DUBLIN.
1888.
Price Twopence,
198
islands to Great Britain. This is an important fact in regard to
the future of the fruit trade between Great Britain and North
fruit even a few hours curtailmen n Ocean vo eans some-
times all the ime between profit and loss, Possessing a fertile
soil, unsurpassed in any other part of the world, an abundant rainfall,
and a wide diversity of climate, owing to the mountainous nature of the
country, the capabilities of Dominiea for the culture of tropical and
sub-tropical fruits can scarcely be over-estim ere can, there-
ore, be no doubt that when the ral advantages of the island
form farms for the "Pim of the various fruits and vegetables that
can be exported at a
The earliest recorded. instance of a trade in Dominica fruits is found
* scenting blossoms, and the fruit of both is in great abundance,
t
even now, for quantities of the island fruit are exported not only to
England and America but also to many of the neighbouring islands.
It was not, however, until recent years that fruit became a regular article
of export from the Colony, for the — prosecution of such an
is style the
industry requires experience in what is de andling” of the
fruit, experience also in the various ees of mola, and a knowledge
of the requirements of the markets abroad times American
schooners used to come to Roseau, the chief port of Dominica, for
pay; a
knocked off the trees, and the bruised fruit was shipped roughly i in bulk
in the hold of the vessel, with _the result that most of it became r rotten
po s
1151., the value of the Lime juice exported that year. With the exception
of 1,019,800 Oranges shipped to the United States, and valued at 489/.,
there are no details given of the kinds of fruit exported; and as no
| wer to. i fterwards, it
must be assumed that the venture was iol a paying one. About 14
bra ago, with a view of demonstrating the capabilities of the island
or a pie t pen I made a few trial shipments of Oranges and Shad-
eeling and Hunt, of Monument Yard, London.
Notwithstanding ‘the long voyage by the Royal Mail steamers, longer
n point of time than it is now, and the transhipments at Barbados and
t. Thomas, the fruit, which was carefully selected and packed, arrived
in London in Vr: condition, and fetched the highest price in the
where it was then somewhat scarce, and as a consequence the
— of the l a eel a large profit on the outlay. I showed
of our local merchants the account sales, but nothing was done
to beate oad trade, and things went on in their usual style, for
Oranges appear in the official lists of exports for the years 1876 and
1877, and they that disappear again, as might be expected, for the
ipments could not possibly have paid owing to the rough handling of
the fruit. Probably there would have been no considerable fruit trade
H
J
E
:
199
in Dominiea now but for the enterprise of some Americans who
to the island in the proper season, bought up Oranges and other kinds
of fruit, and shipped them to the New York market. These Americans
went the right way to work. They refused to purchase Orang es that
did not have the stalks attached and properly cut, and in this var they
ensured, to a great extent, the proper hand-picking of the fruit. They
rejected. with ridieule all bruised fruit, and what they bought they
packed carefully in suitable boxes, each Orange having been exami
for bruises, and if found sound wrapped in paper specially imported for
the purpose. The result wasa revolution in the desultory and insignificant
fruit trade of the island. The Americans came back year year,
thereby showing the people that the trade was successful, and then local
men began to take up the matter, with the result that at the present time
the Americans have to compete with resident shippers.
With the exception of the Limes, which are Le hie grown in the
island for the sake of their juice, and the Ban which are cultivated
by the peasan s the greater part of the fruit shipped fro i dd island is
athered from trees that have grown up, in most cases mirese in
gardens, in corners of estates, and the roadside. Considering
that the exports of fruit, excluding Lime juice and othe tp
ood deal 1 r, or about one forty-
eighth of the total value of the exports of the isla f a
ery striking, and they are pregnant with preier for -= future of the
trade e planters an nt w turni
te nd proprietors ar ng
their attention to the systematic cultivation of Cea, Shaddocks, and
other fruit trees on a small scale, but the only estates in the island
devoted entirely to fruit culture are those belonging to the Lime
planters, who do vire liga ship the fruit in its natural condition in
tity.
rta
export from the island, and any account of the fruit trade would be
incomplete without some details of the industry, which was started in
Dominica years ago by the late Dr. Imray, to whom the island owes, on that
account alone, an everlasting debt of gratitude. The Lime, which is the
fruit of a tree closely allied to the Orange and Lemon, » done much to
help to revive the prosperity of Dominica; and, as the industry is con-
stantly growing, it gives promise of great things i in the future, In addition
to the juice of the fruit, a very fragrant essential oil, calied commercially
o es
is increasing, d the of article are rdingly running up
in val Lie i juice, E cd die ce has been exported by one
of the pl e: duri t e principal kind is that
an
obtained from the Pine bid Ti is shipped principally to the United
States, and it is used for flavouring pur
In order to give a correct idea of the fa industry in Dominica, I
have made a careful examination of the Blue Books kept at Governm ent
Office, but as the volume for 1880 is lost, and as no other copy n
in the island, I have been unable to go back for more than se
consecutive years,
A 55172. 375.—9/88. Wt. 40. Az
$00
VaLuE of Frurr and its PRODUCTS EXPORTED from Dominica during
the Seven Years ended 1887.
Ml Ru [ees E | T cond cm gag
Lime Juice. pie Juice.| Pine Apple | of Limes.
Se wT SS Ge Ao RS a ee a Se £ s. d,
1881 | 16411 0| 386 0 0| 4117 6|63860 20| 7 6 0| 16017 6| 7146 14 0
3882 | 625 0 8| 193 0 0| 2014 0|5081 010 e 16812 0| 6018 7 6
1883 |1,523 3 e*| 187 0 0| 2118 4|4507 18 4 - 17614 0| 6507 4 2
1884 |1,807 16 6*| 1 0 0| 31 3 03234 15 10 - 284 0 0| 535815 4
1885 |1027 0 7*| 242 3 1| 51418 0|9,737 510 a 9012 0| 461119 6
1896 |1,22019 9| 193 0 0| 415 6 6|458515 0| 5 7 0| 19215 0| 6616 3 3
1997 11,157 15 7| 3216 0| 512 7 6|745818 0| 1913 0| 58916 0| 9771 6 1
Totals|7,526 7 7|1165 9 11,558 4103408415 10| 32 6 0 |1,663 6 646030 9 10
* In the official ret for tl tl fresh fruit and vegetables are included under
head.
As will be seen from this table, the total eres si the op e fruit and
€— for the seven years amounts m of 46,0307. 9s. 10d.
an
socie ear
the value of the same articles exported during the seven years en
1879, and a comparison of the two tables will conclusively show the
satisfactory progress made in the prosecution of the fruit industry
notwithstanding the many disadvantages that the shippers and growers
have had to contend with.
VALUE of Fruit and its PRODUCTS EXPORTED from DOMINICA during
e Seven Years Bde 1879.
Raw Concen- | Oran Essential
Year. | Fruit. |Tamarinds| Lime | trated | *dPine| Orange | "oi Totals.
i Juice. |LimeJuice| FPP © * | of Limes.
andj £54 Edi) £66128 nile wd) 28d) £d.
1873 | 3816 7| 173 8 0 783 3 8° - 100 — | 96838
1874 | 95 5 0| 25216 6 1,600 16 8* 610 0| 040 — | 188512 2
1875 | 10019 2| 16810 0/ 19215 0|169018 6| — 1710 0 — | 211612 8
176 | 107 911] 148 1 0/135 2 4/1699 3 4| 40 0| 0 3 6| 27 0 0| 2121 01
19577 | 234 0 0| 21914 0| 36 0 01155710 0| — - 80 0 0| 2197 4 0
1878 | 7218 4| 297 1 0|187 7 0|207912 0| 0 5 0|199 0 0| 156 0 0| 2992 3 4
1879 | 2 0 0| 486 6 0| 76 5 6|[307812 0/10 0 0| 16 5 0| 100 0 0| 3,769 8 6
Totals} 587 9 0|1745 16 6 13,057 6 0 2015 0| 234 2 6| 863 0 0|16008 9 0
^ It was not until 1875 that any distinction was made in the official Ln exports between raw and
concentrated Lime juice. Both are included under the head “ Lime j
.. Until the year 1886 the various kinds of fruit exported from the
island were not enumerated in the official returns; but, except in the
201
case of Coco-nuts, were all included under the headings * fresh fruit" or
* fresh fruit and vegetables." I pointed out, however, in 1886 to
Mr
ent. d
advantage for statistical purposes in keeping proper records of the
progress of a new and growing industry, and since then that gentleman
may fitly be pie as their orchard. The a nn ireen of a trade,
toc, has been made wi ith ed — _Kingdom ; and, as I understand
ompany are not sally Sidom toi to foster this Jal industry.
Particulars of the fruit exports are given in the table under nine
heads, but two of them, namely, Limes and Pickled Limes, are essentially
the sare, the latter being simply ripe Limes packed in brine, which
preserves them remarkably well for a lon
The following are the average prices from which the values have
been officially estimated :—
Bananas, per bunch -
Joco-nuts, per barrel
‘resh Limes, per barrel :
ickled Limes, per barrel
ine Apples, per Jena?
haddocks, per barre
Yon-enumerated ied per. barrel
must be remembered, however, that this valuation is for fruit pro-
es n
06» a HE
t$ :€ 91:5 ae N
€ 1 1 8 Tuis P (Y
(
]
]
Mangoes, per hundred
( ranges, per hundred
Pi
£
I
hased
9d. a hundred, and Limes at 4s. a barrel, and it odd doubtless pay
some London fruiterer to visit Dominica in the fruit season in order
buy up fruit for export.
Under the head of “non-enumerated fruits” are included a end
number of various kinds other than those mentioned in the eight fore-
i ín:
a r and more varied number of fruits than any o of the
tro I have e the following list of 60 kinds of fruit that are
grown in the island ; and, in order to the list as useful as possible,
ee e given the local n names, the botanical names, and the habitat of
the ts producing the fruits, as well as the season during which each
kind is is Plat aà I have rem such special information as appeared
me to be h plant has been placed under its natural
onder, as soli bi iieuGoir ie ET ccm ee ree.
Taste bir the Varve of the different kinds of Ate Exportep from Ae goa during the Years 1886-87, and the Countries
ich the Fruit was Exported
aeta Oranges, | -Coco-nuts, Bananas. Limes. Pica Mangoes. | Shaddocks. | Pine Apples. menied I
sdl £& «4| 8 a disn di KAE idl ek 2d) & w CER «4 $.s d.
United States - - -|86717 5| 8315 0 10.1 017610 0| 74 Hl 9 — 48 4 7? bg 414 2]|1,16 18 10
Antigua - - - 6 9 6|27015 2]|196 17 6 -= — 1911 8 — — 912 6| 443 6 4
Guadeloupe - - - == Irn gi 18.4 0 — == — — 150] 012 6] 197 13. 2
Bt. Kitso - - -p 1815 0|19519 4| 30 4 0| 212 6|. = 084| — = - 172 19 2
St. Croix - - + 310 0| 80 611|102 0 6 — — B Tos — $i 4L1 0| 14811 8
United Kingdom — - -| 4911 8 — 06 0|915 0|.815 0 — $6 BE. EM SiT 8110 2
Barbados - >-
8. Citron (Citrus Medica). ewe ee India, but naturalised in the
West Ind The Citron grows well i the island, but it is not very
common as ar fruit is used only in peu mereri for the purpose of -
204
making the well known candied Citron peel. Some years ago, one of
our shippers exported to America a few barrels of the rind preserved in
the fruits. The Citron is cultivated very extensively in Corsica, where
the Zo i is called * Cedrat," and the industry there is a very paying one.
re is no reason Whatever why it shouid not pay. equally well in
Homies should any person be enterprising enough to “ go in” for the
culture,
9. Lem n (Citrus om var. Limonum).— Habitat, East Yun
but eed in the West Indies, Season, June to February. ‘This
fruit is rather scarce, but it secre v in the island and ean be propa-
gated qui ey Several large varieties occur, and, although the fruit
specie too coarse to be useful for export, the rind is valuable for the
purpose of ems ng the Candied Lemon Peel of commerce. A very
€— essential oil is also obtained from the rin
0. Oran. nge. (Citrus dip eis —Habitat, EE Indies, but natu-
ralised | in the West Indies. Sea n, September to February, but some of
the trees bear much earlier than September. The Orange is almost wild
in Dominica. It springs up wherever the seeds are thrown, and the
n o o
bearing “ee fruit was planted, it may s ely be said, with a view to the
export of the produce. This interesting fact is significant, ds it isa
clear Aiei of what the island is capable of d The rees are
. raised seed, and contrary to what I have eben read, I find that
they “breed true." Dominiea seedling Oranges, or rather the best
inds of them, cannot be surpassed anywhere for atte d sweet-
ness, and delicacy of flavour.
11. Sweet RUD (Citrus Medica. var. iocus "ener East
Indies. Season, June to January. This delic s Orange uch smaller
than the common "kind. It has a thin M E ind x a amid pulp.
It is grown rather extensively, but most of es fruit i is bought up in the
island, as it is considered one of the best of the Orange family in
Dominica. But for the flavour the fruit is exactly like ‘the Lime to
which it is closely allied.
12. Tangerine Orange (Citrus nobilis, var. Tangerina).
Season, pae to Jan his fine and well known fruit is quite
€— the island and could be exported in quantity.
3. Seville Orange (Citrus Aurantium).—Habitat, India, but
Vinci sed in the West on. Season, June to February. The Seville
Orange occurs in abundance and it is aes os martes for making
The
rind i
and it is the aurantii cortex of the British "Pharma copea. A valuable
ex
it has not been exported lately. In 1878, as will be seen on reference
to the table of fruit. exports, the shipments of this article were valued
at 1997.
14. Lime Aer Medica, var. acida).—Hahitat, India, naturalised
in the West Ind Season n, June to February, but lies in more or
got 1
products and Cacao, Lime juice is now the most considerable export
from Dominica, Several estates are devoted entirely to the culture of
205
the tree, and there are in all of them factories for the concentration of
the juice which, in this form, is shipped to England and to America,
i h of
and is the source of muc the citric acid manufactured there. The
juice is usually concentrated from 10 or 12 to 1, when it becomes a dark
stuff like i nce to molasses. ‘The exports of the raw or natural
the skin of the ripe Limes. As soon as this fruit becomes better known
a
At the time of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, at the
EDU of Sir Augustus Adderley, I shipped a good many of our fruits
to the Exhibition market. The Limes mad at the rate of 30s. a barrel,
ma I am told that they sometimes d ~ pee at deg par Bat
last year I sent a small consignm rim a firm in
London, and they ge difficulty in iiis of. it at a dei which did
not cover the cost.
15. Shaddock (Citrus decumana).—Habitat, India, naturalised in
the West Indies. Season, October to February. This fruit occurs in
ieti
whitish o Ow o the extreme thickness of the skin, the fruit
keeps fresh for a edm ud and it bears the long voyage to Europe
remarkab ger well.
16. Forbidden Fruit or Pomelo (Citrus decumana, var.
Paradisi). — Habitat, India. Season, June to February. This fruit is
not abundant as there is no particular demand for it; but it grows well
in the island, and could be exported in large quantities.
OXALIDEX.,
17. Carambo oe Carambola). — econ Asia. Pm
November to February. Introduced this fruit into the islan
years ago from the Trinidad Botanic NUM it ne: taken well to o the
soil and climate, and it bears abundantly.
AMPELIDEJE.
8. Grape (Vitis vinifera}.—Habitat, Asia. Seasons, January to
Man ch and October to December. The Grape- vine grows very well in
the island, and considerable quantities of the fruit could be raised for
doubt o
of the dried
TEREBINTHACES.
19. Plum — pepe ea), — Habitat, West Indies es. Season,
May to acm ee r varieties of this fruit are much liked b
many pe ing the plum is quite common, and it is
y ropan by erasi cutting off a branch and planting it in the
ground during wet ni takes root. A yellow species,
soon
ias lutea, is also grown, but it is not so good
Purple Pidi,
206
20. Golden Apple, or Pomme Cythére (Spondias dulcis).
—Habitat, Boned a Season, July to September. This fruit is
common in and, and it is esteemed by the , people. It could,
o Meanie. indica). — Habitat, East Indies, but
tore throughout the West Indies and South America, Season,
April to October. The supply of Mangoes in the island is practically
unlimited, for the tree is one of the commonest in the lowlands. The
people being very fond of the fruit—indeed, in the season it forms an
important part of their food—they eat it whilst walking along the
roads, and throw the seeds away. The seeds soon germinate, and as
the seedlings are very hardy the tree springs up in all directions, and
it is found by the sides of all the roads and paths. There are many.
varieties of the Mango in the island, the grafted kinds yielding the best
and most luscious fruits. As will be seen from the table of exports,
ui numbers of Mangoes are shipped to the neighbouring islands.
Cashew and Cashew Nut (Anacardium occidentale).—
Habitat, West Indies. Season, May to September. ‘The Cashew tree
is wild in the island, and it gives practically two * fruits "—1the Nut
and the “ Apple.” The latter is simply the large pear-shaped swollen
receptacle of the Nut, called by botanists a pedicel. It has a pleasant
acid astringent flavour, and is liked by many persons. It contains
much juice, which in Brazil is made into an excellent wine. The nuts
are roasted, in order to destroy an acrid oil which pervades them.
They are shipped from the ee in small quantities to the neigh-
bouring islands and to Europe. nut is an excellent one, and the
trade might be greatly increased.
: LEGUMINOS&.
23. Ground Nut. (Arachis hypogea. )—Habitat, West Africa.
Season, April to June. is nut is cultivated in the island in smal
quantities only for local consumpti It grows well, bears abundantly,
to Marseilles iid there made into a olive oi A good deal of this
islands, and it would, doubtless, pay well to cultivate the nut and
make the oil on the spot, and thus save half a dozen profits " the
consumer.
(Tamarindus indica. grana ge et Indies
Season, to September. The Tamarind occurs in great abu ndance
in the ping: and, as I have shown, it is a constant Side of export
d cid
in its preserved state. The fruit is Rd. to be eaten raw. It is
candied or Sosa Re in syrup. The mon commercial article, known
«T simply the Hoe "fruit deprived : its shell and
packed in ride doin which afterwards molasses is run and finds its
way after a time into all the interstices of the fruit.
ecd CHRYSOBALANE.
256. Zicack. (Ch osos Teaco. )— Habitat, West Indies,
ason, November to January, This fruit is wild, and the shrub
_ bearing it grows along de; sea shore, and a little way in es interior
SM is not much esteemed, = many you. like the flavour. It is so
_ times called “ fat pork " in consequence of the likeness of the pulp to
| aei fat of =< It ud make ecules candied fruit,
— 907
ROSACEA,
6. Fraisé, or Redberry. (Rubus vigo ment — Habitat,
ordi India. Seasons, April to September. ‘This fruit, which
evidently escaped from cultivation many years ago is now wild, and
occurs abundantly along the roads s in several distriets of the island.
By careful cultivation it might be so improved as to make a very fine
fruit; but, in its wild condition, ii is x full of seeds to entitle it to
take high rank. It is eaten with cream like strawberries, and is a
27. Bir awberry. (Fragaria vesca. )— Habitat, Europe. Seaso
May to July. This delicious fruit is scarce in the island, but it grows
well in the noe and it even beam in the lowlands. "The fruit is
not nearly so fine as the European and American varities, but this is
robably due to the fact that no y aktión has been directed to the
enltivation of the better kinds.
28. Loquat. (Lriobctrya japonica.)—Habitat, Japan. Season,
April to July. The Loquat is rather rare in Dominica now, for it has
been introduced into the island only within the last few years, but
the tree grows well, and I have seen it springing up in several out-
of-the-way places.
MYRTACEX.
29. Governor Plum. (Eugenia Jambolana.) —WMabitat, nan
ndi Season, July to September. This fruit has not long b
introduced into the island, and it is therefore scarce now, but the jn
are being propagated, as the fruit is much liked.
30. Malay Apple. y rana Paint. )—Habitat, East
Indies. Season, August to ember. ruit is rare in the ame
di
Season, erdt to September. This fruit is common in the ae The
trees were used formerly as protective belts coffee plantations.
The fruit is a good one, the flavour being ores like dar of rose
water, and hence its name. It makes an excellent preserve.
32. Guava. (Psidium Guava i n West ees os is,
perhaps, with e d of , the common
B. ro aeos Gers Cattleianum.)—Habi tat, South
America. dg June to December. This fruit is smaller, but much -
se in flavour to the M ava. Itis not, however, abundant :
n the island, 5 1 - :
208
34. Pomegranate. (Pumica Granatum. ) —Habitat, North
Africa. Season, April to July. "This well-known fruit is common, and
it grows to a large size in the island. It could easily be exported to
Europe and America, but I believe that no attempt has been made to do
so as yet. The rind is much used locally to make a decoction which is
M esteemed as a valuable remedy in chronic diarrhea and
dysente
COMBRETACE X.
35. Almond (Terminalia Catappa). — Habitat, West Indies
Season, April to June. "This fruit is not mnch eaten, slihough it occurs
in abundance. The flavour is not unlike that of the Filbert
CUCURBITACEA.
36. Musk Melon ( Cucumis i re Asia Minor. "This
fruit is rather rare, but it grows the island and could be
cultivated for export in large dosis
37. Water Melon ( Citrullus vulgaris). — Habitat, North Africa.
The Water Melon is not cultivated in Dominica to any extent, but it
thrives well, and the vine bears abundantly.
PAPAYACES.
38, =o (Carica Papaya).—Habitat, Mi Indies. Always in
apaw springs up spontaneousl ut the cultivated
lands on the coast of the i sland, and the fruit is abil t is very
pleasant to [the taste, and it acts as a digestive owing to rinciple,
ich it eontai The half ripe fruits on being scratched
yield a milky juice, which, when dried, is the drug Prpa from
Ww.
small quantities, and a sample was shown in the Dominica Court at the
Colonial and Indian Exhibition.
PASSIFLOREA.
39. Water Lemon rs ee bomi pe (I ori Meg: MK
Season, April to July. This frui d the
bearing i
vi it is both wild and exin The. fruit] ees int well,
and it might even now to the New York market were
ordi aken in It has a "m pleasant sub-acid
flavour, and it is a general favo
40. Granadilla (Panier quadrangularis). Liae West
Indies. Season, April to July. This fruit is quite common ^
island, but as it does not last long, it could be exported only in vessels
with cold chambers,
CACTE2.
41. Prickly Pear Vae, Tuna and Cereus, various species),
—Habitat, West Indies. n, October to December. The Prickiy
Pear is poet eel from el poak of Cacteæ, and the fruit of all
resemble each other. Should a considerable fruit — be developed,
pe^ Pears will doubtless become articles of ex
arbados Goosebe rw A ( Peirescia sedia) mem
md oe This fruit is ; the scandent leafy sh rub bearing it
grows luxuriantly. It dakak an ans Excellent j jam.
209
RUBIACEA,
43. Gen p (Melicocca bijuga).—Habitat, West Indies. Season
Angus to Gouies This fruit is not common, and it is net liked by
so It has a leathery rind, and a large hard seed which is
person
surrounded by a thin layer of sweetish pulp. It remains fresh for a
long time, and could be easily exported if there were a demand for it.
SAPOTEJE.
44. Star Appie Muy ue Cainito).—Habitat, West Indies.
ason, June This fine fruit is rare in Dominica, but it
grows well in ihe isin d. "i i t could be introduced into the American
and English sides it would, 1 believe, meet with a ready sale.
45. Boni or Damson Plum (Chrysophyllum oliviforme).——
Habitat, West Indies. Bod son, July to September. The fruit, which is
the produce of a large and handsome tree, is sparingly grown.
F: 46. Sapodilla (Sapota Achras).—Habitat, West Indies. Season,
October to January. This fruit is much esteemed and it is abundant
during the season. It is usually picked from the tree in a half ripe
condition and allowed to ripen in the house, as the frugivorous bats are
very fond of it, and they make sad havoc amongst the ripe fruit.
Messrs. Serutton, Sons, and Co., having succeeded in getting this so
and easily spoiled fruit from Demerara to En ngland in excellent condition
by means of the cold chamber system, the experimen c-
cessfully solved the question as to whether more perisbable of the
tropical fruits can be placed in the arkets in a fresh state.
London
The next thing to be done is to A pete up a piedini trade in these fruits,
d, a s Dominica is the neares t tropical country to England capable of
vopi fruit in large quantities, it is to be e em that the fact will
brought to the notice of those interested in the matter.
47. Balata (Bumelia retusa).— Habitat, Dominica and Jamaica,
forests which cover so large an extent of the island. It is as large as
sized Damson, the skin is yellowish brown, and the pulp is "ef
loadant to the taste.
POLYGONES.
48. Seaside P rape (C (Coccoloba men -—hHabitat, West Indies.
eason, Septemb mber. frui |
ose to the va dio It us a a elas fruit, and
excellent preserve. The fruits are sometimes steeped in rum, in the
same way that Cherries are in brandy, and they give a very agreeable
flavour to the spirit.
LAURINEAE.
49. Avocado Pear d irre =- Habita South
America. Season, August to Oc This valuable fruit is very
. abundant in the island, and it Betis ade into the food supply of bed
a If steamers with cold chambers for fruit storage
ularly between the island and London, the Avocado Pear and Mid dur
iudi fruits odd. undoubtedly after a time "become articles of consider-
able trade with Great Britain.
210
EUPHORBIACEJX.
50. Gooseberry (Cicca disticha). — Habitat, East Indies.
Season, August to November. Sa s tree, which, by the way, Grisebach
wrongly described as a shrub, is common in the island, and its fruit,
which is borne very utter is used principally for making j jams and
other preserves.
51. Candle na aes triloba). -—— Habitat, East Indies.
Season, September to Decem This tree is rare in the island, but it
dd well and beac abundantly. a is called “ Candle Nut,” because
e s contain so much oi to burn brightly like wax candles.
The fruit i is liked by many aiiora.
UnTICACEX.
52, Fig (Ficus Carica).—Habitat, South Europe, Asia, and North
Africa. This delicious fruit is always in season, but les Bien ate: in
the wage of Apri, May, and June. It grows well in Do and
might of commercial value. The purple variety is "Uis ‘only
one that i is ‘eiikiivated i in the gardens, but it is, I believe, the best of i
ind.
53. Bread Fruit (Artocarpus yea — Habitat, Pacific inant.
Season, November to NUM ry. The fruit of this tree is really used as
a vegetable in its ripe state, and as it is ae liked by the people it is
cultivated E n might, therefore, be exported in considerable
quantities. The spikes of the male flowers are sometimes candied like
the Citron and Lemon-peel, and if introduced to the trade would no
doubt meet with a ready sale.
54. Bread Nut (4 ica eg € var. POS Pacific
Pacific Islands. Season, November to February. The tree producing
this Nut is a variety of the Bread I Fr uit. The so-called * Bread Nuts”
are simply the seeds which are found in the interior of the large fruits
that, in pe Fy Smad are indistinguishable from the ordinary
Bread-fru seeds are somewhat like chestnuts in look and
flavour. They bu boiled and eaten with salt, per are also used by
cooks for stuffing poultry.
55. Jack Fruit yi ues e "d .—Habitat, East Indies.
Season, February to April. y a few trees growing in the
island, and as the fruit is not ed for om by the people there are
no signs of its propagation s are eaten like the Bread-nuts
PALME.
> POP UE CS Cocos mucifera).— Habitat, sere grape
in seaso The Coco-nut, besides being export
siderable quantities, ed largely into the food of tho peus of
Dominica. The t very common, and there is scarcely a garden or
yard in the island without one or more of these splendid palms growing
therein. No particular use is made of the fibrous husk, so that this
D uable article is really a waste product in Dominica, The « oil is made
uantities, and all of it is consumed locally. A “Cocal” or
Coco-nut L panon near to the sea-shore, with machinery for ae
theo iE paring the fibre and bristles from the hus k, would n
zem ubt Pes paying concern, and there is, therefore, room for ca pital
and kii in this direction. If it pay to erect a factory in London
to prepare the fibre and bristles, it ought to pay much the che in
Domi inica, where labour and land are cheap, where water powe
211
take the place of the more expensive steam- -engine, and where there
would be a saving in the differenee between the carriage of the prepared .
os bode raw luets.
Date (Phenix dactylifera).-—-Habitat, Africa and Asia. This
pe is rare in the island, but if a regular fr uit trade were irpo
it would doubtless be cultivated extensively. The Date palm grow
very well in Dominica, and it appears to be quite hardy.
BROMELIACEX.
58. Pine Apple tna sativa).—-Habitat, West Indies. The
fruit is in season from May to September, and it occurs in the greatest
abundance, It is not aei to any extent, but that is simply because
d >
n, for as a flavouring substance for ices, cooling "
Me e like, it "edi be quickly bought up.
MvusACEA.
0. Banana and Plantain (Musa sapientum).--Habitat,
me Gla and New World tropics. ‘These fruits occur in the grea reatest
abundance, and they are always in season. They could be exported
from Dominica in practically unlimited quantities. Many varieties are
grown in d Boe and they are of all sizes and flavours, from the
large and luscious Fig Banana to the small and delicate * Fig Sucrier."
e ete arge trade in Bananas between Jamaica and the
are put in for shade to the young Cacao plants. Thus
there is always a quantity of fruit in excess of local wants, and Res a
fraction of this surplus is exported to the neighbouring colonies
Besides the above sixty fruits — others have been introduced
into the island lately, and they are ing so luxuriantly as to indicate
that they have found in Dominica a congenial soil and climate. Amongst
these fruits, I would pr Worm the following which have been
introduced from the Royal Gar
The Mangosteen tous cinia TO Hab., East Indies.
The Baobab (Adansonia digitata). Hab., T rópi Africa.
Du eros
The Monstera (Monstera deliciosa). Hab., Mexico.
All of the fruits enumerated in the above list could be produced in
much greater quantities than they are now if there were such a demand
Of course many of the fruits could not be exported to Europe or even
to North America under the present couditions of the trade. But were
steam vessels, specially adapted to carry fruit and provided with cold
storage chambers, to ply regularly between Dominica and New York
and Dominica and London, all the fruits in the catalogue could be
shipped in large and constantly increasing quantities
212
In the Per opens of a large fruit trade Dominica labours under
peculiar disadvantages. The island is so backward that the means of
tion, and it thus happens that the fruit hitherto exported has been
gathered from trees and plants growing only in the neighbourhood of
Roseau and Portsmouth; the two ports of entry on the leeward side of
the Sid. The other districts are practically untouched by the present
trade, although fruit can s got from them in the greatest abundance.
The roads, except for a mile or two round Riseau, the chief town, are
small company to start a coasting steamer. Most of the capital was
readil subscribed as it was thought that the Government would
tee an canem st of 5 per cent., for the members of the "petens
nication is as far away from Dominica as is Lisbon from m Don very
injudiciously declined to sanction the small outlay for the first year or
, and undertaking unhappily fell to the ground. The entire
absence of dioe: means of communication from one district to another
has much to do with the present backward condition of the island, and
unless the country be opened up by good roads the fruit trade cannot
possibly attain to anything like the large dimensions that the peculiar
ets improved, were ar n att
look after the interests of shippers, and were the Government to
fide, ae they have really effected a good deal. But their ships are
not specially adapted to carry fruit, and they do not arrive at the island
with sufficient punctuality. Inthe case of Oranges it is necessary to
way from Dominica have arrived in London after a fortnight’s voyage
in excellent ca: thereby showing, rent all doubt, that the island
ed easily supply the exe markets with Oranges and similar fruits,
e with London mi i
"ous VE
port t of call for their diet line steamers; but, as this would probably
dislocate their sonno, y might require a subsidy for the first
year or so, or until the trade became sufficiently extensive to bear a
good margin of profit.
In the opening up, satel ba of a trade of this sort it is to be expected
that there will be frequent losses if the fruit be consigned to the open
market and sold for oak it t wil fetch ; and this is really one of the
greatest tastes in the development of the indust try. Our growers
213
and shippers of s are not men of capital, and, for this reason, à
Jisediuns shipment may mean in individual instances the abandonment
s further efforts i in ithir direction. It dap eke for the building up of a
a permanent trade that the nascent industry should be nursed b
vae
experienced persons. The Dominica fruit shipped to London should
be received by a firm willing to take some trouble to obtain good prices
ys it, until wide channels E. its disposal are regularly opened up. In
rich countries where men o i n be foun y to
necis in such undertakings, all this would be done as a matter of
course, ominica i and too backward to be able to go
rse, but
about the starting of new industries in such a way as to be able to
guarantee success, " ence has shown that the poe of the island
will not embark in a new undertaking unless it be satisfactorily
demonstrated to them that there is money to be made in it, And really
one cannot blame them. The crisis in the sugar trade, and the back-
Ye bie
of the island cannot be expected to take place unless aid comes from
abroa
Dominica i is, as I have shown, p fitted by range of climate,
fertility of soil, and geographieal position, to become, for its size, one of
these
heir own
perm and if this should happen it will be, I am S as fortunate
or them as it will be for the future welfare of Dominic
ILA, rure NICHOLLS.
J. Cox Fillan, of Wall House Estate, has furnished the fol-
uns —— respecting the development of the fruit trade at
omin
di head of the fruit trade of Dominica I confine myself
xs $
could easily be effected if due regard $vere paid to pruning the trees at
the proper time, and to other requisite modes of cultivation to doen
that end. Anoth er drawback is es careless and alinost wanton
"gardens" (provision grounds) or cottages. These persons as a rule
baer no care on their trees, and are quite unconcerned igo their
fruits are large or small, sour or sweet, stained or not;
in their native watts “the offspring of the same mother is not always
alike and of the same size.” I think the buyers and aes of fruit
could to a great extent induce the growers to remedy these drawbacks
if they were to decline to buy inferior fruit, or to make such a difference
A 55172, B
214
between the prices of poor and of fine fruit, that the grower would find
it entirely to his interest and to his profit to be careful in the gathering
and selection of the fruit he brings to market. Yet another drawback
is the — on of the steamers which now carry what fruit is
shipped, and the irregularity and uncertainty of the delivery of the
fruit at his deni bi I suppose this desideratum is one that will
remedy itself so soon as the “trade” becomes sufliciently large, but it
is to be regretted that the present mode of conveyance does not give the
shipper and the consumer all the advantages that could be derived by a
speedy transport pending the increase of the tr
The exportation of fresh preserved fruit is yet in its infancy, and I
believe has hitherto been only tried experimentally. It now awaits
only capital and energy and success will be achieved.
Jams, Jellies, and Preserves.—At present the sugar used in the
iiri of these has to be imported from England and from
America, weighted with a heavy freight and a still heavier import duty,
and before it reaches the markets another freight has to be inc ar
will thus be seen that West India preserves cannot in an
compete with the home-made sweets of England and the United States
where sugar is cheaper than in its native land.
After all that has been written on fruit-growing, perhaps the most
important necessary to advance the economical industries of
m
is absolutely indispensable, even at the cost of increased taxation.
J. Cox FILLAN.
MONTSERRAT.
This small island has become the head-quarters of the oe industry in
the West Indies, chiefi yt he well-known
Montserrat Lime Juice Company with whieh Mr. Facts Sturge is con-
nected. There were recently exported from Montserrat :—Lime juice
of the value of 10,300/., — Limes of the value of 3257, Tamarinds
- of the value of 254/., and general fruit of the value of 93/7. The prin-
Fs fruits deekerintóry i Mr. J. Spencer Hollings as growing at Mont-
are Java Almond (Terminalia MT EB Avocado Pears,
Bie “Bell Apple (Passiflora maliformis), Water Lemon (P. lauri-
folia), Citron, Cocoanut, Custard Apple, Date, Fig, Forbidden Fruit,
Genip, Granadilla, Guava, Hog Plum, Jamaica Plum ( dias pur-
rea), Java Plum (genio Jambolana), Jack-fruit, Lemon, Lime,
ammea Sapote, Mango, "ts Orange of several varities, Pineapple,
Pear, Water Lemon, Bell Apple, Guava, Hog Plum, Lime, Mango,
Mammee Sapote, Orange, Pineapple, Plantain, "— the Shaddock are
abundant. The Lime and Tamarinds are largel
The months of June to December are the chief imd months, At
215
Limes are — fresh, preserved, or pickled. Lime juice is exported
fresh and concentrated. Pine Appia are exported fresh and candied.
Bananas are pius in a fresh s
The produetion of fruit could Te largely extended in Montserrat if
regular opportunities for shipment in suitable vessels at a low rate of
fr eight were provided,
The fruits now imported into the Colony are the ordinary bottled and
pudding fruits from the United Kingdom, and the canned and dried
products of the United States, The trade in these is very limited,
-
Sr. CHRISTOPHER AND NEVIS.
In these islands most of the tropical fruits found in the West Indies
are cultivated to a small extent. At present these fruits are utilised
locally, and little if any are exported. The Banana, Pine Apple,
ango, Orange, Lime, Plantain, and the Mammee Apple are fairly
abundant and easily capable of considerable extension. ‘The Shaddock,
E
indebte d for the above táforiisifol, are not capable of belg easily
incre
The. pre reserved fruits available are Guava jelly, Guava jam, Pine
Apple jam, Mammee Apple jam, Mango jam, and Tamarinds.
Virain IsnANDS.
Mr. President Cameron has prepared the following information re-
speeting the fruits of the Virgin Isiands:
In iance with the "Eiern eontained in the Secretary of
— apaa Despatch of the 30th November 1887, I have the
nour to forw - — af ia as I am able to give relative to the
em of this Pres
The only fruit that is at all cultivated is the Banana. Of these there
are three kinds, the horse and fig Banana and the Plantain. Many
other fruits grow wild, Pers as Mangoes, Guavas, Guava berri
Custard Apples, Avocado Pears, Sour Sops, and others. Bananas an
nd. Man
Sour Sops are obtainable all the year roun goes come in about the
end of May, Pears in July, and Guavas an berries a little later.
The greater part of what is grown is available for export, and
actually expo: production, however, is not on a scale to
rmit of wholesale dealings. All the ts above-mentioned are
exported in one in . Th i
is St. "Thoiüis& A fair quantity of the different kinds
of Bananas are
carried there, and realise from 40 to 75 cents a bunch. I am unable
o give an estimate of the value of the various fruit exports; they can,
however, only amount in all to an insignificant sum.
anas might, I imagine, be grown in very much larger quantities
romae: is canoes vido the introduction of capital, there being
no local men with either means or energy to take up such a business
216
whatever might be the e offered. Until, therefore, the Virgin
Islands are redeemed from the utter isolation which renders them a
terra incognita to all but ve Pind official, I fear moe any resources
they may possess either in this or any other line must remain
undeveloped,
BERMUDA.
The following is a list of the chief fruits grown in the Bermudas :—
The Sugar Apple, common, and bearing freely ; Cherimoya, becomin
common ; mon, common, but san produced in sufficient quantities
for home consumption ; ; Bitter ge, common, bears freely ;
for early home consumption; Quince, fairly common, but not fruiting
satisfactorily; Surinam i Charly (Eugenia uniflora), common, and
ing freely; Guava, not very common, fruit unsatisfactory ; Potidgràtatté;
common, but fruit not of much use; apaw arica =ni ya), common sr
Musk Melon and Water Melon, comm bear
profusely in early summer; Avocado Pear, a most rires siat highly
esteemed fruit, but bearing most irregularly, some Vera in profusion nag
a do
others barely at all, obtains a high qe as much as 4s. to 6s.
ana, common, bears egens de me, common, fon kedy, aid i is
much used locally ; uat, common, v bos profusely.
ese fruits are obtainable as follow
Fruit. Season, Local Prices,
Strawberry - - | January to May - - -- per quart.
Loquat - - - |. January to March -
Lemon - - - | Perennial E - nd to 2s. per doz
Lime - - - - - | 9d. to 1s. 8d. por di
ant - - = Do. - - | 2s. ae Ib. Coy the bunch),
Sugar Apple - - | December to i E em
w oe e re
Musk Melon - - | July and August- - M. 1b.
Water Melon - - Do. - | ld. DE
Bitter Orange - - | October to December - | 6d. per d
Sweet Orange - - Do. - | 1s.6d. 1035. “ed. per dozen.
P - - 2 to ovetahée -
. Tamarind - - - to r -| }No trade,
Guava - - - imei to October -
Avocado Pear - - | July to Octo - | 4s. to 6s, per dozen.
Grape Fruit - - tober to December - | No trade.
Cherimoya - - Do. . - | 6s. per dozen.
Surinam Cherry - - Perennial - - | 6d. per q $
Quince - > - | September to December - | No trade.
None of these are available for export.
- No fruits are exported at present; but Bananas aser Avocado
Pears, Loquats, Strawberries, and Melons (perhaps), might be produced
more largely, but it is — doubtful whether, nm hé general cir-
cumstances of the soil, the limited amount of cultivatable As and the
217
difficulties of transport, any remunerative cultivation for export could be
has n
made in Banana and Strawberry cultivation with satisfactory results, for
seasons, when the islands are thronged by American and anadian
visitors. In many quarters it is believed, and it has been frequently
for
May 1888, have been communicated for publication in the Bulletin by
Commissioner, some particulars regarding the India-rubber trade in the
Mogaung district.
India-rubber seems to have been first exported from Upper Burma to
Rangoon about the year 1870. Up to 1873 the trade was free to all
who chose to engage in it ; since 1873 the forests have been worked
under the monopoly system, For the first nine years five Chinese
218
sim s styled Mientsuan, aps he Fuhomei, Sears and Paoh-
ing, res ly, were t e joint pes eases dar e two first named
for that one year sold for Prose the next year business
in In at a standstill owing to local disturbances caused
by " * Kachin revolt." € two Yunnanese Ania agreed to pay
auction cand realised a lac of rupees.
The forest officer attached to the Mogaung column has no doubt
reported on the general distribution of the Ficus elastica and on the
Kachin methods of tapping it. I shall, therefore, touch very briefly
upon these subjects. he Chinese say that the India-rubber tree
w
been hitherto procured in forests distant from four to six x days journey
n of Kamein. An equally large supply should soon, it is said, be
obtained hut the Endaw and Laotsun districts. On the recent
dere e few trees seen were strong and — ant though
ered with innumerable small incisions even up to the tiny topmost
; branches, they had erii not been drained to the extent of one-half
their power. In the early days the Kachins made the natural mistake,
. Boon discovered and rectified, of over-bleeding the trees ; it was in this
way ascertained that a large tree if bled to death would yield 500 viss of
rubber in the course of a single seas
Mogaung is the headquarters of the ‘India-rubber trade. Of the total
ese supply four-fifths are brought. into Mogaung by Kachins, the
whom are in the regular employ of the Chinese lessees, and
onec fifh i is purchased in the districts by Chinese PT of the lessees,
Under the present system the Chinese manager at Mogaung, a man
named Li, makes liberal advances to Kachins to die as their expenses
during the collecting season, which lasts from September till June.
a ad
This system orir “inconvenient to both part mee sometime e since
abandoned by mutual consent. The Kachin nis now edited. ihe
219
at Mogaung is well washed, dried, and minutely examined, ball by ball,
before it is sealed. Those Kachins who have received advances from
Li, make the refund by selling to him at half the current price, until
the amount of the debt is cleared off. A small quantity of rubber, as I
have said, is collected by uer agents of the lessees. Up till quite
recently there were only 10 or 12 of these agents. They travel from
distriet to district making ud from Kachins. The price paid is
nominally the same as at Mogaung, but as the Kachins possess no
standard weights they are usually cheated to the extent of about
70 per cent. This profit on the difference of weight more than pays all
the expenses of the agents. In November of last year a new and
hitherto unworked district was open ned. Lin, one of the monopolists,
the Amber mines. Objection to this inroad was at once made by the
local Kachin tsawbwas, who insisted on the right of working the forests
themselves, and declined to admit other labour. ter much discussion a
compromise was arrived at on the following basis. Two hundred of the
new coolies were to return at once, the remainder were to be allowed to
collect rubber under the superintendence of the Kachins to whom they
were to pay 10 per cent. of the quantity collected. The place of the
200 dismissed coolies was to be taken by an equal number of Kachins
who were to be paid for what they collected at the rate current in other
districts. Under this system matters have so far worked smoothly; it
was expected at Mogaung that at least 20,000 viss of rubber would be
obtained from the new forests this season.
In most cases India-rubber is subject to certain charges whilst in
transit through Kachin districts other than those in which it was pro-
ced. The tsawbwas of such places usually take a very moderate toll,
perhaps two or three balls out of each hundred. = long as these charges
do not amount in all to more than 10 per cent. no complaint is made,
But this proportion is sometimes largely ird and in ^
a remonstrance, nearly always successful, is made b ‘the Chinese to the
tsawbwa or tsawbwas who have helped themselves too liberally. Posaw,
the ex-Myoók of Mogaung, was of great service to the Chinese in
arranging disputes of this nature between them and the Kachins ; since
his flight a regular expenditure in presents to the tsawbwas has become
necessary in order to keep the amount of transit dues at a reasonable
ve ber comi
wn to Mogaung the Chinese beste d and the Kachin owner bear
the iios | in equal shares. The Kachin, however, is amply co sat
by being housed and fed at the sche of the Chinese during his stay
in Mogaung.
The circumstances a the past year have been very favourable to the
prod di been
stric
apprehension caused by the visit of ee Bae M
country, gos or no work m attemp! i q
the a numbe Kachins dd Shans KTE employed at
the sty in able t o alee their services to the India-rubber traders,
e
u
e profits realised tliis year by the lessees mus considerable.
There are no means at Bhamo for ascertaining how much India-rubber
they have already sent down to Rangoon, but it is gst here that
before the end of their term thay. wil have collected at any rate, if not
hipped, something over 150,000 viss, I estimate that a total collection
220
of only 50,000 viss would pay them a handsome dividend on their
outlay. The account may be stated EE
; PAYMENTS. RECEIPTS.
Rs. Rs.
er of licen - 1,00,000 Sale of m qug viss at
t o! 50,000 vi viss of: rubber Rangoo Rs. = 2,25,000
K Mogaung, at Rs. 145 Las 72,500 per 100 -
Freight, “Mogaung to » Bhamo } 1,000
Freight, Bhamo to Rangoon,
at Rs. 6 8.0 per 100 s —
icons: Pe eatablishinnt at
, Mogaun B: an Eod 12,000
alay (say
tides expenses, sueh as
ents to — isawbwas 2,000
Total - . - 1,90,750 Total - : - 2,25,000
Which leaves a clear profit of Rs. 34,250, that is to say, over 17 per
cent. on the voe invested, assuming that the whole pedis occurs at
the commencement of the season, which is by no means the t
there is little doubt that the mercem will collect a great deal prea than
50,000 viss this season; and on every extra 50,000 viss collected they
will n a net profit of eiri a lac and a half of rupees.
From the foregoing calculation it seems clear that the pe revenue
deed from the India-rubber aye is far too small. It is not easy to
indicate any sure plan by which it may be improved during: the next
year or two. It is possible, of course, that thors may be keener com-
petition when the monopoly is next put up to auction; but it is quite
likely that a “ring” will be formed to keep the price at its present
with the Meis in the Mogaung district. With the single exception
n, the Jade lessee, no native, even of another Chinese province,
es Us attempted to compete with them in those 7 Pa Indeed there
ot half-a-dozen Cantonese or Fokienese, all told, at Mogaung, and
all in probes with natives of Yuannan, Who require a
mman
ers possess the
Défis essential to the preservation of continuous and satisfactory
business relations with the Kachins. It is probable, therefore, joging
from the pa unfriendly attitude of the Kachins towards us t
attempt to buy rubber direct from them, or to collect it in their inte,
would be a failure. The Yunnanese, from interested motives, would
averse to assisting us i task, and without their co-operation, or at
least their gdod will, it would be difficult, if not ceder to, wen
a vence supply. With the complete pacification of the d t this
will no doubt € ; in the meantime it might de Rm
; ma either by placing a reserve price on the monopoly when next
put up to aiietion, | or by ebotishiup the monopoly and andi the India-
rubber as it is — down, or by effecting some arrangement with
the Yunnanese traders, to make thesé' fine forests yield tga more
than the nominal révenue heretofore derived I them
AE a
[All Rights Reserved.]
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
No. 22.] OCTOBER. [1888.
LIX.—COLONIAL FRUIT— (continued).
SIERRA LEONE.
e following is an extract from a despatch from Administrator Hay
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, dated 165 ril 1888 :—
* With respect to the information required as to the fruits produced
in this Settlement, I referred the question to the aboan of the Local
tanie Society, to transmit a copy ofa report and returns
e
re e
venture ur remark that the report and return resting
aracter, and trust that -" resources of the Settlement t cde may
become more widely kno
Notes on the fruits of Sierra Leone, pereo by Mr, Samuel Lewis,
Hon. Secretary of the Local Botanical Society :—
“ire n, April 15, 1887.
Wirz reference to your letter of the 18th of ember last, N fo. 1 ,079,
"C
ed
o
Lac]
2
=|
©
Eder
o
H
un
t
©
f.n
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. +
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Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, duis Sx the fruits of the Settlement,
PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S rA OFFICE,
BY EYRE AND SPOTTISW!
THE QUEEN'S MOST abe - MAJESTY.
either directly or through any Bookselle:
EYRE oe potent erent East HARDING ee FLEET sami E.C., and
32, ABINGDON STREET, WES KR, S.W. ; or
ADAM anD CHARLES BLACK,6, Leonis reino EDINBURGH; or
HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN.
1888.
Price Twopence.
222
I have the honour to state that the matter has been duly referred to
the Society, which, with the object of securing a complete and accurate
information on all points embraced by Mr. Morris's questions, bad them
published in the i pet and invited answers from any person who
could give informatio
* & *
The chief fruits exported in a green state from Sierra Leone are
pine-apples, bananas, plantains, pears, mangoes, limes, and oranges, of
e-a 8 ritain
as exporte that year alone. This quantity can be annually main-
tained and oec ina increased if the trade were remunerative, and
sustained by the fruits arriving at their destination in bad SU has
checked the continuity of the supply and growth of export
Almost the whole of the bananas, plantains, pears, aha limes,
and oranges grown in Sierra Leone, go to the Genis; Goree and
Senegal, whilst some pines also are exported to those place
It will be seen from the table annexed that the ud esie and indeed
nearly all the fruits of Sierra Leone are in sens from January to April,
though some are obtainable throughout the
re is no export of preserved enis aad "lio cocoa-nut is the only
fruit of the Settlement exported in a dry state, and in that state, in which
it takes the name of coprah, it is not used as fruit. "But the waste of
economie matter in the shape of shell, husk and fibre thrown away after
of
growth since last year of an export of cocoa-nuts in husk, — s
Europe, where the now w neglected materials may be used in the
facture of ropes and matting, and the kernel in its fresh state sd X as
ruit,
Besides the la. ede just made relative to cocoa-nuts, it is not
rink of record regarding the mango that its abundance and cheap-
ess here, and 1 the capacity which Sierra Leone has for its increased
production, are conditions icm point to the necessity for studying ho
and where it may be turned to account as an article of export, either
n, to be used in the muatintactare of spirits which it is said may =
in.
- d
preserved state afresh state, and before it is fully ripe, it
is employed Totaly as, asdi is found to "pn a good iebeiitite for, English
apple-sa
Like pine-apyles, the other exportable fruits above referred to may be
produced in larger quantities than the present yield, but the drawbacks
^ i dE a pr
steam vessels now poe een Aes Sierra Leone, and for Europe,
the absence of quick transit, as well as the absence of vessels specially
adapted for receiving and conve: ^ rui
The export trade in two of the “fruits of the Settlement is likely to
gain a new impetus, viz., cashew and velvet tamarind; for the stone of
223
the cashew is in great demand in Germany, where it is used
confectionery, and is sold there at 9s. a cwt.
thrown into the dust hea
The chief fruits oy ewig into the Settlement are yo apples from
peaches see plums, and
Rrawherkies from Germa ny vid Pony and olives from Fran
The dried were — are almonds, currants, figs, prunes, and
raisins from Fra
Cuter FRUITS or SIERRA LEONE.
Local Names. In what Months obtainable. Local Prices.
Pine-apple - | Throughout the year, Be t abundantly 10d. per doz.
om January to Jun
Banana =- -]| Throughout the year - - - | 8d. a bunch.
ashew - - | January to April. ies Ls
Cocoa-nuts - - | Throughout the year - - - | 6d. per doz.
Cucumber - | December t
Guava, red - | September to cepe er - - | About 2s. per bushel,
Guava, white - | Septem December. ne
ime - "Throughout sn yak, chiefly i in August | 6d. to 8d. per 100.
e - - | April to Jun
Mango > - Traa ye year, but chiefly | 3d. per doz.
ebruary to J
Orange - - | Throughout the year, but chiefly ——
August to Ju
Ti abi - - | Throughout the year. —
- | March to June - - - | 6d.to 9d. per doz.
Planta Throughout the year - = - | 8d. to 8d. per bunch.
nm black o or| January to April. ——
Gor» Coasr.
In a "uere. dated 12th November 1887, addressed to the Secretary
of State by Colonel White, it is stated that :—“ Fruit, with the
- Pests of cocoa-nuts, cannot in my koi at present be profitably
** exported from the Gold Coast Colony, owing to S distance from ail
$4 call.
the agricultural
refer the matter to
* them. There is very little available knowledge
E a
15'S i
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=?
REL
x
EE
ES
ae®
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~ ie 2
age 2:
SUN
Nar +,
[--
co
4
p
mie
eo
e-
e.
a
n
E
=
E
E:
oquat (Eriobotrya japonica).
. Grape ( Vitis vinifera), sa varieties and Catawba.
. Strawberry (Fragaria vesc
0. Cape gooseberry (Physalis] pubescens).
ora).
M rM antl eae
© DTH Gr
h5 tS
23. Mango (Mangifera indica
24. Avocada pear (Persea a gratissima).
Pine-apples, generally a coast product, but grown mu to 2, wets feet in
sheltered localities, are available from January to Aug ceptional
cases, the whole yeu Supply equal to any Mer "Piles "d. to 3d.
each, according to season and quality.
Bananas ir: planta ains produced on the coast, and up to elevations `
1,500 feet are available generally throughout the whole year. I thor
emand the supply would be unlimited. Prices vary from sis
uality.
ranges, limes, &c. are available from April to August. Grown all
over the eua the supply would meet any ressonable demand. The
prices vary according to seasons, being lowest between May and Augu
and highest aes the scare sity. Immense quantities are
for want of a market. Mar e and lime-juice may be pr ates in
unlimited quantity. This sh nae is extending rapidly, and will soon
be sensibly realised.
Peaches s are lard grown all over the Colony, certain varieties
being e warmer coast districts, and others of the hardier
and be tear Haired varieties more suitable for the c
elevated districts. They are available from December to F
annually TO
fruit. Much is preserved for Jocal use. A price ey n the circum-
stances, can hardly be given. When the fruit is offered for sale it is
merely to cover cost of oH a and carriage to market.
228
Apples, like peaches, are grown all over the Colony, the hardier
varieties being i in the upper districts. The supply is far in excessof the
demand, there being no market for vd produce of ever
garden. The fruit is in season from December to January, and prices
are such as cover cost of gathering and Ph E to market, 1s. Gd. to 3s.
a hundred, according to size and quality.
Quinces, like apples, thrive best in the upper metres of the Colony.
a
They are in season in January, earlier or later ing to situation ;
cultivation capable of extension unlimitedly i iles were a market.
The fruit is often preserved but seldom sold, there being no demand.
cots come into season in November. Any demand could be met
by large supplies. The price, 2s. and 3s. per 100 for first supplies, soon
alls owing to the lim “pone arket
Figs are seed in January, and c ue in’ season for two or three
months. Production dm be e xtended 1 indefinitely. Prices just suffi-
cient to cover cost of gathering and carriage to m
ars are in season in Februa e Berg can be jroduond to any extent.
renad re in season from November to May. Its growth is
capable of indefinite Memes Prices vary according to season, 1s. 6d.
b mm
he g n quotation, and insufficient to cover cost of
gathering and car *
qu re ed season in May; capable of — indefinitely ;
prices nominal, m — suficient to cover cost of e
zrapes come into season in De Westin: and uito for two or three
months. The price varies cai 6d. to 1s. per lb., according to variety,
quality, and season, the Cape varieties being the most expensive. The
Catawba, owing to general hardiness and freedom from disease, is
capable of extension without limit. A valuable preserve is being made
from this grape which threatens to take the place of black currant
Y:
trawberry.—This valuable fruit is rie into general cultivation,
and may be extended on any scale. Itis in season from r to
April Prices vary according to season, bd. a pint being the minimum.
ape gooseberry.—This valuable esculent is not cultivated, being
at their convenience, selling it to eerie i in town or country.
D — is generally about 4s. 6d. a bushel. es situation as
per ricts, the fruit is in season ebruary to
Mis 4 "This fruit is made into a jam, which is biyé ever known to
e
Amatungu lu.— This is entirely a coast plant, and the fruit isin season
from January to May. As a rule the plant has not been cultivated, but
it admits of ready extension by cultivation, and thereby its productiveness
Th
is greatly increa
wild state, and dispose of it to o me the price, therefore, eres
from a mere nominal sum to anything they can get.
Tamarind.—This has been tried, but on a limited scale. The fruit
ripens in May but there is scarce any demand for it. .
angoes can be grown in abundance, and come into season in May,
but there is no demand for th
vocada pear can also own in abundance, and comes into season
in March, but there is no demand for the fruit.
In 1886 the dried and preserved fruits exported were entered of t
value of 4227, but the sorts are not enumerated. The green ‘eas
229
exported, chiefly Bananas, were entered of the value of 2,4397. Both
kinds, viz., the preserved fruits and the green or fresh, were shipped to
the Cape Co olon
the above-mentioned es are capable of being produced in much
larger quantities. The nee of a market has deterred the farming
al requirements. e steps, in my estimation, necessary to develop
a fruit trade are first the preservation of the fruit either by judiciously
drying it or by xinh itin tins. Messrs. Jameson and Co., Durban ;
Hulett, Nonoti ; Ladds, Mooi River; and Blaker, Estcourt, have made
a good start in that direction, and others will follow their example.
Local men complain that the tariffs of neighbouring states militate
seriously against the use therein of Natal preserved or green fruits, im-
port duty being so high as to prove prohibitive. This, no doubt, is the
case (as the question would be viewed in the light of free trade) omitting
the consideration of the question whether the industries of these states
do not stand in need of some such protection as is secured by a high
import duty. The trade vili the mother country is sericusly menaced
by the long ocean voyage, and tbe risks of damage to green fruit,
however well it may be prepared before embarkation. In the case of
preserved fruits, the new industry here will have to cope with the same
industry established in other colonies and Pss for many years enjoying
a reputation which cannot easily be set asic
Dried fruits, unspecified, imported fron: rd United Kingdom, 80,000
Ibs.; value 1,252/. From Bombay, rer and Madras, 195, 967 Ibs. ;
value 612/. Mozambique, 608 lbs.; value 8/. America, United States,
850 ]bs.; value 147. Curranis and raisins from the United Kingdom,
183,828 lbs.; value 2,5414. From Cape Colony, 34,548 Ibs.; value
3462. Preserved fruit from United Kingdom, unspecified, 26,378 lbs. ;
value 6537. Calcutta, 180 lbs.; value not specified. Cape Colony,
38 lbs. ; value 8/. Fresh fruit :—Cape Colony, quantity not specified,
zaai 1807. Mauritius, quantity not areata. value
mported fruit, prone dried, an dig s nearly 6, 0000, per annum,
while lae sts to tre ot quite ‘half that sum.
conditions TI the we papal favou rable to the development of
Ed "life, fruit i is liable to suffer much, the only remedy for which is
the maintenaace of the teen in the t vigorous possible condition,
giving proper heed to the due supply of manure and moisture. Violent
hailstorms occasionally do much damage, but as they are very local it
rarely emu s that a district suffers; of two plantations a quarter of a
mile apart, one may MN entirely, while the ‘other may have been
entirely sexi of its fru
ng the bitu ‘of a fruit trade with the mother country, or
with the neighbouring states, it appears to me that the first object should
ried fr uit XR may with perfect safety he placed upon
the markets at Doc or in other colonies or states yeei et Lee be
the same. Much experience
e an
necessary in the conduct of the export of fresh fruit. "Facilities pr ship
ment are, it is true, so great now as to lessen the time the fruit requi
to be at sea considerably below the period required fifty years
the from the Mediterranean or the Azores. It should, however,
not be forgotten that the latter slow passage was made by asailing vessel `
cold season of a temperate climate, while the modern quick passage
. 230
is made through the tropics in a steamer of great heat. Preserved and
dried fruits suffer comparatively little from such heat as would be totally
destructive to fresh fruit. Much no doubt may be done by careful
the value of the fruit when exposed for sale in x home markets.
. C. SUTHERLAND.
The following Report has been prepared by Mr. J. T. Edwards
relative to the cultivation and production of fruit in Natal :—
ietermaritaburg, 20th January, 1888.
In accordance with the request of his Excellency the Governor,
I have the honour of furnishing you with et — particulars
respecting the cultivation of fruit in this Colon
e fruit-bearing area in Natal may be divided into three districts,
viz., Constland, Midland, and Upland; these distriets being defined by
the varying altitude
The Coast district embraces a belt of country extending on an average
from 20 to 30 miles inland. In this district nearly ‘all the known
tropical and semi-tropical fruits thrive. ‘Those at present most exten-
sively cultivated are the pine-apple, banana, orange, mango, and guava.
Fresh fruit of the two former are exported largely to the Cape Colony
ports, also in smaller quantities to the Transvaal gold fields and to the
Orange Free State. There are two varieties of the pine-apple grown,
viz., the Jamaica (spiny-leaved) and the smooth-leaved Cayenne. Both
varieties do well, but the vem of the latter is especially fine, weighing
in many instances from 4 lb ee Ib. each. The wholesale price of the
spiny-leaved kind is from 3d. to 6d. per dozen, and of the smooth-leaved
from 3d. to 1s. each. Although considerable quantities of these fruits,
both in a fresh and preserv eserved state, are exported annually, the growth
at present is greatly in excess of the demand. All the varieties of the
orange do well, and during late years the gor fensi- have been greatly
increased. ‘The yield of fruit is enormous, some trees bearing no less
than 4,000 oranges. The variety most esteemed for its fine flavour and
ex traordinary fruitfulness is the naatje, or mandarin orange. e
wholesale pe of the orange is from 6d. to 1s. 6d. per 100, and of the
naatje from 1s. to 2s. per 100. The Coast oranges are in season from
May unti! September. Of the other fruits which thrive in this district
may be enumerated ws lime, shaddock, lemon, papaw, loquat, grenadilla,
Brazillian cherry, Avocada pear, mulberry, pomegranate, et sweet
sop, custard apple, &c. Also the Cape gooseberry, and a u,
two indigenous ipia which, when preserved either as jam be botla
sea level, p the prin aiiz fruits grown are "the apricot, peach, pear,
apple, an d and of small fruits, the strawberry. ‘The apricot and
peach are dicii pt xtensively throughout the district, and the yield of
fruit is most prolific The local markets are much too small for the
consumption of this fruit, and many tons are annually allowed to waste
eading varieties of the apricot grown in the
Colony are the Large Early, Moorpark, -- Turkey. The varieties ripen
in the order named; the Large Early about the first week in December,
3
5
e
T
&
8
B,
&
this season has been fro
wn are very numerous, but those most in | favour are the Alexander,
o
Batiin, Grosse Mignon, Precoce, Royal George, Noblesse, Early
231
White, and Walker's Large Yellow, The white varieties of the peac
ripen in December, the red varieties in January, and the Yellow ones
early in February. Nectarines do fairly well, but are not grown so
extensively as the peach. The best varieties are Stamwick, Elruge,
Newington Early, and Pitmaston Orange. The wholesale price for
peaches is from. 3d. to ls. per 100, according to quality, and of
nectarines, 2s. to 3s. per 100. Pears have not been planted very
extensively until within the last six for seven years. They do well
throughout this and the Upland district, the trees coming into profitable
ring from 8 to 10 years old, or in about half the time required for
their maturation in Great Britain. The following varieties are amongs
the best yet grown inthe Colony, viz., Cape Saffron, , Burgamot, Jargonelle,
eurre Diel, Louise Es deJ ersey, Bon Chretian, Beurre de Aumanlis, &c.
Pears are in season from January until March. Several shipments of
this fruit despatched Pen January arrived in London in good order, and
it is to be hoped that an increased and remunerative trade may be done
with the home market he aig id price of pears is from 15. 6d. to
is
experience has, however, T, been gain "hiis with the result that greater care
January until March. The wholesale price is from 6d. to ls. 6d.
. Vines do fairly well, but the choice varieties require evo p
from the rain during the ripening season. An American variety, known
here as the Catawba, thrives most luxuriantly, and produces enormous
crops
in d to exte The alue of t from
ld. to 2d. per lb. 'The Co sagi is indebted to Sir Theophilus Shepstone
for the introduction of this valuable plant. Figs do — in the ar
o
this fruit a valuable increase might ied our ee The oran nge
and naatje do well, and as the time ofr ri gis somewhat later than
mber. Strawberries grow with perfect luxuriance, and produce
their fruit from September until March. "The: principal other fruits
grown in this district are onds, di marabella plum, guavas,
mulberries, quince, idis limes, pomegranate, medlar, walnut, Spanish
ELI raspberri
e Upland distriet is from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea level.
Here ali the hardy European and other fruits 5 Uie, including the
ums,
already too small for the c and it is of the utmost importance
that pec dis outside the colony should be secured for the sale of our
232
surplus fruit. The trade in preserved fruits, with the rapidly increasing
English population in the Transvaal, is being se bend retarded by the
i o hbours
glan
perhaps the most important matter is to ie a reduction of the hig
freight charges, trn at present are quite prohibitive in their effect.
With these improvements effected it is reasonable to anticipate that
a large trade Aight be done with the eaga € in fresh fruit of the
orange, naatje, pine-apple, pear, mango, banana,
Although difficulties may attend the vrpltéütint “of fresh fruit, these
disadvantages cannot affect the development of an export tr ade in
eserved and dried fruits. Considerable attention has been devoted
this
excellent jams, jellies, marmalades, candied and bottled fruits manu-
factured by Messrs. Jameson & Co., Durban, Mr. Ladds, Mooi River,
and Mr. Procter of Maritzburg.
In regard to the d of fruit into the colony, these are mostly
preserved fruits, jams, &c., and come almost exclusively from Great
Britain, excepting dried fruits, hii are imported from America. It is,
however, satisfactory to note that the consumption of imported jams
in the colony is rapidly decreasing, on aecount of the superior quality
of the colonial manufacture, and from the fact that the prices of both
for by th the increase on tin and other arti used i Pale pres cit
business ; and it ought also to be remembered that jsi the encouragemen
of this i industry a market is created for our sugar
Last of the Curer Fruits Grown in the Cotony of NATAL.
Popular Name. When in Season. Wholesale Price, Quantity.
Apricot = - | December and January | 3d.to 6d. per100. - | Very plentiful.
Avocada Pear - - | February - - - — Scarce.
Apple, 40 varieties — - | January to March - | 6d, to 1s. 6d. per 100 - | Very plentiful.
Almond - - -| March - - P ʻa Scarce.
Amatungulu - - | January to May - | 1d. toltd. per Ib. -| Plentiful.
- - | December to February —- —
Brazilian Cherry - = ag |
tae . - | October to July- ^ -|1s perl - -| Plentiful.
Citron - - - | May to January - | 8s. 6d, per 100 - | Scarce.
Cherries, 6 vars. - | January - s * = »
Currants » - | December - - -— »
Custard Apple z — »
Cape Gooseberry - | May to August - - | 4d. to 1d. per Ib. - | Plentiful.
233
Popular Name. When in Season. "Wholesale Price. Quantity.
Catawba Grape - | January to March - | 1d. to 2d. per Ib. - | Very plentiful.
China Guava - | April to August -|1d.to3d. ,, - | Plentiful,
Date - . . Em ois
Dingaan Apricot - | November to January - | 3d. to 1d, per lb. - | Plentiful.
Fig > . . ” » - n
Guava (large) - - | April to August - -|1d.perlb, -~ - á
Gooseberries - - | November and December _ Scarce.
Grenadilla . - | November to May -|6d.per100 - - | Plentiful.
Grapes - - | January to April - | 3d. to 9d. per Ib. . -—-
Lemon - - - | May to January - | 6d. to 1s. per 100 - | Plentiful.
Lime - - » » d or p -
Loquat - - - | July to September - | 4d. to 1d. per Ib. - | Very plentiful.
Litchi - - | November and December| Scarce.
Melons - - - | November to May - — a
Medlar - - | April to May - — Scarce, -
Mulberry - - | September and October | id.perlb. - -| Very plentiful. .
M -| December to March -|3d.to6d.perdoz. -| Plentiful.
Marabella Plum -|October - . - | 3d. to 6d. per Ib. »
Mandarin Orange — - | May to December - | 1s. to 2s. per 100 - | Very plentiful.
Naatje., - - "Ls ~ - » » |o» ”
Nectarine - - | December and January | 2s. to 3s. per 100 - —
Orange - . - | May to December - | 6d. to 1s. 6d. per 100 - | Very plentiful.
Pine-apple - - | December to March -|3d.to6d.perdoz. - a »
Papaw - - e | October to May - - Plentiful.
: - | March and April - -— >
Plantain - - | October to July - | 9d. per 100 - - »
Plum E - | January - - ras Scarce.
Peach - . - | December to February - | 3d. to 1s. per100 —— - | Very plentiful.
Pear - - | January to March -|1s.6d.to 5s. per 100 -| » .
Quince - : < Š * - | 1s. 6d. per 100 - - " n
Raspberry - - | November to January - | 3d. per lb. —
Rose Apple - - — — —
Strawberry - -| September to April - | 3d. per Ib. . » | Plentiful.
Shaddock - - | May to December - — -
Sweet Sop - - — — -
Seville Orange + | May to December - — Scarce.
"Walnut - E - | February to April . — —
Jous T. Epwarps.
Pietermaritzburg, 20th January, 1888.
234
Marra.
~ The inquiry into the fruits of Malta was brani by the Govern-
ment to a special board. For this boar e following exhaustive
Report has been prepared by Professor Gavino Gulia, M.D., Director
of the Botanie Gardens:
0
caused by these enemies of Christendom: nit civilization. -Unluckily,
i heat, and i i
e
the cause of their putting aside the planting of trees. "The extensive
Lec were no more cared for, the trees Ken felled for eaten to
make room for other puse produ ucts,—a fact which is greatly to
be fégiéttod, for, owing to its excellent Hits a fertile soil, trees
and shrubs of different kind grow in Malta wonderfully and pr roduce
fruit, which being of an exquisite sort, would well repay exportation.
It is desirable “that the Agrarian Society of Malta and the wealthy
The Wing i felt n ves kd water supply in ‘rural districts e lately,
fortunately, been ect of careful research. : The water supply of
these islands is errans d from rainfall, part of which is directly absorbed
by plants, t is vaporated, part runs into the sea through
numerous ravines, and part sin ks uei the soil and quie natural
therefore be Moraria to eem, by law, aodiorde to aie i a tan nk i in each
field, the dimensions of which to be proportionate to the extension of
the field itself. With the view ds Missi e ds griculture, prizes for
the best plantations should be awarded to farm ian T dnd whilst an
way of obtaining young trees is "afforded imos ine expense of obtaining
water ve irrigation should be as moderate a
art of manuring is very little eadeni by o our farmer, who
chiefly uses rotten animal and vegetable manures after having exhaled
their best constituent parts w hilst lying in a corner of his field. He
knows nothing of liquid manure, “ which ” as Professor Lindley remarks,
works the winder; and operates like eg overflow of the Nile or the
* Indus. The large DNE of nightsoil, which is now lost in the
the old farming customs of Malta. Owing to "de of sound
knowledge of horticulture and of proper agricultural falenehto, the
235
work of our farmers is laborious, tedious, expensive, and often
unsuccessful. As a modern writer remarks, “farming in Malta and
* Go or abour. e 1
me da
other will be brought under cultivation, that the primitive rti lan
of agriculture still in use will be superseded by proper machinery
suitable for our soil,and that, as books for our farmers are useless,
lectures on hortieulture will be. given them in each casal, with cim view
of teaching them how to improve their old inethods of cultivation and
lead them to the discovery of better modes. It would be then oos
to introduce and largely cultivate many exotic trees and some sah bearing
excellent fruit both for the home market and for exportation ; and to
improve at the same time the products of those species which are now
more or less successfully grown.
Wild Fruits.
nder this term we include the Rubus discolor, or common bramble
>
nt, , and o
children and birds. It is known under the name of zgharun. The
Mespilus germanica, which used to abound in several ravines, especially
in the neighbourhood of the Boschetto, belongs now only to the flora
of Gozo, where it grows seemingly wild among bushes. It is called
pomm el lip. The fruit of the wild variety is middle-sized and
incipient t decay. Punica Granatum and Ceratonia itar belong to
the Flora of these islands, so does Olea europea
k that i Caution should be more extensively eultivated for
the sake of the abundant Carobs it produces, ealled Aarrub, which are
eaten To the poorer classes, PE P times s. rani and form a
food
for this purpose The Mal Carobs are di Bun 2s. Gd. to to 5s. po
_ The
236
It has been thought best to speak of pomegranate and olive trees,
both indigenous, in the section of cultivated trees, the fruit of the wild
varieties being worthless
Cultivated species.
Our soil suits admirably the pestes: Peruvian Cherimoyn, Anona
cherimolia, known under the name of puma cannella, which is sparingly
grown in some gardens, and the Sweet Ss Anona squamosa, called
Oranges and lemons: If any one were to visit a Maltese garden in
January where orange and lemon trees are "erf éuttivated he zone
come to the conclusion that the Hesperides’ garden could not hay
been more beautiful. Oranges and lemons are grown with k
success in the central parts of Malta. The highest Gaaltties grow in
casals Lia and Musta and their neighbourho
e the species of the Citrus tribe grown here into three
: (a
— with tubercled or wrinkled thick iit; ; (e) fruit of a pale
r, with wrinkled rind, pulp sweetish and slightly bitter.
Sw dige Citrus Aurantium (laring comuni), are very exten-
sively cübivated and fruit very freely. Malta oranges, being lon
keepers, and having a very delicate taste, are exported in considerable
thickish, the pulp not very rich, whilst the seeds are often numerous ;
(2) Thick-rinded orange, laring tal kexru hoxna: Fruit oven rind
ick, juice not abundant nor highly flavoured; (3) China orange,
helu or lumi laring : Fruit round, rind thin, yellowish, seeds
few or wanting, juice very sugary. It is much esteemed in December
and January, when the other kinds are still very sour. It is nota good
the market; (5) The blood orange, known as lari ring ta demm Crus
Aurantium, var. melitense) : There are several sub-varieties, all of
quality, much esteemed both at home and abroad. At maturity the
peel is red as blood, the pulp is partially or wholly of a deep red colour,
being juicy and delicate, sometimes it is only striped with purplish red.
Not being very extensively cultivated, it is exported in small "pec:
It finds a ready market at home, realising from 4d. to 8d. the dozen
237
(6) The egg-shaped or oblong orange, laring tauuali, forms ay
lucrative production for the Maltese gardener : Frui
a
slightly sub-compressed, smooth, of a golden colour, with a thin rind
adhering to the pulp, which is full of a sub-acid pleasant yellow juice.
the tree is vigorous, long lived, sometimes very high, covered all over
with lichens; the leaves are a green colour; it is the most
abundant bearer. The fruit is sold from 2d. to 5d. the dozen, according
peel ; it is sold from 2d. to 8d. per dozen. The first variety being a
long keeper, is adapted for shipping to long distances. It is the opinion
à mm : à
h e
dozen; (2) Fruit small, oblong, middle-sized, acid, called citrat, much
eemed for the agreeable perfume which it exhales, Price, from 2d.
‘ :
M The
oblong, terminated by a nipple-like protuberance, rind thin, adhering to
the pulp, which is very acid. Of the 25 varieties described by Risso,
ihe aspermum, seedless, the vulgare, ordinary lemon, the racemosum, the
tenue, and the oblongum, are extensively cultivated. "The sweet lemon
ovate and
without ; its juice, which exhales a pleasant me, is rred by
some to that of common lemons. It is not extensively cultivated ; price
ld. to 3d. the dozen.
It is a pity that the Bergamot (Citrus Aurantium, var. Bergamia) is
not largely grown in Malta; of the variety parva of Risso a specime
U 61218. B
238
is cultivated in the botanic gardens of this fisland, yielding numerous
middle-sized globose fruits, the rind of which is full of the fragrant oil
peculiar to this species. This s small tree, 5 feet high, produced | in 1887
no less than 16 dozen
weet limes are ro plentifal; they are known under the popular names of
lumi helu and lumi tal caruna. Of this species Aiie ant var.
Limetta) two very distinct Paria are here known: (a) Middle-sized,
depressed shining fruit, with a large broad nipple- shaped, depressed A
tuberance, rind thickish, pulp as sweet as sugar; generally eaten by
ance. The pulp of this form is more agreeable than that of t ther.
Denies are cultivated in gardens, and in courtyards of country houses.
Price, 1d. to 3d. the dozen.
‘America, &c.
Of the jujube tree, Zizyphus at ial called zinzli, two distinet
varieties are sparingly cultivated, the fruit of which is round or oblong,
the size A a common olive, and of a ques taste. It is eaten chiefly by
Tt is is E be A Satan that the cultivation of the vine, Vitis Pe,
ta dielya, which grows luxuriantly here, is grea
neglected. Its culture is more attended to in Gozo, where it dotes i ih
important and profitable branch of rural economy. In marly fields and
in the fissures of the limestone strata it grows without demanding any
l
vated. The white and black cornichon, cin ng a rose "enl bet rry,
is a showy good grape, called bezzula by the Maltese ; the black corinth
‘is sparingly cultivated, and is called passulina ; the royal meee
je white i A the white swo a water grape, and o ther varieties
|
, repute.
The walls of fields should be covered by vines, and prizes awarded to
promote this object. A tolerable sort of white and red wine is made
in Gozo by people who do not understand the general E cse a 01
wine-making. Our ancestors were cleverer; they m good win
not less than 47,500 gallons (5,000 barrili) yearly. It Be be dei
n
der an able Italian or French director we could compete with
se ess: both in the production of grapes and in =
making of wines, Grapes from August to November are sold in th
239
markets from 4d. to 2d. M Ib. Some varieties are good keepers, so
much so, that in some gardens grapes enveloped in thin paper bags
are kept up to Februa a sold at 1s. to 1s. 6d. per Ib.
The family of the Rosacee ei s our markets em April to June
with strawberries (fraul i), Fragraria vesca. The Chili DIM is
only grown as.a curiosity. Strawberries are sold from 4d, to 10d.
the Ib.
The loquat or Japan medlar, Eriobotrya Japonica, nespola or nespli
of the Maltese, grows e xceedingly w well in Malta; its fruit is ripe in the
months of May and June, and sold from 1d. to 2d. per lb. The loquat
not being a long keeper is exported to a very limited extent; in 1887
Several varieties of the pear (Pyrus c communis) are grown, such as
(a) common bergamot eg dons a a aniio of which is ripe in
November (bergamotta ta sanguian) and another in January (berga-
as ** Caillot rosat d'hiver" or Malta pear, is an abundant bearer;
if not gathered mellow the fruit, which is rich, "Taseous and high-
flavoured, is a good keeper. They all thrive vell, a e remunerative,
and sell from 4d. to 1s. per lb. They are seldom expor mie d. Weimport
a large quantity of — A only of a coarse quality, from Sicily, and a
better sort from Mars
= The apple (Pyrus seals, toffieh, is largely grown in Gozo, mir. ue
in Malta. Apples are not exported but sold for local consumption
principal varieties are: (a) toffieh abiat or pumicellta Malta, fruit
yellowish, streaked with red, of a rich aromatic flavour ; (c). toffieh ta
f large jeep RA
fruits, yellowish rath eti d with red, flesh greenish white, fine
mildly sub-acid and aromatic. Season, September to November,
e peach and nectarine commence to ripen their fruit in July; the
first, called in Maltese, hawh (Amygdalus persica), presents two varieties:
(a) yellow, firm, flesh, hawh ams d fruit me grebninh, or white and
red, hawh ta Ma lta, “ pêche d alte," * Belle de Paris," or Malta
peach. The Nectarine, called pesce ~ bok Varieties : (a) fruit,
middle sized, green-yellow, always red on the sunny side, or wholly dark
red; (5) fruit, large, and white, anciprisc fatis The best of these
fruits, when picked, realise from 2d. to 3d. per Ib. The quantity
produced is hardly sufficient for local consumption, and consequently it
is not exported. The most valuable sorts are the Malta peach and the
nectarine. Large plantation of these trees would be very rnana
as ^x par ee well if properly gathered, and bears carriage.
lgaris, called here
uince, Cydonia vulgaris, sfargel, is
sparingly cultivated in N in Malta, but in Gozo it is grown in quantity far
the manufacture of jams and other confections. The fruit, which is
pem r eaten m. is sold from 2d. to 3d. the lb.
o be hoped that the — and sweet almond, which grow most
lufaliéptly and fruit freely in Malta, will be pro pagated. es tig the
240
island. The bitter — (Amygdalus communis) is called lewz morr ;
the sweet almond, with a hard shell, is called Zewz helu, and that. with
w
comfits, and the like. Formerly the almond was extensively grown.
It requires but little care; it blossoms in January, and ripens its fruit
The “Apr ricot (Prunus armeniaca) is called berqùq or berkuk, of
br four varieties are sent to market: (a) berkuk ta Meju, May
to 24d. per Ib. A variety, E a very small exquisite Bail. now
only ültivatod in the Botanie Gardens, was formerly widely grown.
It «eu ne long, and is an abundant bearer, called berkuk ta santa
round, rer compressed, dark i venis al jee oe with a
whitish bloom, gratefully subacid. It is becoming a popular dessert
fruit, which ripens in August, and sells from 1d. to 23d. to D.
The blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), € led prayn, is grown to per
eme varieties of peaches, nectarines, and plums, which ie Lad
upon
Plums (Prunus domestica), called g hanbakar, succeed remarkably
well; they are abundantly cultivated, especially in Gozo. Several
nz (a att,
sparingly cultivated, is a first rate dessert fruit, deep yellow, ripening
“a c end of August. It is pear-shaped, the flesh adhering to the
; (b) greengages, ghanbakar abiat, are also plentiful; August,
Beatae ld. to 2}d. per lb.; the pruna dei frati from 2d. to Ad.
per Ib.
As far as we can learn of the true service tree (Pyrus "—
known here as peces only a vmm are cultivated, which produce pear
— es fruits of a medium ity.
is to se “regretted that — are here cultivated only as a
‘onan ne sort we have seen grows vigorously, and is very
oe the fruit is large, deep p purple, ec and sweet, May to
mene rows Granatum (calle PR anos in Malta), are
dnd
thrive ad
cultivated, differing the one from the other by the colour and size of
the fruit, and of the seeds: (a) one of these varieties has been called
melitensis, the fruit of which is red and round, slightly depressed, with
a thick rind, and large red seeds covered w ith a a very sweet agreeable
pulp, which variety, from the size of the seeds, is called smén n el nette
that is mule's teeth, and in Italy, * Me ek. di Malta"; (b) a
variety is called rummien ta San Guisepp, the seeds of jT are a god
smaller than those of the * Melitensis "; (c) rummien francis, or
rummien ta Santa Rosa, or ta bla ghadma, or rummien ta Santa
Caterina, has small very tender seeds, and very sweet pulp; it is much
= : À :
u
the wild variety. Pomegranates are sold in the market from October
to January from 4d. to 1d. per lb. ale cases of pomegranates were
exported to England in the course of last
The Maltese water melon, Citrullus vulgaris, (phaira dollieh) is, as
a rule, of medium quality. The pulp is either white, yellow, or red,
sometimes granular, and very sugary. Its quality depends much upon
the soil, locality, and the ae of the summer. It is a bad keeper,
and sells from id. to 1d.
Next to oranges the sei Cucumis melo, is the richest of the fruits
produced in Malta. The following are the varieties exposed for sale
in markets: (a.) bettieh ta L Ahrax, netted melon of Malta, * Melon
muscat de Malte," fruit roundish or oblong, thickly grey, netted, pulp
from id. to ld. per lb.; (b.) bettieh tal curuna or ta
sometimes oval or sub-compressed, rind green or yellow, oem streaked
wit or yellow, thin netted at the extremity, j
ften salmon grues at the € part, in which t is generall
sweat-scent eeper, price as above; (c.) bettieh ta spagna,
mm
“ Melon de Malte à à chaire hlénchi, dd fruit dima rind smooth, green or
yellow, flesh white or green, and very sugary. tis held in great esteem,
- bs., even m g
e
eantaloupe of Paris and that of Valparai so have been introduced into the
Botanic Garden succe cessfully but ase began to degenerate after the
second year ue losing
The a Ficus
?
There i = a (piles variety baytar ta bla zerrigha which is
era rare. The yellow fruit is more sugary than the others. Prickly
are very abundant in summer, and are sold at a very low price
id. per lb., and even less. Only Pantelleria can surpass Malta for the
quality of prickly pears. There is a winter crop, which is scanty and
not so saccharine as the summer produce, sold from ld. to 2d.
per lb. The plant is of a very easy culture: a branch of three or
more joints (improperly called leaves) separated from the tree and
allowed to lie several weeks to dry, and then put into any soil, even
of the worst description, soon strikes root. It is productive after three
extensively grown, for both the “leaves” and the rind are given to
sheep and oxen in the summer when green fodder is not obtainable.
The European olive, Olea europea (zebbüg in rss and pem in
Arabic), is a native of the south of Europe, and grows
parts of this island. The fruit of the wild | plant, O. Oleaster, i is pe
242
and valueless. The MN — sativa, was in olden times
extensively grown here; the names of Casals, Zebbug, and Zeitun,
show how abundantly the ater was cultivated in Malta. During the
Roman dominion, and subsequently in the 15th century, so much
was drawn from the Maltese olives that Malta was called the oil-
shipper of the Mediterranean, The pickled olives of this island were
held in great esteem by epicures. It is really desirable that this useful
and very. profitable tree, which is now sparingly cultivated, should be
widely and generally grown. Though a slow grower it thrives
wonder fully in low and high localities, even in ‘the most ungrateful soil,
and in the crevices of calcareous rocks. The sides of the ravines should
all be covered M plantations of olives. We have reason to believe that
the variety precox of Risso, which produces a large, oblong, dark fruit
is Sea to cae varieties.
tree, Ficus ei ruin called by the Maltese baitar ta
San Caen f n, ^, and par. c., grows most luxuriantly in Malta, and
the fruit of all its numerous varieties, sigiar tal halip, come to perfec-
ion. ho first quality are those known under the name of parsott and
haped o
indeed very sweet, covered when pathoredt with a thin white bloom.
The variety called tin gludi (October) is coarse. The so-called
zondadari figs having been introduced, as it is supposed, by the Grand
Master Zondadari from Siena, are round, covered with a whitish bloom,
internally red, and of a good flavour. All these varieties ripen in
August ; they | are sold in large quantities in markets and by country-
women in the town streets at 4d. or less „per pound, the choicest
varieties being sold at 1d. per Ib. There is an early variety called
baitar ta San Guian, which ripens in June, the fruit of which is large,
purple or green; the quality depends much upon the nature of the soil
in which the tree is cultivated. The fruit coming from the districts of
Zabbar and Mellieha, especially those coming from the latter, are most
esteemed, mue that from the district of Città Vecchia is less thought
of. St. n’s fig-tree produces a second crop of an inferior sort in
August a - September. With the exception of the St. John’s fi igs all
varieties are dried by the country people for their own use, and for
village shops.
The white mulberry, Morus alba (cewsi, chewsi, or chawsli), was
widely cultivated when its leaves were wanted for the silkworm, the
rearing of which is now entirely abandoned. We have two distinct
varieties: (a) meridionalis of Risso, with a purplish, sweet fruit; and
(5) esigara, with a white, very saccharine fruit. The fruit of both
varieties is eaten only by children and the poorer classes. It is a
ood for | i
ubstituted for the Phytolacea dioica which, as yet, has been almost
the only tree planted along the sides of our public roads.*
the south of Praia vide it rg planted A a T in public abet Other
species of the genus Phytolacca are herbaceous plants, common in most tropical
countries.
243
black mulberry, Morus nigra (tit in Maltese), has a large dark
purple acidulous fruit, which ripens in summer and soon decays; it is
consequently eaten within a few hours of its being pete The fruit
is made into a preserve, Tenia ( saimi pleasant and c
fully, as is evident from the te igo cultivated in some gardens. Its
fruit attains the same degree of perfection as in Sicily. It is desire
that this ie should be cultivated at least for local consumption.
The stone-pine, Pinus Pinea (prinioli), grows vigorously in some
gardens, paa produces abundant cones containing the edible seeds
known as Pignons doux.
Although palms grow here luxuriantly, and the date- palm especially,
nevertheless dates seldom, if ever, come to perfect maturity. Protected
from winds and placed in rich soil, and often watered, plantains (Jusa
sapientum) grow here, and fruit remarkably well.
The banana is especially cultivated in courtyards, where it produces
rich bunches of first-rate fruit. The Abyssinian banana (Musa Ensete)
and a decorative sort known as Musa ornata. are waiving wonderfully
in the Botanic Garden, but as yet have not borne
Of the Arotdee the Tornelia fragrans, also id own as — tera
deliciosa, was introduced to the Botanie Gardens about three 0.
The fruit in a- perfect state was much admired, both for its beautiful
perfume and the delicate taste, and was many consi superior
to the pine-apple. Though a slow grower the plant requires but little
cultivation, and is easily propagated by IE s far as can
earn, it has not fruited in Italy, where it was introduced some 10 years
ith a view of Pov as Po our report, we annex herewith a table
showing the kind, guni value, and derivation of fruits imported into
this island in the yea eia
Before concluding, w e may perhaps be allowed to su bmit another
ts utility is. so apparent that we will not dwell on its merits,
which we consider are alone sufficient to commend themselves to those
on whom = adoption may depend. It would be of great advantage to
institute experimental garden, where productive bon and shrubs
could be ented in their climatic ‘adaptations, and their economic value
accurately deterinin
The Botanic Garden, having so small an area and teeming with plants,
is insufficient for this purpose, nor is the locality adapted for such
a li ul
experiments. institution of such a garden free to the public would
a most valuable source of information d » ue
think, is a decisive step e taken at once. een vr in all
civilized countries where new methods of ier ee
plantations have been introduced.
Gavino GULL, M.D.,
Director of th the Botanic Garden, Malta.
244
FRUITS IMPORTED into MALTA during the Year 1886.
Fruits. Countries whence imported. Quantity. Value.
Almonds - - | Italy, Barbary - . -| Soorts d ^ 0
Do. peeled - -| Italy - E - - - 128°75 764 5 0
Apricots - - | Barbary - E . 93°70 60 6 0
Cherries - - - | Italy - ^ - . E 243° 182 5 0
Chestnuts - =- -| France, Italy ~ - - $,125*60 287 12 0
Do. peeled “+ | Italy - - - - . 336* 252 0 0
Do. baked - -|Italy - . - - 350° 180 0 0
Currants - - | United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece - 583°05 1,041 3 0
Dates - =- œe -| France, Tunis, Barbary - - 6,114°17 12,207 18 0
Figs dried — - - | Italy, Turkey, Greece, Egypt - -| 178579 2,198 11 6
Fruit . - | Italy, Turkey, Barbary . - 2,238°60 914 15 0
Do. dried - - | United Kingdom - - - . 1° 740
Do. preserved - -| Italy, Barbary - - - 132°68 247 7 6
Do. candied - - | France - - - - - *06 060
Grapes - - | Turkey - E - - 145* 5014 6
Ground Nuts - -|Frane - - - - - 246'85 370 5 6
Melons E -|Barbary - s à . 4°02 100
Mandarins E - | Italy - - - - - *50 010 0
Nuts . - | France, Italy, Turkey, Tunis, Barbary, | — 3,322°10 2496 4 0
Greece.
Oranges - - - | Italy, Barbary . - - - 1,380°20 1,034 12 6
Apples - . - - - 289°20 80 8 0
Pomegranates - -| Italy - - B - - MU 050
Pears - - - | Italy - - - - 1,417°45 708 10 0
Prunes - xd Oe. . M d - *80 012 0
Pistachio Nuts - | Egypt - - - - - 21°35 188 5 0
i - - - | Italy, Bar! , Egypt - - 538°80 806 12 0
Walnuts - - | Italy - - - - d 790*60 108 13 0
Tomatoes - - | Italy - - - - 1,462°75 438 17 0
25,162'86 | 95059 1 6
One Cantar is equal to 175 lbs.
245
CYPRUS.
The following interesting Report on the fruits of Cyprus, forwarded
by the Government, has been prepared by Mr. A. F. G. Law, Principal
Forest Officer :—
The chief fruits grown in Cyprus are :—
Name. When in Season. Local Price.
pes - | July to itta - -| ito? T per oke.
Caroubs - - | Ripen in Au - | 11s. to 16s. per cantar.
Olives - | October to Douai - to 6 dora per oke
anges - - | December to MY - | 2s. to 3s. per 10
Bitter do. - - - | 43 to 6 piastres per 100
andarin do. - mber to Fe ebruary - | 2s. to 3s. per 1
Lemons - - September to May - - . to 3s. per 100.
Do. Sweet - | Decem o March - | 2s. to 3s. per 100
Citrons - - | January v ‘Vanity - | Sales so rare that there is no fixed
et price
Figs - - - | August to October - | $to 2 piastres per oke.
Pomegranates - | August e J imd -| itoz piastres per oke
Apricots - - | June and July - | ito 1} piastres per oke
Peaches - - | August to October - - 2 to 4 piastres per oke
Plums - = o. - - | 3 to 2 piastres per oke.
Almonds - | September to October - | 3 to "i ume per oke, or 137. to
22
Walnuts - - -|1to3 ate per 100,
Hazel nuts - | July to enis - | 2 to 4 piastres per oke.
erries - - | July and August E pi
Apples - - | September to December - | 3 to 5 piastres per oke
ears - - - | September to Janua - | 2 to 4 piastres per oke
Quinces - - | October to December - | 3 to 5 piastres per oke.
nan = - | August to November - | Barely sold, no sale price can be
give
s - - | June to Oetober - -| 1to3 piastres per oke.
Water melons -~ o. - - to 2 piastre e
y - | August to November - | 3 piastres per 100.
- | July to September - | 2 to 5 piastres per oke.
The oke equals 2:7 English lbs
The Aleppo cantar, the one referred to in this report, equals
180 okes.
Nine of the piastres mentioned equal one shilling.
The only fruits of which there is any export to speak of are caroubs,
oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and grapes in the form of raisins.
apes are produced in most parts of the Island. The grapes from
the hill districts make the best wine. removal of the tithe on
great impetus to vine planting for the purpose of making wine. Fresh
grapes are exported in small quantities to Alexandria and Port Said.
Raisins are made in most of the hill villages, and are principally
exported . In the year 1885-86 the export was 440,206 okes, -
value, See imd in 1886-87, 599,880 cia value 7,0117. isins of a
Spain. In 1885-86 the export was 96,233 cantars, value 74,5627., and
in 1886-87 the export was 124,463 cantars, value 102,7237.
1 st parts of the Island; and on the waste lands in
the hill distriets the wild olive is one of the commonest trees ; it bears
246
well being transplanted if the opivatias is wre out with care
0
e
trees die, because the work is not carried out with proper care and
attention, The black olives are as arule of good quality,
A sample of Cyprus oil sent to the Colonial and Indian Erg iim
was reported on by Professor Passed Field, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., in the
following terms:—‘‘Cyprus also exhibited some excellent though
* unrefined olive oil, and doubtless will prove in time to come a formid-
market, olive cultivation would be men extended, affording a very
profitable occupation to the agriculturist. `
Oranges will grow in almost all the villages of the plains, but the
cultivation of them is much neglected; they are chiefly grown- at
Famagusta, Nikosia, and Lefka. There is a small export trade with
England if there was any direct means of communication, although
the ordinary orange of the country is not of the best quality.
Mandarin oranges are grown in small SAM: and are of good
quality. "They graft side on to the bitter orange stoc
L
ol.
eet Ph dst and are mostly used for making preserves
sum
are Ade grown in most parts of - Island, but not more
fen cufficient for local consumption are pr hey are not of
very fine quality. Dry figs are imported tdt: Puryras; Deyrous t and
Tripoli.
Pomegranates are principally grown at Famagusta. A small export
trade is carried on with Port Said and Alexandria.
Apricots are Fodio ced in large quantities ; the trees are not u sually
d, but are much improved by graftin ing. Dried Epoa ts and apricot
pastes are imported in — quantities from Be
Peaches are only grown in small quantities ; the BR inm sometimes
grafted, which very much i prore the flavour it.
wms are generally of an inferior quality and are chiefly used for
preserving. ee in small quantities from Kilindria
in Asia Mi
lm ond d ive about the best return of any fruit crop in Cyprus.
Great m hae has been given to the planting of these trees of late
tree requires little or no attention, although if it can be
watered so eet the better. UP the plains it produces LT crops
e quality as
eater part being a goal hard-shelled Lee but lately seed has been
fatroduepd fi from Chios o elled k
In the hill districts dis crops cii suffer from late frosts. The
Chios almonds are much esteemed in the East and many people, who
possess some special knowledge "s the mntter, believe fat almonds
might be very largely grown in Cyprus with
imported in small quantiti os fom. Kiliideia sd Morais,
247
Walnuts grow well in the hill districts where there is running water
and the climate is not too hot. They are exceedingly fine trees aud the
fruit is fairly goo
azel nuts are grown largely in the district known as Pitzillia; they
much care to do well. The ground should be broken up round the
roots every spring and the trees irrigated until the crop is gathered.
erries grow plentifully in the Marathassa valley at a height of
more than 4,000 feet above the sea-level, but the fruit is e of good
q
Apples are only grown in any quantity in the village of Prodromo,
4,500 feet — the sea-level; they are of inferior quality and only fit
for cookin
ars are only grown in any quantity at present about 3,500 feet
above sea- -Jevdl The € E is not good. Fairly good pears can
however be grown in the pla
Quinces are grown in fair mumbers and are of good quality.
Bananas are cultivated in the towns in private gardens, but not to
any great extent; they seldom come into the market. The Paplios
r e
JMelons are grown largely in most gardens s; he quality is iem d good
i eed.
Prickly Pears grow abundantly in sy low e untry ; they furnish
useful fences. The fruit is good. The st Oe is equal to the local
ort
Dates are only grown in a few pa aces, and are generally a an inferior
quality. The dates consumed in the island a are "— impor
Besides the above fruits, medlars are gro ut are m y em they
are all consumed locally, and the genit is iae
Strawberries ur grow if properly attended to ; Pie an insignificant
number is grown in the island.
Capers grow ‘wild i in the hills. They are Acids in a rough way by
the inhabitants. It seems likely that di cultivation and proper atten-
tion an export trade might be established
All the fruits of Cyprus are capable of be being produced in much larger
quantities than at present, and there is also no doubt that the quality of
most of the fruit might be greatly improved ; but this will not be done
until the subject of fruit-growing is much better understood than it
generally is at present. The Cypriots make most excellent jam and
preserved fruits, but little or none of these come into the market; house-
holds, as a rule, making only for themselves. I think it would be well
worth while for someone, who understands the business, to consider
whether a manufactory of marmalade and jam, especially apricot jam,
sz not be worked here with profit.
ruit trade is to be developed, which I believe to be quite possible,
it would be necessary to provide better means of communication within
ie island, and better, quicker, and, above all, more regular communica-
tion with coun
.. A. F. G. Law, Principal Forest Officer. —
248
CEYLON,
The following report on the fruits of Ceylon has been prepared by
Dr. Henry Trimen, F.R.S., Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Peradeniya :—
A list of the fruits grown in Ceylon would include nearly the whole
of those found in the tropics, for though the really "ze uc of any
value are very few—the Jambu, the Plantain and the ka (Gracinia
Cambogia) being the chief—there has been introduced ey various times
South-west, most Malayan fruits come to perfection, the ian,
ee Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), Bread fruit, Nam
(Cynometra cauliflora), Java Almond (Canari E commune),
Sanco! (Sandoricum indicum), expos ( Lansium domesticum), &c.,
well as other tropical sorts such as the Sapodilla, the Custezdsiiile
(Anona squamosa), and the Cochin-Goraka (Garcinia xanthochymus).
In the low country generally the common fruits of tropical countries are
many place
fruits of sub-tropical coun can be grown, as the litchi, the loquat,
and the wampi, whilst in the ceu regions of the North and East, gourds
of various kinds are ue grown, and in a few places on the
even grapes ure successfully ripened under a system of artificial winter-
ing. I must also mention the ubiquitous orange, which, though nota
tropical fruit naturally, succeeds so well in tropical countries, and is
grown throughout Ceylon under several ce of which the true
eid m ed * Mandarin" is the best. 'The rind of all our oranges
a dar when fully ripe and 7 for eating. In the
bilis qe those of the drier distriets in Uva, some fruits of still
more temperate character do well, especially peaches, figs, and less
successfully plums, apples, and straw vberri
- It must be admitted that many of these fruits are grown in very small
antities, and that very little pains e cre taken to cultivate or
sage ie is mor E ——— than any other it by the poorer
natives. i
Badi very pom and the prices paid to the native growers ex-
tremely low. 'The trade needs encouragement and regulation, and its
249
details are well worthy the careful attention of the agents of the great
mail steam companies at Colom
With the exception of this supply to the ships there is practically no
export of fresh fruit from Cey
'The Colony is indeed an eae of fruit instead of an exporter, but
those i mye are chiefly for the European residents. I do not know
: it be true of the eastern tropies generally, but in | Ce eylon gm is
ong
re —— I cannot say, but it would EID be largely y éhtetiained,
I much doubt if, after satisfying the curiosity which
indt nite feel on the subject, there would be much further demand
at home for most kinds. Pine-apples iid plantains (bananas of West
dy w no
e question of the export of fresh fruit, however, is not on ich
possesses any practical interest for Ceylon. We are too dist y rom
home endeavour to send ied xm fruit as a commerce ia
o :
quantities sent are all without doubt presents from residents to "friends
at home, and have no commercial significance. The act tual values have
been, in 1882, Rs. 280; in 1883, Rs. 102; in 1884, Rs. 239 ; in 1885,
Rs. 296 ; in 1886, Rs. 105.
e is no information as to kind of fruit preserved, but in all
bti they were samples of the jams and jellies commonly made
ere from such acid fruits as the Lovi-lovi (Flacourtia inermis), Bilimbi
(Averrhoa sje Carambo bola (A. Carambola), or Nelli (Phyllanthus
i re pal lly liked, but can
emblica) atable enough and a y liked, but
scarcely compare with the excellent jams made in Englan
latter the im int lon must be very but as in the case.
cannot be asc
I cannot but think that an export trade might, however, be set on
foot in preserved plantains and pine-apples. - These ca n be readily and
preserved pine-apples has prung up at Singapore and might wal be
also attempted here in Ceylon
HENRY TRIMMEN,
*
250
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
The following are the principal fruits grown in the Straits Settle-
ents :—
m
A.
Plantain - E - Musa sapientum.
Pine-apple - - Ananas sativa.
Durian - - - Durio zibethinus.
Mangosteen - - Garcinia Mangostana.
B.
Rambutan - - Nephelium lappaceum.
Champedak, B - Artocarpus polyphema.
- - - $5 integrifolia.
Ram - - .Pierardia dulcis.
Orange - - - Citrus Aurantium.
Pumelo - - - - » ecumana.
ime - - - » . Medica var. acida.
Chiku - - - Achras Sapota
Soursop - - - Anon j
Pulassan - - Nephelium mutabile
- - - Eugenia Jambos.
- - ansium domesticum.
Man - - AMangifera indica.
Custard-apple - - Anona squamosa
Bullock’s Heart - - reticulata.
Papaya - - Carica Papaya.
Melon - - - cumis Melo.
Water-melon - - Citrullus vulgaris.
Granadilla ^ - Passiflora quadrangularis
C.
Bingay - - - Mangifera cesia.
Guava - - - Psidium Guava.
okum - - - Flacourtia inermis
Sintol - - - Sandoricum indicum
Bachang - - - Mangifera fetida
Blimbing - - Averrhoa bilimbi.
- Carambola - - os arambola.
The four fruits in Class A. are certainly the most important grown in
the colony. The fruits in Class C., and many others, are eaten only by
the natives. It is difficult to arrange fruits in order of importance; the
arrangement here must be considered as approximate only.
e two fruit seasons, July and August, and December and
January ; the n being as a rule much the most important;
but the quantity of fruit at each of the seasons d much on
the wetness or dryness of t her, which varies considerably from
"S
251
In the height of a good fruit season the supply is so PME that Wet
quantities of fruit are sold for almost nothing, or even destroyed.
months ago pine-apples were very plentiful: M. Bastiani, who doe
large business in preserved fruits, offered to buy a large quantity este
from neighbouring islands at $ cent each; they had never previously
been sold for less than one cent apiece, and, sooner than go below this
price, the Chinese importers threw them all into the sea. Durians,
early or late in the season, are worth from 25 to 50 cents each ; when
plentiful they sell for five or six. The following prices may be considered
roughly to represent the price of fruit when plentiful :—Plantains, per
bundle of 30 to 40, 7 to 10 cents; pine-apples, per hundred, $14 to $2;
durians, each, 10 to 15 cents; mangosteens, per hundred, 10 to 15
ceníts.
Fruits exported in a fresh state :—(1) mangosteens, e pine-apples,
@) durians, (4) rambutans, and perhaps some others in small quantities
record is kept. ‘There is a large trade in fr mh fruit between
pens Penang, Malacea, and the States of the Malay Peninsula.
Considerable quantities also go to Sumatra, China, Ceylon, India. The
value of fresh fruit exported, according to Government returns, is over
$30,000 yearly, s this includes s» ee trade.
Fruits export erved ETE and mangosteens,
the former in serve counter to Europe, China, India, &c. e
annual value of the preserved fruit ex ported arent a $1
e
:
E
®©
ün
ne-apples, 340,000 tins. About 200,000 to England; some to
Siberia, North America, Australia; a few to South America and
"Mangosteens, 20,000 tins. Chiefly to Europeans homeward-bound.
Guava jelly, pine- apple jam, bread-fruit, 15,000 tins. Chiefly to
kaai homeward-bound.
The supply of fruit is now gehe for local wants. All the sipia
roduced
fruits would be produced in much larger quantities if there
market for them. With a railway | = India or Chi pe or ships with ite- ice-
houses, fruit-growing w would become an important industry.
Fresh fruits imported :—
l. Plantains in large quantities, brad from the islands of the Dutch
rehipelago. The number of plantains grown in the Colony is
probably not one-tenth part of the number consumed. The
plantain, mangosteen, pumelo, Chinese date, &c. are picked before
ripe, and ripen on their way from place of production to place of
consumption. The quality, however, of fruit ripened this way is
inferior
2. Oranges in large quantities from China, from October to February.
The local orange, obtainable all the year round, are very inferior
to those imported from China. :
3. Pumeloes and mangoes in considerable quantities from Siam, Java,
ke e are among the best E obtainable in the Colony.
hose grown locally are very inferi
I Ukae date (Diospyros kaki) in wea quantities from
China, from October to January.
5. Apples, pears, grapes, peaches, in small quantities and of inferior
quality from China.
The total value "of fresh fruit hr gar 1886 was $183,000, of which
$85,000 worth came from Chin
eserved fruits impor
1. Dried dates in large quiste. from the Persian Gulf.
252
2. Litchee; a small quantity of litchees (Nephelium Litchi) from
Chi
ina.
3. Apples, peaches, plums, &c. from a ‘There is a dbi ca
d
mangosteen certainly, and possibly the durian, would find a ready sa
They would be available in considerable quantities in January, Februa E
arch, when other fruits are scarce, and the trade in fresh fruit between
t
once be devoted to fruit-growing, and it is probable that many of the
fruits "^w quon would be much improved in quality.
Sr. HELENA.
e following information has been received respecting the fruits
of x island of St. Helena in a despateh from Mr. W. Grey Wilson,
administering the Government :—
St. Helena, sees 23, 1888.
_I have the honour to acknowledge the recei ipt of your circular of
30th November last, calling attention to the portion of Mr. Stanhope’s
circular of the oe _ mber 1886, respecting colonial fruits, which
remained u
^ The chief fruits "of the island in order of importance are: Guava,
peach, banana, loquat, pear, fig.
No island fruits are grown in sufficient quantities for export, ves
e local demand.
which h fills the es with maggots.
e island imports some grapes and oranges from the Cape; but
the rates of freight charged by the mail steamers are so extortionate
that the amount is vi all.
The Sarbanes of grapes has entirely ceased, e none are now
grown on the island, blight h having destroyed all the tree
W. ies Wirsow.
E am.
OFFICIAL COPY.
[All Rights Hescrved.]
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
No. 23.] NOVEMBER. [1888.
LX.—LAGOS RUBBER.
(Ficus Vogelit, Miq.)
'The investigation of plants likely to yield the caoutchouc of commerce
s being carried out in West Tropical Africa by numerous corre-
acad of Kew. Pos ssibly in no other part of the world is me
such a wide field for investigation of this kind, and in recent years
considerable trade in india-rubber has arisen through the exertions of
officials and traders who have given attention to the subject.
= numerous branches which support themselves on the neighbouring
trees. gi rubber un the Gold Coast, known in commerce as Accra
rubber the produée of Landolp ia owariensis, Beauv. This is
probably ‘the best sacra plant in West Africa, The rubber is obtained
by cutting off ae eee of the bark in strips varying in length from
3 to 10 inches. The cuts are made sufficiently deep to reach the latex
canals, and soon the crude juice starts out in drops and gathers on the
newly-cut surface. The rubber of the Landolphia coagulates on
exposure to the air and requires no preparation other than rolling it
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE,
BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from
BYRE as ae SPORTISW WOODE, East HARDING STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C. and
BINGDON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.; or
ADAM AND HERE BLACK, 6, NogTH BRIDGE, reap or
HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, GRAFTON STREET, DUB
1888,
Price Twopence,
954
up into balle. “A quantity of the milk is first dabbed on the fore arm
* of the operator, and being peeled off forms a nucleus of the ball.
* being t ith a sere? motion the coagulated milk is wou
* like im from ac e coagulation takes place so rapidly cn
* exposure to the air that not only is every particle cleanly removed
* from the cuttings, but also a large quantity of semi-coagulated milk
rubber appears in more or less oer masses of small cubes,
Specimens of such rubber are shown in the Kew Museums under the
ib., p.
The quantity of rubber e exported annually from West Africa from
British and other possessions is about 30,000 ewt. The value in 1885
"was 265,61
It appears ‘that in some distriets, sueh as the Gaboon, owing to the
reckless erp of ee r vines the trade is becoming es "and less
Attention has s al ally directed to ae pla: nts in the e
of Gold Coast and Lagos, and owing in a great measure to the interest
taken in the subject by Captain Moloney, the precum from these British
possessions E risen from nothing in the year 1882 to a value in
1885 of 69,9114
There are doubtless other ie in West Afriea from which
gh
commercial rubber might be obtained. 'The Mbungu rubber plant is
Landolphia florida, Bth. This i is s distributed o over the whole of ‘Contin
Tropical Africa. There are also several spec f Ficus, the original
genus yielding commercial rubber which deserve jio be investigated.
We are glad to fiud that following the enterprising example of the
Governor of the Colony of Lagos, "Captain . C. Moloney, C.M.G.,
Mr. Alvan Millson, Commissioner of the Western District residing at
agry, has pm d given attention to the preparation of comm mercial
rubbers from the latex of the trees generally known there as “ Abba”
8
served in British Honduras, where he had become acquainted with the
preparation of what is known in commerce as Nicaragua or Central
American rubber, the produce of Castilloa elastica. A contribution on
this latter subject from Mr. Millson n be found in the Kew Bulletin
for the month of December 1887, p. 1
he investigations under taken by Mr. Millson in West Africa are
described in the following notes which have been poe to this
establishment by the Secretary of State for the Coloni
Badagry, 15th — 1888.
In nearly all the native villages in the western district e bus Colony
of La and, I believe, throughout the colony and interior, aro to be
found large spreading trees, which have been planted for Bladi in the
the fig
market places, streets pounds. These trees are of
family, and are called X ee natives Abba
I have measured a of this species of the age of 13 years, and
found its girth, at 3 feet | ‘rots the ground, to be 6 feet 4 inches, and its
255
height to the branches 12 feet, while its total height could not be less
than 50 or 60 feet, and its foliage area a quarter of an acre. A tree of
this size ought to give large quantities of milk if tapped at the right time
of the year, Althoughit wasin fruit when I tapped it, and the season
being very dry, was in every respect unsuitable, yet the milk exuded
in large drops, and flowed for a considerable distance down the trunk.
Three quarts of milk were extracted from this tree without injuring it
in any way, and I dais little doubt that at any time between the months
of July aud February from four to five gallons could have been ob-
tained with but litile trouble: The trees, however, should only be
tapped on alternate years, so as to leave time for a fresh growth of bark
to replace that which is removed. It is difficult to form an accurate
estimate of the per-centage of dry rubber that pA RE be yielded ay a
gallon of milk, but I have reason to be lieve from M. experi
care yi which it is prepared, and I have reason to believe that the
milk of this species, at least, of tho “ Abba” tree, can be made to give
an excellent sample.
ould the above facts be established, it becomes evident that planta-
tions of the * Abba " tree would be a highly profitable investment. It
is ae by the simple method of cutting offa branch and pushing it
nto the ground, and on account of the facility and rapidity with which
it is raise ed, the natives used it largely for fence posts. From the
trees already i in full growth in the bush and towns a considerable export
trade could be readily established, ie careful planting would develop
this trade to almost an unlimited ex
"he rubber gatherer has no need p expensive implements or heavy
baggage when he goes into the bush to collect and prepare the milk.
He should take half a dozen or more kepem kerosine-oil tins.
With these tins, a sharp cutlass, a few yards of strong cotton cloth, and
a sieve made of doubled muslin fastened like a jelly bag to a round hoo oop,
he has all that he absolutely requires for his work.
On reaching the tree to be tapped, deep incisions are made
side only of the stem and branches, "The milk, as it flows from the i in-
cisions, is directed into the collector’s vessel by a small piece of tin
which is inserted into the bark so as to serve as a spout,
When the day's work is done, the milk should be mixed with an equal
quantity of pure rain water, and strained through the sieve = Bes
kerosine-oil tins, which have been well scalded to rem
traces of grease. The mixture should be left to stand, witho ik Ae
moved or shaken, for 36 hours. "The milk will then have risen to the
surface, and the water and impurities which have sunk can awn
away through a small hole near the vg of the tin 2 which has eges
stopped by a plug of wood. As so white particles are see
pass through the hole vit the visé, the es should "be inserted, p
the Mice milk poured into the prepared tin, with the cotton-cloth
bag in
The milk, having been poured into the bag until the tin is half full,
should e left with. the mouth of the pe well tied, and a square piece
of wood lying on the top of it for 12 hou A bag of sand weighing
about 10 pounds may then be put on to eus top of the piece of wood for
en
from the perforations in the sides and bottom of the tin during this
E BM MMS WER —— — A A*
256
process, and on —, the top of the bag it will be found to offer
tree asdf Md 20 feet long shovld now be cut and
trimmed, or if palm-leaf * bamboos " are obtainable, six or eight of them
can be strongly lashed together. The pole thus obtained should have
upon which it rests. Gre t pressure can be broug ight t to bear by this
simple means on the coagulating | juice. Indeed, it will be ters iex
sable to have the prepared tins replaced i in their wooden
press the milk in them side by side, by placing a flat board früh block a
cph irn allowing the pole to rest upon that rather than n: upon
the zs. Unless some such precautions be taken, the tin will be apt
to bales, and perhaps burst outwards, when full pressure is oti
g of sand should weigh about 100 pounds, and should be hung
as near the tin as possible for 12 med It Mond then be moved along
the pole gradually until it reaches z eud farthest from the tin, where
it Nop d be left for two or three da
ng
out, Ts vill apo be found to Sdhere to the cloth i in the slightest ak
ac
s à white semi-elastic mass, which on exposure to the air will
gradually turn Wachs and will ge in elasticity as it dries.
The samples when prepared should not be unnecessarily exposed to
the sun, but will not be dijs in any way by exposure to rain. They
will, if anything, be improved by immersion in water.
The above method was ‘lien ed when preparing the sample which I
forward as Exhibit No.1. At this season of the year it is difficult to
obtain large enough quantities of milk for extensive piu and
is, how
experiments on which these notes are based when the rains begin and
the trees yield more sap. A fur as Thaci will then be submitted
should any new features present them
Exhibits Nos. 2 and 3 are of Biat, milk coagulated by pressure,
but as an insufficient weight was appl ied, they s show a cellular structure,
and are also not free from impur
Exhibits Nos. 4 and 5 are of hates id sega unwashed milk, and
are of fair quality. This method, how cannot well be appli ied
during the rainy season without the ipiko of artificial heat, which
d have proved to give perg pags results,
ibits Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the penr of „preliminary experi-
257
"xhibit No. 1 ie that the method indicated has been to a certain
extent successful, even under extremely adverse circumstances. It
will, however, be Ps xperts in England to point out the good and bad
EUR of the EE and to declare the price that it ought to
sag TuS in the English market.
These rotes have been strictly limited to the beg quis of certain
Aa to apply the method above described to the preparation of
sidered as in any way final. They serye e. prove the possibility of
ican
market, and any question addr essed to me in writing will als
wit Section, and wi Be answered as fully as my slight
ALVAN MILLSON,
Mr. Silver was kind enough to forward the samples of “ Abba” rubber
to the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company,
Limited, at Silvertown.
The report received on the specimens is as follows :—
Report on Frve SAMPLES of INDIA-RUBBER received from
S. W. SiLvEn, Esq. 6th July 1
'The samples are numbered in accordance with the report of
Mr. az natty n.
1 internally was dark in eolour, almost black, uin & bluish
Tones xar graduall vanishing towards centre, which i arly white,
Tt was strongly alkaline in patel, evidently due toa s little original
tra
0. 2, light eg € Ms i blackened about j inch in
ink tint and vd ra facth alkaline.
ade No. 1, No. 3, No. lw were treated in detail; the
eg gi of the others being too small. Washing and dryi ying, No.1
los e per eent. moisture, No, 3 lost 5 per cent, and No, 4 lost
The AEEA of the drying room was that used for the usual
descriptions of rubber, If the samples had been hung up as usually
adopted, the want of strength and firmness would have “caused them to
258
drop. epa ‘means of drying would have to be devised. "When
No. 1 was very clammy, a = 2: s firmer than No. 1, but not nin
T.
so good as No. 4. No. 4m e more easily handled in drying.
They were all Mat: ‘hort, "win very little elusticity, this might have
been expected from appea of the original samples. They were
‘kept in the drying room no geral than would be required if working
ona een
xed with a a suitable proportion of sulphur and vulcanised, they
nds
tured soft an but were not blistered. With pigments it may be
er uM slightly tougher. It can evidently not be used by
itself in y form. . All the samples were troublesome to work in the
i machines. 1t oid not be right to assume that this behaviour
ness,
- When we take into aecount the great improvements which have
‘béen introduced in preparing certain African and Asiatic varieties of
rubber, manufacturers must feel that the praiseworthy efforts of
"Mr. Alvan Millson to increase our sources of supply are in the right
v ru f
‘in the way these samples have beats prepared is such as to ensure the
best product in a commercial sense, is à most important matter. The
lant tissues, whieh completely modify its character. It is this con-
sideration which would lead one to ask how far the levatan of the
juice of the C ástilloa elis tica can be app pli ed to another plant, the
juice of which, though containing caoutchouc, has very marked secu
Vo
am not aware of any native india-rubber with an acid reaction ;
ven the juice of the Para c tree, Hevea brasiliensis, is distinetly
of amm
alkaline when drawn, and exhales a strong smell onia. The
rubber from this source is: inch In: ting the nuts of the
Urueari s rge quantity of acetic uim is given off, which pro-
variety is obtained from the same source, and is nof smoked although
itis strongly acid, we must consider the yeneration of acid as due to
fermentation, at least in a very great measure. "The samples obtained
from the ‘ * Abba” tree are not acid, but whether the product could be
improved by gine, Paton Mrs ordinary crude acetic acid, which at
the same time would a those changes which are Hable to go on
` afterwards, to the deinen. probably, of the rubber, is worth finding
out. I thought it would be important to ascertain whether the soft
clammy condition of the pos wa e to oxidation, or to the
presence-of resinous matter white pulverulent resin was obtained
from sample No. 4, amoun ting to o 24°48 per cent. of its weight. The
eaoutchoue, b destructive gro pend yelded bendi and the
other produets obtained from dia-rubber. nen resins exist in the
juites of india-rubber yielding plants as a rule they are combined with
water, tes, which is 0 ir use for vulcanizing, since
e
may be bardered by pigments, but its strergth is still v vu low,. It can
259 .
be mixed with other e = ‘rubbers with a corresponding improve-
ment in toughness and s 1.
In a locality so is sts for the growth of india-rubber viris
plants, it would be interesting to know, whether any o of the
without invalidating the produet. Common alum is sometimes found
in the Para r ubber, being used as a medium for coagulating, perhaps it
may be useful in the pr esent case
I was informed by a friend who spent some time in Africa, that a
very large quantity of crude acetic acid was shipped to different parts
on the East Coast some years ago, and was evidently used in preparing
aaben
In smoking india-rubber, any plant may be used which yields acetic
acid, but any plant yielding turpentine or similar products should be
av oided.
The preservative action of the crude acid is enhanced Ad ereosote
and tarry matter present. Para rubber is ice with these,
While forming a favourable opinion of this gum, we cannot fix a
value upon it, as everything will PpO upon hoy far the experimental
working can be verified in working on a larger quantity, As a supp
of this is at present available, we would suggest that a larger quantity
be sent over, say 100 pounds, so that we coul t it in a practical
manner, and. thus give a better opinion as to i commercial value,
supply sufñcient for vasa i use should be s
RUBBER, GUTTA Paia AN
- TELEGRAPH Works Co. ra y
Silvertown.
` The results of the inquiry and the suggestions offered by this esta-
lishment are contained in the following letter addressed to the
Colonial Office for communication to the Government of Lagos :
ROYAL GARDENS, Kew, to COLONIAL OFFICE,
Royal Gardens, Kew,
Sir, September 11, 1888.
I AM desired by Mr, Thiselton Dyer to acknowledge the receipt
ad A gea leta of the 16th June last forwarding papers a and specimens
e Gover eter of Lagos, relative to some experiments which had
been made by Mr, A. Millson on the preparation of rubber from the
From “the botanical specimens forwarded by Mr. Millson, Pr a
Oliver h has arrived at the conclusion that this particular * Abba” tre
ia probably Ficus Vogelii, Miq., a West African rubber tree frat
collected by Vogel at Grand Bassa. This determination, however,
ranches, leaves, flower: s
The various samples of rubber ceived were forwarded, through
ilver, Esq., F.L.S., to the India Rubber, Gutta Pete an
Telegraph Company ( at erto he samples have
trum close
260
It is necessary in the first place to point out that rubber from the
Abba tree similar to that under notice has already been investigated at
this establishment, In the Kew Report for the year 1878, p. a notice
It will be noticed that!in the report furnished by the India Rubber,
Gutta Percha, and Telegraph Works Company it is stated that the
specimens received from Mr. tain show an alkaline OR and that
on this and other grounds, such as the presence of resin and "e soft
clammy condition, “it ean evidently. not be used by itself in any for
>
contain xi ce has very marked chemical differen
he ied of the inquiry so earefully conducted by the India Rubber
mpa d appear to show that the juice of Ficus Vogelii does not
it
hitherto prepared from this tree has been treated with acetic acid, an
ifthis is the eta possibly in this direction may be found a solution of
the problems involved,
It is inibi in any future experiments carried on with india-rubber
on the West Coast that larger samples be forwarded. to this country for
the purpose of testing the quality. In the report it is stated that about
100 Pm unds is necessary to test rubber in a thoroughly practical
ord er to afford every information to the Government of Lagos in
a fa
if the experiments are continued, as it is hoped they will be, and if
the valuable suggestions contained in the report are carefully carried =
pr cvs commercial rubber,
‘Ther W Subjects at the present time of greater importance than
a careful investigation of caoutchouc plants, and the extensive distribu-
tion of Abba trees in West Africa indicates a wide and useful field of
inquiry.
I am, &c.
(Signed) D, Morris,
Min R.G. w Herbert, K.C.B.,
Colonial Office,
Mr, ALvAN Mırisow to Royan Garpens, Kew.
Badagr st Africa, August 16, 1888,
Your letter of the 4th ultimo pos me yesterday. I regret that
the samples of rubber sent by me were—owing to the difficulty of
.7* Para rubber is yielded by Hevea brasiliensis and Accra rubber by Landolphia
» * = * s
261
obtaining pure milk—both small and of inferior quality to those which
have since been made. I was sorry also not to have had an opportunity
of correcting the notes for the press, as I notice several misprints in
em.
were correct in your belief that the name “ Abba” is Picco to
all arboreous fig-trees in this neighbourhood. Of these there is a
remarkable variety. I will ata later date send specimens ant as
you so kindly direct me.
An enterprising firm of Lagos merchants, who have lately established
a branch house in Badagry, have made a fair beginning in the rubber
business.
So far as I can at present see West African rubber will never be
reliable so long as the natives have the preparation in their own hands,
The milk bears transport well, keeps well, and can easily be tested, by
letting a sample (mixed with water) stand for twelve hours in a glass
vessel. Unless merchants employ reliable men to buy and coagulate
the milk, I fear that the trade will be of a very ephemeral natare, Yet
on the other hand it seems clear, from the large numbers of rubber-
giving fig-trees, that a properly conducted trade would be a considerable
source of future prosperity to the whole coast. "The present palm oil
and kernel trade may be said to depend upon the continuance of slavery,
and is indeed in many ways an injury to the people.
The Governor of the Colony, with his usual insight, is encouraging
cocoa-nut planting and other similar industries, which will do much to
improve the general prosperity. He has already proved that the india-
rubber industry i is by no means the least important of these branches of
commerce,
Atvan MiLLsON,
LXI.—LIBERIAN COFFEE AT THE STRAITS
SETTLEMENTS,
(Coffea liberica, Bull.)
About 15 years ago the introduction of a new species of coffee, now
known as Coffea liberica, to supplement Coffea arabica which had
itherto been Eccli cultivated, was looked upon with considerable
interest t tl me the coffee plantations in Ceyl
were threatened with partial, if not total, extinction by the prevalence
of a fun est known as the Ceylon coffee-leaf disease (Hemileia
neci. at "s West Dos the once prosperous mes. s aps
soil, and the pressure of other, ce = the pred more rem tive
cultures. It was claimed that ‘the mo: dy à an
the Arabian; that it could withstand, Bere Praga the attacks of
i for
in and fungoid pests; and tha ble serge at
lower elevations and in localities loe phos poris s as regards
n
e scientific discoverer Te Liberian coffee appears to have been
Afzelius. It was described and figured by Sto in the Transactions
of the agree” Maren e.t cond Seri ries, Bot. I 171,
It is also described by the same author in Flora P Tropical Africa,
yol, III., p. 181.
262
` Liberian or Monrovia coffee is a native m Upper and Lower Guinea,
and was cultivated on the West Coast of Africa in several localities
before it attracted any notice in Europe. T was first introduced as a
cultivated plant into the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1872. It was largely
owing to the action of this lakanen that Liberian coffee, within a
short - period, was w idely preme for vibrant: Dip through-
out British possessions in the tro
Particulars respecting the distribution of Liberian coffee plants from
Kew, and the early history of its culture im different pu. of the
world, are given in the Kew Reports every year from 1872 to 1882.
It is well known that the successful cultivation of palate coffee is
testricied to hilly or mountainous districts, and that only in such
districts will the produce attain its highest value. The Liberian coffee,
on the other hand, being a native of the comparatively low hills of
West Tropical Africa, i is suited to hotter conditions than the Arabian
coffee, and it ean be diii e cultivated in distriets quite unsuited
to the latter. In this lies the chief merit of the new coffee.
s a commercial article Liberian coffee has not hitherto proved so
and pulpy when ae but remain hard and fibrous. Hence it has been
found difficult to husk the beans, as the machinery fond. suitable for
preparing Arabian coffce is not applicable to the Liberian eoffee.
Again the « M skin in the latter is tough and woo dy, and the
labour and percentage of waste entailed in “cle eaning" is increased,
while the aetual mae value is less. Probably, also, in the enlilvation
prefers a warm, moist climate with abundant rains well distributed
through the year.
Should the present high price of coffee be maintained it is not un-
likely that the cultivation of Liberian. coffee w prove sufficiently
remunerative to warrant further attention being pa it.
e understand that in Java the Liberian coffee ihe ios are fermented
ven they are pulped. It is claimed that this process enables the
cleaned much more readily, and that the coffee witinantely
podiet: is brighter in colour and of better quality.
This, if — is a fact of some importance to the growers of
Liberian co
: We hav o Beek led to make the foregoing remarks and review the
present porion of Liberian coffee owing to a ve ery fine sample of this
coffee which lately reached us Mi Malacca, and upon which is based
the following correspondence :
Mr. R. Derry, Forest. Department, Malacca, to Royan, GanpExs, Kew.
Malacca, 50 July, 1
“I am sending you per steamship “Ajax” (Ocean Steam Ship Com:
coffec
So far, no Malacca coffee has been shipped to Europe. I should be
glad to learn the value of the samples sent, kind whether Malacca coffee
would be likely to meet with a market at home,
- R. Derry. s
We are favoured with ariel of th
of coffee which we find as follows :—No.
a consignment of :
coffee in the parchment;from Johore, and it will have to be
sold and we shall have much pleasure in giving ife res result.
not properly dried, and that the parchment -of
coarse
very hard and difficult to clean na left long before. ‘cleani
certainly think if such results can be attained
_ shown by your sample from the T dé Ack Ce disi
Lien it would a be folly, to send the ~~ home here
nt eon of 110° shen de j
264
LXII.—TEA OIL AND CAKE.
(Camellia Sasanqua, 'Thunb.)
In the Annual Report of the re corameht anp lyst of Hong Kong fo or
rawn to the u
ina n
ap cimen of oil-cake, and a decoction of the SAI ns used
in “Chin for various purposes, are also in the Museum from Hong
pe connexion with this subject, the following eren have been pre-
pared by Mr. Charles Ford, F.L.S., Superin ntendent of the Botanical
and ‘Affotestation Department, Heng se rom d ese notes it would
did eum Ch‘á tsai ping might be turned to a useful purpose in
ying worms in soil in — dise plants are grown, and also in
odd them from grass lawn
Botanical Gardens, Hong Kon
September 20. 1887.
reply to your inquiries ier a tho pre spat ration and uses of
While on a botanical tour in the Kwangtung province, from which I
have just returned, I had an opportunity = “inspecting plantations of
the shrub from which the material is obtain d, of seeing mills in which
the article is prepared, and of receiving lafüruntion on both the culti-
vation of the plant and the omn of tea oil from an intelligent and
eourteous old Chinese gentleman
Camellia pers. a Thunb., i is extensively grown in South China
for the production of seeds which yield a valuable oil known as tea oil.
Ch'à tsai "Ua is YE refuse matter left after the oil has been expressed.
The preparation is very simple. The seeds are collected in October or
November, dried and taken to a mill, where they are crushed in a
circular mortar or trough by a pestle drive through it by water power.
'The seeds after being erushed are steamed, and then the mass is placed
in a powerful press, which expresses the oi. The refuse, after the
extraction of the oil, is the tipo known as Ch‘é tsai ping. It is pro-
duced in cakes weighing, when dry, about 3 ozs. and 3} lbs. respectively.
The quality of the two kinds of cake is the same, I am not aware that
anything besides the seeds of Camellia Sasanqua enters into the
Ch'á tsai ping is used by the Chinese as a hair wash, and as soap for
eleansing both the spur and clothes. It is also used for the uli.
eation of earth-worms from the soil in which plants in pots are grown.
In these gardens we jio use it for eradieating earth-worms from grass
lawns. For this purpose the eake is crushed and boiled. The decoction
is then diluted and poured on the grass when the worms come to the
surface of the ground. Asa rule the small worms die, but the larger
ones after a time recover. After being picked up e the grass t i
worms are often given to fowls and ducks, which devour them readily
and apparently thrive on them
effects of the Ch‘a tsai ping with which the worms were
LXIII. —DEMERARA PINK ROOT.
(Spigelia anthelmia, a. z
We recently received from. St. Vincent, West diens specimer
put. Me was Swe ted. d be poison ous to cattle, she
goats, a e fatal in or three h This
identified x Podio Olle AE Spigelia an o eg 3x
natural order
glabrous annual, with two pairs of u
that the „Plant somewhat resembles Pari
(* * Hio of E James ; "There ean be no doubt à
“allied S. and yon en edies, but j
© the unpleasant narcotic the
© especiall
266
LXIV.—F00D GRAINS OF INDIA (continued).
Corx GIGANTEA, ROXB.
In discussing a new variety of the ordinary Job's tears (Coix Lach-
ryma, L.), it was mentioned in Kew Bulletin for June 1888, p. 144,
‘that the fruit possessed little or no nutritive value in the wild state,
and its use was restricted to a few aboriginal tribes in Eastern Bengal
and Assam.
At that time we were aware that some cultivated plants of Coix
yielded a compar aie nutritive grain, but their determination was by
no means certain
e have now _obtaive d, on the suggestion of Sir Joseph Hooker,
sufficient information to warrant us in drawing the co eee that the
cultivated Coix in the Khasia hills as also the cultivated Coix ikkim
This
the female as in the genus, but merous and three fold ; the two
lateral ones sessiie, and the middle one pedicelled ; they are closely
— round à — of the spike. The involucre is ovate, entire
und the cireumfer . . .smooth, glossy . . d [in
the wild plants] sxseodtnply is ha
The portions of the above deberiptión | in italics indicate the characters
which separate this species from C. Lachryma. Other points of dis-
tinction are to be found in the generally larger size of the plants ; in the
absence of spathes to the pedicels ; and in the pedicels not being jointed
(i.e. the fruit is persistent). The chief character of C. gigantea as
distinguished from C. Lachryma is, however, to be found in the male
T arranged in groups of three, the two lateral being
iie while the middle one is pedicelled. In C. Lachryma the male
flo are few in number arranged loosely in the spike and always
in pairs,—one sessile and the other pedicelled. The male flowers in
C. gigantea are numerous, and closely inbricated in a spike nearly
twice as long as in C. Lachryma.
Roxburgh gives the habitat of C. gigantea “ chiefly in the valleys
* amongst the Circar mountains and in Bengal.” There are specimens
in the Kew Herbarium from East Bengal (Griffith) ; from Syong in
the Khasia Hills (Hooker and Thomson, 1850), marked “the usual
eultivated cereal;" from Sikkim, 4,000 feet, wild plants and also
imen marked * cultivated ;" from Mysore, Carnatic, and Malabar
(Stocks and Law); and from Gangetic Plain (Duthie, 1885).
This species is not mentioned as cultivated either by Roxburgh or
Griffith. In most works on economic botany the use of tle grain of
Coix is exclusively associated with C. Lachryma. This is doubtless an
error of identification. We have no evidence that C. Lachryma is
or pete for the sake of the grain, although, as in the Naga Hills, Assam,
n N.W. Luzon, Faeries (fide Vidal), the grain is gathered from
wild plants and eaten. In Sir dosi Hooker: 8 Hinológo Journals, |
vol. i., pp. 289 ard 313, itis stated that “a good deal of Coix is culti-
5^vatod i in the Khasia Hills ; the shell of the cultivated sort is soft and :
the kernel is sweet, whereas the wild Coix is so hard that it cannot
* be broken by the teeth ; each. plant branches two or three times from -
* th and na seven to nine plants grow in each square yard of i
soil; the praia is small, not above 30 or 40 fold.”
The specimens oe ae by Sir Joseph Hooker when in Khas
ich are now in the w Herbarium, show that the eaim Coix ot
of Coix with large es lent seeds, known as Kalepoukpouk, which are
treated like Indian corn, are often for a in the bazaars, and are
cultivated very extensively by the
n order to si at Sha s information contained in the Foop CA :
ished by Professor Chur
Coix gigantea, Roxb.
2: the ants dobili ed to analysis it was found hä d
3 m r removal of the involucre weighed on the average no less t
= s. From four parts by weight of the sample three parts of
abr grain were obtained,—three times the quantity ispum yt —
Lachryma. ;
Mese sa Go 100 ee
aes
E ee with which they have hitherto been oe
--— 25 per cent, of clean grain. In both species the chemical
composition of the grain is remarkable for the quantity of albuminoids |
it contains, and if the soft-shelled cultivated form of C. gigantea was —
more prominently brought into notice, it might prove a much more |
valuable cereal than many now in use in various parts of the tropies. ———
LXV.—YORUBA INDIGO.
(Lonchocarpus cyanescens, Benth.)
With Plate.
_In the Kew — € for March 1888, p. 75, will be found a summary
especial regard to
eta qr back specimen ns from the iger the
mination of the plant yielding Yoruba Aes c been keenly
raised e ew by Captain
Bo :
mmunieated to us by Dr. Trimen, F.R.S., we are —
ni de tham Trustees, to give a drawing of-
n by Professor Oliver taken from the
Linn. Soc, IV. x
-
ocarpus cyanescens, Journ. ue
.) 96: a shrub of twining ee “belonging to the tribe Dalbergiee _
. Stem often 20 he
od 4 to 8
owed at both ends, sae 6
ver Flora Trop. im ii, 2n; ;
a, Schum. et Thonn, r Guin. =
>r Rev, BAe Wood;
'olone. 5 and perhaps the cun rm Š
Oliver states: “This |
i 2
44 T
T
v AW
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Ma eR.
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=
=
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aN
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7.
cdd P.
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L EC
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e A
M. 8.del.etith
a e blue, Common near rivers; plantations of savers bundred.
of this are about Abbeokuta. In cultivation the plant is kept —
dad 7 or 8 feet high; long shoots are eut close, and it becomes short
and spurred and bushy, like eee sinensis when similarly treated.
The y es are gat ered young seen in the specimen), merely
n a mortar into a blac k a sti made into balls the size
drei s “fixed with potash; a fine deep blue is produced, very per-
se Soci years we are entirely indebted to Captain Moloney, C.M.G.,
Governor of Lagos, for specimens of the plant and ultimately for the
. ds which exi been the means of affording us a scientific determina-
tion of the spec
25 ected specimens of Yoruba indigo were brought to this country by
Captain Moloney in 1883, and a portion of these were submitted to
mmercial
ygonum tinc-
cs Chinese or Manchuciad indigo ; Strobi-
Room x es dA dye of
| LXVI. —TRINIDAD IPECACUANHA.
s: (Cephaelis tomentosa, W.) — due
is well known thet he dand br de idal Ipecacuanha* is
een while the supply of the drug is either stationar;
scarcer. Inquiry is therefore naturally direct
*
270
y goy it to ie to some extent that drug which has now become
arce an
" n time ago we received from Mr. J. H. Hart, F.L.S., Superin-
tendent of the Botanic Gardeus at Trinida j specimens of the roots and
leaves of Cephaelis tomentosa, W. e found these were in use in
Trinidad as an emetic, and hoped that their physiological action might -
be due to the same principle as that existing in the true Ipecacuanha.
The plant is a tall shrub, with the younger parts of the stem sog
leaves covered with a shaggy tomentum. 1e
elliptical oblong, acute. The stipules are prominent, two on each side,
not very good, appears in Aublet Plantes de la Guiane Françoise,
t.61. A more recent drawing appeared in the Botanical Magazine,
t. 6696; from a iind grown by “Messrs. Veitch at Chelsea. The species
is described “as a very singular plant, congenerie with that yielding
* medicinal Tpecacuanha, but of very different appearance, a native of
* tropi merica, where it extends from Mexico through British
* Honduras, Nicaragua, United States of Columbia, British Guiana,
* to equatorial Brazil on the east, and to Peru on the west side of the
* Andes. It is found in Trinidad, but in no other of the West India
zs Islands.’
The —— of stems and roots (but apparently not the leaves)
meet 2: r. Hart have prp been investigated by Mr. Francis
note giving his results was re es l befor re the Pharma-
ceutical Conference held at Bath in y Sootna las
It was found ihat traces of an alkaloid were a present resembling
aai ia ee the quantity was so inappreciable that the Eom — =
be ut = zed commercially as a source of Ipecacuanha.
ansom's paper, as it pe in the Phurstmitival ouis,
[3], ns xix., p. 187, is as follows :—
* Mr. R read a note on the examination of the root and stem
of Cephaelis a said to be used in Trinidad for the same
purposes as the ro C. Ipecacuanha, though the root is totally pro
that drug, both ~ Perera! appearance and internal structure,
senc ascertained of traces of an alkaloid which gave a reaction
with mercuric ee resembling that of e tine. But the
physiological action of G0 grains of the root was ibápptesisble: the
amount of alkaloid present must be very small.”
"d
3
4
LXVIL—TREATMENT OF VINES IN FRANCE.
The Vice Office has agente ser the ett letter addressed
o Her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris by Mr. J. A.
ea, Attaché for Europe, he the ihe condition of the
Vine-culture in France :—
Mx Lonp, Paris, Oetober 18th, 1888.
Ty August last Mr. Viette, Minister of Agricultu ure, paid a visit to the
wine-growing di distriets of France; and he is understood to have returned
with a very hopeful report on the prospeets of ANS year’s vintage. Th
; erat: to which the Minister gave special attention were
American vines, submersion, the sese B
sulpho-carbonate of potassium, and the í ;
mildew by what is known as the “ Bouillie Bordela ise." * The methods is
of grafting ee deseribed as having been perfected and su y
extended i in t e Médoc and the department of the Hérault and Gard.
ta Viette communicated to his colleagues and -
to the press the substance of ie Taniko he has received respect ting
the vine cro z
meu old area of Medo has, it appears, been almost entirely replanted. zi
e Hérault and Gard. The total yield of wine for 1888 is fo
,000 hectol. last year, and 8,000,
,000, the Gironde, 2 indica:
ing quali of the wine.
accounts I have had from departiients less D the south than those
noted are not very favourable as to the bre of the grape
mp) of them.
wee
(Signed) T à. Cui.
elei uu. d E
notice on T it that each rain SE
Crees
s ME Duthie gave the following additional information in his report
for the year ending March 31, 1885 :—
.. *'The chocolate-coloured b aie produced 15 maunds grain and 12}
maunds straw per acre. The yield of grain was thus heavier than tho
vent eve g grown
curiosity ; we possess a white-grained variety of. huskless baie: and a
good large sample of this has lately been sent to Kew for special report.
eh i a iae as
&
o
>
e
E
Z2
sample was duly Te vod. se as submitted t
1 price. With FEE to to the origin of these curious cereals, a
communication was read from Captain Pogson at the s of the A
cultaral and Horticultural Society of India on January 29, 1886, in whieh
was stated that Indian wheat-barley, as he termed it, was introduced
Seca the: Punjab and North-western Provinces during 1881, when consider-
able success was secured in the Punjab. He further stated that the
seed was obtained from P 1 Thi Three var
barley art cz vated in Thibet, tdem the white, the dull ¢ green, —
and the dark brown (chceolate-colou
"There is wodbiog rlar tà. Si youd em this huskless barley till the
present year, when = specimens in the Kew Museum
attention of Mr. : e T. Brown, of Burton-on-Trent, who has com-
municated is be pi ia interesting —Á which he has —
Mr z Horace | T. Mies to Rota GARDENS, Kew.
E ee Street ten DNE June 22, 1888, z
Shan" barley wbich yon RM CHINO
Imost wi he jw aie
MOM STRA = pei
since the embryo would be very liable to be separated Pe the t
of the grain.
T'he sample of white sepe barley from Kotgahr, which, bri 1
st free hoe is defect, o owing to the
t xn k Sahárunpur barley conseque
in this particular, ten eis between ordinary barley and
rp isso thin that the plumula bursts through dt at
If, or by the a |
s the plumula until it may its way out at =
are several manifest advanta es in this w.
n lost by the PEAR of thin-skinned varie
ve ur ordinary v
u cou Id get vu me any fresh samples of naked Indi an barley
shou 3 esteem it a favour. One would like to know en i 2008
the nature of the colouring iyu xd black b :
m Ayriorlture t. India,
ctio
7 i e Kew |
-collected at Kyunglung, Tibet ir 14,000 ft.,
s C8. ach of a baee rins aey e name Horde
E subject of the utilisation: of the TER e
_ Hk.) is one which has been viser followed Kew ew or many y
_ The importance of the subject in in India and t
considerable corres, i
274
of Methods (mechanical and chemical) for preparing the fibre of the
Ramie plant. The order was based on the fact considerable
interest was taken in the cultivation of the Ramie plant in Algeria and
rench Colonies generally, and that it was a ma e of nationa
importance to solve the problem of preparing Ramie fibre so as to bring
it within the reach of commercial enterpris
The competition was, in the first EES fixed for the 15th August,
but it was afterwards E ee to the 25th September on account of
the unfavourable season whic een experienced for the growth of
the Ramie plant intended to be ae in the trials.
IMPORTANCE OF THE RAMIE QUESTION.
s well known that the production of the fibre of Ramie in com-
Seii quantities, and in an economical and remunerative manner, has
Bae uedo ne of the most important industrial problems of the present
da t been keenly followed in nearly every part of the world;
y. P
x: e out efforts hitherto made have been confined to India, to the
ian Dosen to the United States, and more recently to
cem ance si her Col
The tsi ot pes nearly 20 years ago, was led to offer a
reward of l. for the best method for sed ao fibre and
— it ina seule condition for textile parpos It was led to
this step by the conviction that the only obstacle to "the development
e
means for decorticating the plant. This was the third time
had become the Subject of official action. The first effort for utilising
this plant was in 1803, when Dr. Roxburgh started the question; the
second was in 1840, when attention was directed to it by water
Jenkins. The offer of 5,0007. in 1869 induced many competi
enter their names, but it was found that no machine fully fulfilled "tbe
conditions laid = own by the Government, and therefore the full prize
wa
s not ay Other unsuccessful attempis were subsequently
made, and eventually the offer of ~~ was withdra
Since that time many thousands «d unds a = spent pim
fibre. ber processes have m: brought forward fr eto time
and it was claimed for each of — that mor um Bo erii the
hopes of their inventors. But ising as these processes
om
were, they do not appear to have pem introduced | tin regular use, and
only one or two have at all come into promin
Naturally the earlier attempts to prepare pcm fibre had followed
the methods already in use in preparing flax, hemp, and jute; but it
was soon evident that as regards Ramie these methods were useless,
i. a v ey fibre of the Ramie plant is embedded in a gummy
offer e greatest obstacle to the production of clean and
bright dreads inue for the spinner.
e ARRANGEMENTS FOR Paris TRIALS.
The nee tis International de la dee recently held at Paris,
toek place in one of the annexes of the proposed exhibition of 1889
on the Quai d'Orsay epus de ? ABK y^ was attended by represen-
tatives from all-parts of the world.
275
It was evident that the proceedings were watched with considerable.
interest by inventors, no less than by persons directly interested in the
rr
?
test Be chemical processes, a mr of Ramie ribbons were available
o be converted into filas
e commission of jurors included M. Tisserand, Councillor of State
and Director of Agriculture, a number of prominent engineers, chemis
evidently men who were acquainted with the eooni problems
connected with the eultivation and utilization of the Ramie ph and
the trials were conducted in a systematie and exhaustive mann
Lisr or PRIZES OFFERED.
s had been offered by the French Government in the following
five itari :—(a.) For a machine to decorticate Ramie in a gree
2
b m
: 5 (ce) For a machine of
a light and portable character driven by horse power, and suitable for
use in the Colonies, 1st prize 700 fr., 2nd prize 500 fr. ; (d.) Fora hand-
power machine of a light and portable puc suitable Ks use in the
Colonies, Ist prize 500 fr., 2nd prize 300 fr.; (e.) For the best E
most economical process (chemical or ERN to convert the Ram
ribbons into commercial filasse suitable for the use of mitt Ru
facturors, Ist prize 1,000 fr., 2nd prize, 700 fr,
The entries previously made at the Ministry of Agriculture ineluded
19 niaciicdn and 10 (che niat processes. On the m morning of the
trials e qe four machines and one chemical process, were submitted to
the juro
THE DELANDTSHEER MACHINE.
Taking the machines in the order in which they stood, the first was
that invented by Delandtsheer of Paris (Décertiqueuse de Ramie
Systéme Delandtsheer). The cost was stated to be 404. ‘This was
a
erushers which received eig t or ue om ata € from the hands
of the operator, and sed them to be beaten by a pair of
rapidly evolving drums var similar in n character to y found in the
Death machine. In the Delandtsheer machine, however, there is a
reverse pomis attached of an effective character, When about five-
sevenths of the lengths of the stems had been cleaned, ref are —_
returned by means of the reverse action to the hands of t rator,
who then presented the unclean ends to the machine ar completed
the operation. ‘The fibre in this case was only moderately well-cleaned ;
there was considerable waste, and the actual amount of rathe r- bruised
om
As the lat
were dried, the calculations dur dry ribbons would be about 6 kilos,
If we take the result at 5j kilos. per hour of dry ribbons, the Delandt-
276
sheer machine wouid produce -y 55 kilos. per day of 10 hours, equal
to about 120 pounds avoirdupois. The commercial value of thes
ribbons at 77. per ton would be Ts. 6d.
The inventor claimed for the Delandtsheer machine that it could
produce 3 ewt. of dry ribbons per day. -'lhe small out-turn at the trial
: cory :
was attributed by hi r character of the stems supplie
ere was some cause for complaint on this head, but ir case it
was diffieult to believe that this machine could föda uce, as wor at
Paris, ribbons in commercial quantity at a vendent cost.
Tue BARBIER MACHINE.
The second machine known as Barbier’s (Décortiqueuse Armand
pour Ramie et toutes les plantes textiles: Constructeur Paul
Barbier, Paris) was very similar in construction to io Delandtsheer
I
machine already described. The cost was the same, viz., 407. was
also fitted with a reverse action. The feed-plate was erteontat and
the operator handled about 8 to 10 stems at a time. The fibre was
somewhat severely bruised in cleaning. In the first ier with dry stems
it produced 3:6 kilos. per hour of ribbons. With green stems it pro-
dueed only 7:5 kilos, in 47 minutes. "There was a tite ge amount of
waste, and owing to the fibre being pushed backwards “and forwards
between the revolving beaters, the ends were often ig tangled.
Tt was mS by the inventor that this machine reat 2,5
kilos. of gr tems per day of 10 hours, pee 125 kilos. uae c
of dry) ibas worth 50 fraus per 100 kilos
A machine illustrative of the Systéme Lasalle imer eai by H.
Chasles, Paris) was on the ground, but it was unable to compete in the
trials. For the purpose of this report it may be d without further
notice.
tine OF cig one FIBRE SST
No. 18, E why. New Yu under the charge uf Mr. Noble. This
in use, and d few s of deseripti E
cu = = 6 in. long and support dards abou ft. hig
c] a wooden structure designed to receive the
movable Kaai in which the stems were placed. The feeding was vertical
a taining about ste laced above n
poii working hor izontally through the whole length of the machine,
By means of a movable bottom in the feeding frame, the stems were
di ee base-end downwards between the rollers which slightly crushed
th Ee ly held in the machine the stems were pressed
gain
length. After this they were bent in such a manner that the woody
» d :
s we
latter was ultimately delivered in two ribbons, one on each side of the
machine. In this instance all that was attempted was to separate the
fibrous bark from the stems and deliver the former in broad ribbons,
almost intact. No attempt was made to remove the corky e idermis
or separate in any way the constituent fibres, ‘This machine was worked
y steam-power and required three men to attend to it. e cost was
no . It was tried on green stems only, and produced at the first
trial 7 kilos. of wet ribbous in 18 minutes. At the second trial it pro-
duced 12-8 kilos. of wet ribbons in 38 minutes. These results would
oe
ys
©
5
be equivalent to 21 kilos. of wet ribbons per hour (Ge allowing o i
third of the weight for dry ribbons) equal to about 15 í
avoirdupois o bons per ho us
ed som e machine, as shown at Paris, i
is needless to remark, was prekati; useless for commercial purpostai
Tue Rorer Cuemicat Process.
ing) for textile purposes was shown
by the i
s Pi
proces
the 30th Septe:
the general opinion of those present was not f: avourable to the process
dome ture on the 26th September nu dl )
Sony os -trials with dry ] Ramie
hile the third was
as day was
-the Pau" Ramie siens w 1
a ; peas chemieal process for converting ribbons. iie
fourth day ydo jury earetly examined the co construction:
. "tested by a dynomometer the powers necessa
in the machines in
278
. These are, briefly stated, the results of the Paris trials on Ram
That the results are unsatisfactory and ie iron and fall far hat
of the estimates of the inventors, there can be no matter of doubt. It is
probable that a fresh series of trials will be ciet next year in
connexion with Exhibition of 1889 ; and if the value of the
aris
prizes is increased there will — appear a larger and better repre-
sentation of machines und proces
Tus FAVIER SYSTEM.
It will be noticed that there was no trial this year of the Favier
system which is in operation in Spain, and is described in the
Kew Bulletin hà June 1888, pp. 145-149. Nor was there a trial
nachine (constructed by Death and Ellwood of
of th
Leicester), whi n has been in use, experimently, in many parts of
the world. ‘The Favier process is being worked privately, and is
therefore rot available to the public. The fibre hitherto produced
has been e y used in France; but the quantity so far available
as not been sufficient to base an opinion as to the permanency of t
enterprise ier, who has Fn taken a deep interest in the Ramie
has jo eae on the sri to the Journal Pindustrie Pro-
gressive of October 7 et seg. may be looked upon as embodying the
views of one of the best informed of French experts on the present
position of the Ramie question
Tue TREATMENT OF Dry As AGAINST GREEN RAMIE STEMS.
Amongst the French there is attached an importance beyond their
value to machines for cleaning Ramie in the dry state. This has arise
doubt from the fact that the Favier system nly one
grow one or two crops of Ramie, and eut and harvest the stems in summer
and work them off at their leisure during the speculi a shine
were devised to treat Ramie successfully, it is imprcbable that France
could compete with tropical and sub-tro opica E ee ps ae three
four crops of stems could be reaped in the This conclusion is new
being gradually adopted in France, and the (mms Sepa of Ramie
is treated a qu or. which more nearly concerns Algiers and the
French tropical —
As regards I - our own Colonies, it is essential that Ramie
machines should work upon the green stems, and not upon the. dry.
n the rainy season, when the air is impregnated with — to dr
Ramie stems in the open year after eutting woul impossibility.
"To attempt to dry by artifieial means the enormous quantity of stems
yielded even by a few aeres would entail so much labour in m
and so much expense for buildings and fuel that it would be altogether
a hopeless task.
"The per-centage of crude cali yielded ry Ramie stems is estimated at
about 10 per cent. If the stems must- be first dried before they are
in and cart out agai
treated, it would be neces handle, to cart t in
rying sheds, 100 e of stems ery 10 tons of "veis produced
Tt might be su arvesting the stems shou in 1 e
— in the open air.
WA
v.
d
279
This panes would not be Ls gies The stems grow best
during the rainy on, and when once ripe they must be cut at once.
Besides, it is evident that the sooner one crop is removed the better
will be the prospects of the next. During the dry season the stems
A and i
internodes, are very woody, and offer relatively greater resistance to
the process of No cMior.
OTHER PROCESSES AND MACHINES.
Of processes and machines not already mertioned, it is desirable to
refer to one or two for the information of persons who m may not other-
i rear 2
wW then operated upon by other processes and
eventually it was deprived of gum and mucilage and worked into a toler-
able fair fibre suitable for manipulation by textile manufacturers. This
fibre was reported by Messrs. Ide and Christie as “long, fairly cleaned
mie fibre worth about 28/. perton." ‘The particulars iof Mr. Maries's
methods ies not been made public; but we understand that a well-
known firm of merchants in Calcutta has acquired the patent connected
witk Then, and the system is now in course of being practically tested.
on a large scale.
In the hes of the Times there recently appeared an account of
a machine invented by Mr. John Orr Wallace, and placed on view at
the Irish Exhibition. This was artes a “patent scutching machine
* for cleaning ramie, flax, hemp, &e.” The apparatus is about 6 ft.
aich t
came which deliver the stems downwards between five pairs of
e tw ap .
downwards by rollers which have an intermittent motion, and at each
momentary pause, the pricking pins enter the material and are _—
withdrawn from it. By degrees this fibrous- ME curtain
over which table the woody su ce has previously passed to a receiver
ina
crushed X semi- pedo pened on, int perfectly free from fibre.
is machine, it may be mentioned, was not constructed for the special
i clea ie i
of 1 ewt. per ho
The machine can be driven bra two-horse power engine, and it requires
two persons to feed and tend it
Small quantities of Ramie stems grown at Kew have been s
publie test similar to that adopted at the Paris trials. | For this pep
special adv vantages connected with this machine
| ana to bá mentioned. In the first place
teste t least 40 stems can be fed to the rollers
fed ave been fully grasped by the doa
nO! jen = hold upon them any longer. The
1 the
express an opinion ms =
mor mi than
and it is
Ramie qnem the results
^at is done i is
tion
us.
a mac weh possesses
which, with further improvements,
of service in the production of fair marketable fibre.
Gesenat CONCLUSIONS.
kers recently in informed me: “
Official Copy.
[AU Rights Reserved.}
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW.
BULLETIN
OF
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
No. 24.] DECEMBER. [1888.
LXX.—INHAMBANE COPAL.
(Copaifera Gorskiana, Benth.)
The term copal i is commercially applied to various hard gum
yielded by certain she um eal and sub-tropical trees. In the iei vot
eases copal is obtained in a scmi-fossil state on land where no trees at
> e
other eases what may be termed recent copal is a gum-resin in a com-
paratively fresh state odisetad from living trees or from trees in a state
There are numerous commercial distinctions between varieties of
opal. It is unnecessary here to do more than draw attention to some
of oo chief plants yielding these substances. Zanzibar copal, or Anime,
the most valuable of any now used in commerce, is obtained from
Tr etre tak T rie pi E Sierra Leone copal is derived
from Copaifera Guibourtiana, Bent What are known as Lis
copal, recent and fosssil; pebbly as from i on the Gold Coast,
LOND :
PRINTED ae Hec ogni i hcm OFFICE,
E AND SPOTTISW
inu TO ae QURE N's MOST EXCELLENT E
And to be purchased, either directly or through any iy Bookseller, fro:
EYRE AND oe pasen East HARDING STREET, dox STREET, E.C, and
2, ABINGDON STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W.:
ADAM AN re | CHARLES BLACK, 6, NORTH BRIDGE, Corian, or
HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN
1888.
Price Twopence,
282
and Benguila copal, ave all probably dcn by species of Copaifera,
has t b
but material for their determination ret been received. Sierra
Leone and other fossil African copals are vu foundation of all fine var-
nishes. ‘The locust tree of tropical South America (Hymenea Courbaril,
ust
.) yields a resinous substance resembling gum anime, which i s found
in masses in cavities, and at the bases of old trees. The vittime:
Dammar, or Kauri i,gum of New Zealand is yielded by Dammara
forests, and the exports from New Zealand in 1883 were 6,518 tons, of
the value of 336,606/. Indian copal, or white dammar, used in varnish
on the Malabar coast, is obtained from Vateria indica, L. Black
dammar is the produce of Canarium strictum, Roxb.
Recently a new source of copal has been heirt in South-east
Africa, which has created a good deal of inter
The first particulars pueg this new pe communicated to this
establishment are summa in a communication made by Mr.
Thiselton e to the Lum Society (Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. xx. pp.
In the course of last year we received from the Foreign Office a copy
ot a despatch D ated June 11th, 1882) to the s lined of State from
Henry G Ma ae di Consul for Mozambique. I
extract the following passage
our to sn that from Mr. — Heathcote, :
trade of that place. He had just returned from an expedition to the
interior, and writes: * The forest where I obtained this gum, of which I
* send you specimens (I have collected six tons), is fully 200 miles long.
* It is a belt which runs parallel with the coast and the first range of
* mountains; from Inhambane it is nearly 100 miles to get right into it,
* The distance of the forest from Inhambane may retard its being opened
* up; but its discovery adds to the known wealth of the district, and a
* new export to the place.’ Mr. Heathcote further adds : * The native
name of the gum is Stakate and Staka ; the Zulu name for the gum is
* Inthlaka, The tree domineers over all. The gum has a
beautiful odour if pounded and burnt, also if boiled in a pot of water,
‘The or dinary gum copal tree of the mainland of Zanzibar and Mozam-
bique though, as a rule, lofty, i is by no means of the striking stature
indicated by Mr. Heathcote.
The first thing that struck ns from a superficial examination of the
specimens uim by Mr. O'Neill was that they were entirely different in
appearance ordinary East African copal (the produce of Trachy-
lobium Horned exported from Z anzibar. T hey consisted in
part of waterworn pebbles, and very much resemble the ees copal}
which is exported from the West Coast of Africa. They are destitute
of the characteristic goose-skin texture frequently dieere in Zanzibar
A
* Some extracts from Consol O'Neills despatch appeared in Nature for
Aug. 10, 1382, p. 351, but I reprođuce the substance here in order to: make the
plete.
f An vetu piece by Dr. Welwitsch on West African Copals, in J'ourn. rues
Noe 1X., pp. 257-302, may be consulted; it does not, however, carry o
knowledge very fa far
copal, and, as Sir Jobe Kirk informs me, possess an entirely d
roduct was not identical with Zanzibar copal was further
report with which Messrs, Robert Ingham Clark and
‘ commercial value to them ; but as they now are, and
together to represent one bulk, we should say their value would be
about 80/. to 1007. a ton Certain descriptions of animi
shipped in a very clean and picked state from Zanzibar sell in this
market as high as 4007. a ton.
With a avs despatch dated February Lith, EE Consul (
sent samples of the leaves and bark of the tree yiel ni ali i
copal. pnie that Consul O’Neill’s collectors have made no mis-
take in the identification, Professor Oliver, the Keeper = the Ke
5 Herbarium, was satisfied that the leaves afforded s ufficien
. the species as Copaifera Gorskiana, FET Although it is ated in
Flora of Tropical Africa (vol. ii. 315), on the I| = Sir
John Kirk, that this tree affords a abel hard timber, à
interesting on acco
blance of Inhambane to Accra copal. The latter has Tong been suspected
to be produced by a species of Copaifera. Sierra Leone copal is
tained to be derived from Copaife ibourtiana,
genera, and py species on both the east and west coasts. Lan
orida, s m CUP vius i is a seo example
Saey tothe date of the above communiontion, urther
ns of cendi ina. fruit. receive i
1886. The pru fortunately con
rom these several hundred plants wer
284
LXXI.—THE CULTIVATION OF RICE IN BENGAL.
The following interesting summary of e e respecting rice
eulture in Bengal has been communicated by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S.,
well known as an accomplished Indian iar Mr. C. B. Clarke was
a mem of the Bengal Fducátio on Department sie is the author of
several tepis published at Calcutta, but inaccessible in England, dealing
x rice cultu ossessing considerable practical knowledge ‘of rural
my, his yiews on Aue subject, based on personal observation, are
cited with piile frankness; even those who may be indisposed to
with him Aek must feel that on a ia of this nature it
is very desirable to t throw as much light as possible :—
DEAR Mz. ——— Dre Kes ne aer endi
pers at hand, nor any notes, and what I now write must be deficient
altogether in quantities, and imperfect in many other ways. M
account refers to the Lieutenant-Governor ship of Bengal only.
engal several hundred varieties of rice are distinguished, named,
enl - exiltivated. I have written of them under three main heads,
viz. :—
a .) Rowa; harvested in November-January ; grown mainly in small
fields surrounded by a bank 4-12 inches high, and often at no period
of growth more than 6-12 inches deep in water.
(2. mon; harvested in November-January ; swamp-rice, ape
2-8 feet (locally eo 14 feet) deep in water for several weeks
—— nein Sept etr
3. rested June-August
It is perhaps ardly necessary to state that — are numerous
sorts of rice fania to the above three. The Rowa is the most
valusble crop; an proceed to describe the cultiv Min of what I
have skis as the type variety.
Tue Rowa Crop.
Rowa can only be grewn where there is some clay in the soil to
preveut the water slipping away ; the finest Rowa is grown where the
small bank round each little field retains the ur rains (which are
usually oon broken), so that throughout October the Rowa is always
in inud, but rarely 6 inches deep in i the wate. go such Rowa e
there is very rarely any second crop; the n iem untouched fro
December or January (when one crop comes off) till Ju ij-Sipiseibet
(when the next is dibbled). It grows a Ro d every year—
and East Bengal I believe it is necessary to go back m human
memory when an altogether abnormal failure in the ainy season
occurred, The Bengalees, with that inverted view " politiend economy
favourite to them, have several times given me, as the reason w y
second crop in the year is not taken from the Rowa land, that the Rowa
mences what we call (by a misemploy of the English language)
ploughing. His implement is a vertical post. with a “flat shoe at the
base, all of wood; it is, in brief, a simple dultvtor: Many of the fields
285
do not contain 10 perches, and very many not a rood, in area; and
within the small plot bounded by his little bank the cultivator goes
round and round and across and back again in a very promiscuous
frame; but the “plough” often goes over the ground behind the
mowee again y the combined operation of these implements the
field to a depth of 4 to 6 inches is reduce a stiff mud, the water
remaining mostly in the upper portion; the weeds, especially the
reeping grasses, having been thoroughly picked out and laid mostly
a seed-bed) with a stick ; it gets a firm hold on the * pan," the surface
of the undisturbed soil. The seed-bed is usually in the village or near
the cultivator’s hut, 7.e., in unflooded land, where rice for dibbling is
raised in a dense mass on a very small plot; and if not dibbled out
exactly at the right age soon gets very yellow. The Rowa rice requires
nothing more done to it till the day it is harvested; where the land is
terraced, and to a less extent in the apparently dead flat of Bengal, the
water requires a little watching and regulation. But no wee ing is
required; the Rowa has a fine start of the weeds; there should be no
creeping grasses left; a great multitude of annual weeds of ma y
species grow iu the Rowa fields, but they are mostly low, and they exert
no appreciable effect on the cro
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rice completely which then perishes, but in general the water rises (in
; B i end of August
(or till the middle of September sometimes) and then sinks away as
286
teadily—often more rapidly. ‘The way in — the Amon is got in
atl
varies very greatly with the circumstances of t
In Central and Taneri Bengal (as in all alluvial deltas) the ness he
the anastomosing rivers are usually dem ost elevated groun
these sd commonly the villazes stand. As you walk in Abs cold
season from one river to the next you insensibly descend from the
Sr bank tin you come to the * bheel" which at this season ma
similarly from the bheel till you come to the bank of the next river.
Now this bbeel will begin to swell in spring— sometimes as early as
April (when the April showers are dud quee not till June if
and of land round the
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covers the whole country eru tia narrow belt by the rivers occupied
by the villages; and the getting in the Amon may thus extend for
three months. If the water rises very nicely = steadily the Amon
may be dibbled, provided there is a seed-bed of rice just ready at the
moment require red, or the cultivator may be driven i sow it broadcast ;
or if e water rises ien ien jumps the cultivators may fail to piens
e Amon, i ec
earlier tina the Bow wa. dre is not only a coarser, less valuable rice
. d - ite
toil to the cultivator. “Oori” is belie ved to be the wild state of
za sativa, the origin of our cultivated rices, and being so nearly
allied it is pres the most pestiferous weed of rice. vier Amon is
in
in their hosti us their fields; they then get down into the water and
which return to the village as small veris hagetücks s the Oori is
the village, just above the water evel. .I do not know how, in this
young state, the saly ators tell the Oori from the Amon. I cannot.
The Oori grain is good in quality, but so very caducous that it is impos-
sible to harvest it on any considerable scale. The children often do,
with the aid of a large cloth, harvest the Oori that fruits in ditches and
waste corners and so collect a considerable quantity of good grain. The
typical Amon swamp-rice has often a pink tinge on the husked grain ;
it i the ma
i
considered of very inferior quality to Rowa and is always muc
cheaper. [In Behar the masses do not get ‘ist as the Desepel part of
their food. ]
THE owsa OR SPRING RICE CROP.
Owsh, or spring rice, is much smaller in quantity than the preceding
two classes, though hera are highly-valued varieties raised in
urisal, But, as a whole, sh may be treated as generally of very
small i E famine of 1874 a wsh erop in Central
Bengal (Zillah Jessore, &e.) early reduced the pressure for
I
Owsh oe there is oed always grown annually a second crop that is
not rie
On itiolading the above description, and before going on to criticise
fashionable schemes for teaching the natives how to grow rice better; I
287
should warn you that many points in the above description have been
controverted ; and in partieular it has been asserted, not only by Caleutta
4 cs
English newspapers, but by Government officers, that there exists no
such rice as I have described as Rowa.
RENOVATION oF Som ın Rice FIELDS.
In the Rowa fields, as I describe them, the rice gets only rain-water,
and the water drains from the fields into the rivers. Liebie says that
i gal every year in the same
e rivers annually replenish the soil
n the west side of
Burdwan to Orissa, the hills rise in many places gradually, and we see
e
inundated from the rivers. As we proceed further into the western
ills we find V-shaped valleys terraced in narrow curved platforms ;
the rain-water is led down gradually from one to anot 1er'; there is on
the outer edge of each platform a little bank, usually not more than 6 to
12 inches high, and the rice is therefore never more than a few inches
land Roxburgh refers to, his account being drawn up in the Circars
immediately south of Orissa, Not rarely in this kind of rice cultivation
a bank is drawn across the upper part of the valley and a tank formed
silt from the rivers.
In the north and east of Bengal the hills rise very suddenly from the
plains; there is little terraced rice, but there is a broad belt of land in
which there is enough clay in the soil for Rowa, that extends from
Mymensingh to Chittagong, In the most valuable rice land, as on the
right hank of the Bruhmapootra, throughout the Zilla of Mymensingh,
the water runs from the rice fields to the Bruhma ootra, and the fields
Noakhili. The gross produce of swamp rice may be about as gea
that of Rowa, though raised at a greater cost of labour; but the value
of the crop per aere is very much less.
am prepared to go further and to doubt whether even swamp rice
gets much silt. Where the water from amuddy rapid river gets through
its bank (which is the highest part of the country) and spreads out over
288
the lower country bey ond, it loses its velocity very fast, and therefore
drops all its silt in the “ba nk,” ie, near the river it has left. If this
may be a quarter of a mile wide) would not be the highest parts of the
country. In fact, in pervect rice, the water is pem still and bom
evidently all or very nearly all rain-water. Where the land i well
silted, as in the case of large sandbanks, it is ebie to Wis "T
Botanie Garden, was of opinion that in these rice fields the sm n ative
power of the soil is sufficient, under the sun and rain of Bengal, to go
on growing the present crops of rice indefinitely.
IMPROVEMENT IN Rice CULTURE.
ot I pope is ee that have been made to teach the Bengalees
to gro A favourite proposal is to give them an
English Eg which shall go deeper than the native cultivator and
bring up fresh soil. I pass by the ‘practical difficulty that in none of
the terraced fields and in none of the small fields, without a revolution in
boundaries and customs, could such a plough be used, The plough is
the most perfect i mplement yet devised for setting in cree ping grasses,
g ns and sees a pat
couch grass in the fallow he misses that patch with the Penis: er =
some ay aee in early summer he turns in a party of boys to the
ughly out. — bad (or about-to-quit) farmers wili ‘plough
a field fail of creeping grass to get a corn crop; they get an gres.
corn crop and the field is f found Ps pr parlance) to ek * clean
run out," or (as I should rather put it) to o thoroughly foul that it
will take two years at — ard a heavy ep * get it straight. Now
in India we have, not one or two, but many ereeping grasses to eontend
with ; the safety of the diede cultivator is that he has a hard pan,
impervious to creeping grasses, which his cultivator travels upon but
broken. He get i
water i t. y add that if a Bengal field was ploughed with an
English d nuns just before dibbing, I doubt whether the rice would get
a firm enou g
have no doubt this id be the result. The "En glis à skilled agri-
eulturist in this ease would have been md to have on land perfeetly
clean before he commenced on it with his English plou
] am not at all oe manm a pom in applying the English plough in
B ee hands in Bengal. ney it w be
exceedingly difficult to af a Bengali cultivator e clean hi s land
289
N before ploughing, or to undertake any extra labour to pe
a better crop in a bad season ; he would say that if the rain should n
ast on the average time that would $ the will of Providence, ane
over (as see below) I think there is something easier than deep ploughing
which might be done to assist the crop when the rain stops too early,
Manvurine Rick FrELDs.
A second favourite proposal is that the Bengalee cultivator should be
taught to manure is rice. It has — urged on the Lieutenant-
The Bengalee eultivator has little manure and he applies what he has
mainly to his cold bh a i crops. There is a considerable quantity of
cowdung used for fuel. It might be possible to forbid by police ukase
the burning cf cowdung i in Caleutta and its suburban sene tati
do not think it would be remunerative to purchase extraneous manures.
The effect of manure may be considered as similar tb Pu t of deep
ploughing, and it must be recollected that it is quite possible to get corn
too st The rice crops, when a full one, often suffers before harvest
by petting laid into the mud and water when the eL is Pile up
n November ; this is especially the case with the Am
EXPERIMENTS WITH CAROLINA Rick.
ird Government plan has been to introduce eter
Ak as
foreign "prolific sorts of rice. The Carolina rice has a arge grain ; it
does not follow that the produce per aere would be larger, far less that
th i
it oai be more valuable than that of Bengalee small-grained kinds.
Government for 20 years past has been sending round this Carolina rice
for trial in Bengal. A ba d a is sent to each collector; the
and the dibbling early. There was a very heavy crop, but no native
dealer would purchase it, and it was finally „bought by a European
merchant for export to ea ndon. Government is still (up to three years
ago) sending round bags of experimental Carolina rice to the collectors.
The Bengalees distinguish shades of flavour in rice; they do not like
American or Burmese rice; they do not like large-erained coarse rice ;
and they do not like newly harvested rice, as the say it disagrees with
them extremely, The Rowa rice in Mymensingh, harvested in December
is kept in raised well-thatched granaries till the following August,
when the Calcutta traders’ large boats arrive; it reaches Calcutta just
In the 18
aged enough for the Caleutta baboos to f 4 famine
Government import urmese rice largely into Behar =z distributed
rations of it to those emplo oyed on the famine relief wor But thes
recipients largely sold their ete to traders, by whom the) Burmese rice
was exported back to Burm
SUGGESTIONS ror Improvine Rick CULTURE.
I concluded my first (1868) paper on rice um saying that I did mot
think we had much to teach the Bengalees in ‘rice growing; and this
stasenicnt did not, I fear, conduce to the popularity “of that paper. I
E 56362. n
290
will venture here to mention a few points where I see the best chance of
mene nts being effec
nost important point is that the Rowa should be dibbled out as
early as T ible. iis is in general not done; the rain comes, and by
the mi Pes of July the cat ator us his field but the plants for dibbling
are not ready ; a month or eeks later often he cultivates his field
over again and dibbles it. Ones reason of this is the deep-seated Bengalee
prineiple never to do to- Su what = pa be put off till to-morrow,
and to do everything incompletely ; he says, “it is not quite as it should
* be, Sahib, but it will aet p vi "p he real diffieulty in intro-
w no Sor Kiss rice that was dibbled between Ist August
f rd rice; while if the rain stops between Ist and 15th October the
forward rice gives nevertheless an excellent crop. Many of the simple
o
due to their Lai Sie in dibbling; but I have never spent a whole
season among these peoples.
difficulty i is dutéünisted, itis true, in dibbling rice in Bengal c
the uncertainty of foreseeing the exact time when the land will
ready for r dibbling, so that it is impossible to raise the seed-bed to fit;
the rice must be a certain length for dibbling and cannot stand over
long in the seed bed, so that the native eultivator plants his seed bed in
fair average time; rather late than otherwise. It thus often happens
that the field is wet enough for tilth before the seed bed is ready for
dibbling ; and in one season I saw in Burdwan the water came so late
that. the seed-bed rice = seriously injured (and some dead) before it
could be dibbled and a defic nr. es the. Burdwan a ensued. But
this difficulty could surely be met by some combination among the
cultivators to have a series of paras * to follow in succession,"
RAILWAYS AND TANKs.
For the increase of the gross rice produce in Bengal Seat s= ba pan
unication
a
margin o the eae Sina would be made to grow rice, if com-
munications gave a good market. Also irrigation tanks could be largely
increased in ‘Chota Nag fiore where the long gradual slopes at the head-
*
of the valleys lend themselves to such. -Communications in Bengal
tion of European enterprise, for no well-educated Bengalee wishes to
live in the wilderness; and the o ing of a railway produces a line of
schools, where before, at great direct cost to Government in paying
ones "teachers, no satisfactory schools could be kept.
Whatever is to be taught the Bengalee cultivator must be taught by
example. It is no use whatever to “lecture him; it is absurd to expect
him to adopt a new, outlandish, and troablesonie process unless you
show him clearly t at it is remunerative. You must therefore have
model farms in central, accessible situations where this can be shown,
291
OTHER Crops. 7
_ I fear that it will be very difficult for Gover pe to show remunera-
thought that if one tenth of the ‘English ener ey | y ad aee had been
devoted to the wild date palm (Phenix sylv Me d, that have been devoted
to tea, the results would à been very surprising. Few educated natives
take any real interest in agriculture; on the European tea planta-
tions Bengalee baboos are kept as clerks in the office ; but as overseer
both in the field and in the factory, Paharias are usually preferred to
Bengalees. The Bengaiee sete esteems rice as the great crop;
and, “if he tries to grow any other, be it sugar cane or onions, his one
idea is irrigation, My view is that rice is the very last crop on which
we should attempt to give the Bengalee instruction.
C. B. CLARKE.
LXXII.—SILKWORM THORN.
( Cudrania triloba, Hance.)
With Plate,
This is a tree evidently of wide distribution in Met and known as
the Silkworm Thorn. Its Chinese name is Tsa. It belon
shrubby tree it was introduced to this country in 1872, and a plant
(bearing staminate flowers only) growing at Kew has pr oved sufficiently
hardy to stand the winter in the open ground. The juvenile shoots are
armed with strong, straight-pointed, axillary ; ema while the leaves on
the same shoots are broadly three-lobed. entral lobe is Mire
deltoid and much longer than che side lobes, e leaves of matur
fruiting branches are entire, broadly elliptical or obovnte-elliptiill vu
i
smooth above, pale beneath, 21— 41 inches long and 11— 23 inches
broad ; the petioles are 1—1 in ich lon
(dicecious) flowers are = come heads (capitula) single
the axils of the leaves.
somewhat hard, and shin
n pairs in
he fruiting capitulum is elliptical, pete
The plant was escribe under its aoe name mf the - Dr. - ;
Hance, in Journal of ENS ^ ME
9.
The synonymy is Gudra ania tricuspidata, Bur. in Jav, Arb Segre z. 243,
and Maclura tricuspi ta, , fig. 37. and
«Hork
1872, 56, fig, d: It is also igei ind: setar ib "Nicholson, Dict. :
Its extensive ene: eben in China may be gathered from the fact that —
-there are specimens in the Kew Herbarium from Sha tung ghai,
Binge, Ichang, Kap Kwsalung, and Hooper Island, Corean Archi-
e ite t i
Chinese plants. Dr. Henry states that the Silkworm
— to be as good for silkworms as the mulberry, but it is not used
long as mulberry leaves can be had, because the tree is thorny and it
is bt odi to pick off the leaves. It is given chiefly to adult silk-
B2
QU ae
Bi 2
'The staminate amd ‘Distillate A
horn is cone
ipee nen es soon betoi finished it is sick used.
t of aout 20
ted to the Bentham "Trustees for the opportunity
add this interesting plant from the Zeones Plantarum,
; VIL, = 1192.
Explanation of Plate.— Fig. 1. bugie — 3. Stamen and subtending
h segment. 3. Pi ur ate flower, rsed in its capitulum. 4. Sing
e flower remov e in se Sec T. Portion of fruiting capitulum.
fuit and Ryle Base: s. ‘Fre laid open, 9, Embryo. Enlarg
LXXIIL— JAMAICA INDIA RUBBER.
eres duh G. Don.)
r.
ese subjects are, Nicaragua, or Puts
uber (Casita elige) Kew Bulletin, Dec. 1887, E
arrieballi -
p. 1
0 merara rubber (Forsteronia gracilis), Mare
p. 69; and Lagos rubber (Ficus Vogelii), November
a further note on a new rubber
is eon locally as the milk wythe, or milk vin
irel; confined to .the Island of Jamaica, and is dandi
mountain woods of the interior = th
ter an t Elizabeth. It is closely allied to the
plant already mentioned, but the caoutchouc, judging
) imd ene nade the I India~ evga ta G
- The report of the India-rubber, Gutta-percha, and Telegraph Com:
Pay of Silvertown, obtained th rough S. W. Silver, Esq., F.L.S., pr
that this nat ive rubber of Jamaica is of high aduta value, and it
might give rise to an Bod aah local industry if it were found possi
to increase the piant by cultivation and to pursue the subject in
ees z er, :
s latter point the Government of Jamaica will, no doub
consult Mr. Favo weett, Director of the Botanical Dep
di
Jamaiea might be glad to be placed in possession of in io
Vou a ie rubber plant which stands so high in intrinsic r
Vari samples of commercial rubber manufactured from the Jannis
clit are enclosed,
(Sigue) e Momnm.
Edward Wingfield , Esq.,
Colonial Office,
[ Enclosure, |
INDIA-RUBBER, dde pe AND TELEGRAPH ROR Company 1
OYAL GARDENS, KEW
Silvertown, London, E dde E 1888,
e sample received with letter from Kew, 2th Septem!
1888, consistad of a lactescent juice ny coagulate idi a a ‘ong!
cid reaction. bein y it was contained in a stout - ot!
cud : 10 ounces capac
s rtion which had coagulated in the boite could be à
only by fracturing the same i
B-
294
mother-liquor should not be thrown away, but should be continually
worked up with fresh juice.
"The method recently g given by 3 Mr. Alvan Millson for the recovery of
caoutchouc from the “Abba” tree, is admirably adapted for the
ve et of the juice of the Forsteronia floribunda.
rubber from this plant is so remarkably good that no time should
be lost in submitting samples — red on the spot. The rubber cannot
be seriously deteriorated by any process likely to be used in its recovery.
ere is n ~ seat but - the examination of the natural juice of a
plant p in most cases, enable one to point out what epom,
should be taken t o ensure the best result; still the fact must not be
sight of that such an examination might lead one to suggest hen
difficult of being carried o out. e surrounding circumstances,
and Washed: caou choue, o 22 ounces or ordinary crude caoutchoue
as generally met "with, bor ees
A. About 21 ounces of this daot was recovered, the weight being
that of the washed and drjed article. In colour and strength it ap-
ches more nearly to the better descriptions of Para rubber. Mixed
with sulphur or SEA it vulcanized perfectly, in being solid, firm,
and strong. Itis a light colour when vulcanized.
B. About 14 ode ‘of this produet was recovered when washed and
dri was much darker in colour than sample marked A. This
remark applies also to the washed product, but it is not nearly so tough
as A,
LXXIV.—SEEDLINGS OF SUGAR CANE AT
BARBADOS.
(Saccharum officinarum, L.)
‘The sugar cane is one of the most valuable economic plants we
It has been cultivated for so long a period that the ae
— habitat LI the species according to De Candolle, i i unknown.* Ben
in Flora ong Kong, p. 420, states that * We have no berum
** record of any iol wild station of the common s sugar cane," Fur-
~ ther than this, in com with many plants that ‘have been for a
- long time under cultivat tion and réprodueed solely by means of buds
and suckers, the sugar can rarely produces muture fruits that no
one, as far as we are aware, has ever seen them. Certainly in the rich
Herbarium at Kew there are no seed-bearing specimens. In botanical
- works the subject is often referred to, but apparently only to restate the
fact that botanists like MeFadyen in the West Indies and Roxburgh in
India “have nev Z
Schacht is one of the fi ers o has given a good analysis of
the =. of the sugar cane including ^h pistil ; he also had not seen
the ri
In seti the problem how far the saccharine qualities of the
sugar cane cou ld be improved on the same lines as those so success-
fully adopted with regard to the beet it was lately pointed out in a
e addressed to the Colonial Office that, owing to the posu of
|— * Origin of Cultivated Plants (1884), p
+ Hooker's Botanical Miscellany (1830), du I. p. 95, tab. 26,
produeing fertile seeds having mane been lost by the sugar cane,
it was impracticable to deal with it by means of cross fertilization or by
the ordinary course of seminal selection. It was further pointed out
that new and improved varieties amongst sugar canes were to be looked
for amongst — variations, and planters were advised to mark any
canes n slios eparture from -— type and cultivate them
sugar. bci ion mer thus been ditodod to the subject by official
notices published in sugar emen japones several communieations
have been received at Kew from per who believed that they we
able to afford some information on hes putat whether the sugar cane
"—— seed or not.
time ago hele was published in the Government Qu ette of this
m
* neighbourhood. Some time afterwards 1 went to see the sort of cane
* from which the seed had been gathered, but the plant was dug up and
* [ could only learn that it was a purplish cane." xe seed sent by
or Gaines corn.
Recently, hov iMi a statement has reached Kew, from a trust-
worthy source, that seedling sugar canes had been found at Barbados,
and that plants were in course of being raised at the Botanical
Station in that island, under the care of Professor Harrison and Mr.
Bovell.
ed B. Harrison is Island professor of chemistry and aspere
keai at Barbados, and in conjunction with Mr. T. R. Bovell, who is
Gipériatelident; of Dodd's Reformatory, he has been engaged fo for the last
ree years in cer em chemical experiments with various kinds of
to sugar cane s, s also the relative merits = new and old varieties “of
canes now under veunavations in the West Indie
The statement sent by Professor Harrison appears to en in a
pertectly natural and circumstantial manner, that a few ma seeds
may occasionally be produced by the sugar cane under dime 1 circum-
stances. It is stated by o that the sugar cane *'never
: a
t I > shape
seedlings, self-sown or otherwise. The canes that would be likely to
produce fruit would be those eoe nearest to the original wild cane,
obably
-
A
pe
—
E
S
et
2
Q
e
o
=
zB
et
^
and would be less rich in sugar than the
canes improved by a long course of cultivation. P
Without promig a decided opinion on subject, and in the
absence of jhe specimens themselves, the Seule o supplied
Professor Harrison is, so far, the most tangible of an ria received to
show that the altei .sugar.cane.may oecasiona lly produce mature
fruits.
296
Government ieu vere Jee 17th Pa rne 1888.
On certain of the higher dist the island fro to time
growths of sugar cane Fecha dis grass have ba: "ed but in
most cases no attempts have been made to cultivate them. Mr. Parris
some years ago succeeded in raising a few canes from the cane arrow or
flowering shoot. Mr. Oy rke ae the same with the arrow of the parple
produce young canes, Mer mpi them, Kno ing thas
ses, Mr. Bovell and myself considered that a favourab opportunity
of examining into this que offered itself during the cultivation of
the varieties of canes which we have here. These canes were planted
in rows of four broad by 25 feet deep, and so as to have two sets of each
kind, in all 36 plots of 18 varieties ; planted side by side. The plots
up by some o
the varieties. We gave strict orders to the labores employed in
weeding and watching the a T n. t land to dis eh to us any g
depth of 18 inches. Some 80 or 90 plants 8 sprang up at intervals after-
wards. We found a good deal of difficulty in keeping t them alive, as the
sun quickly shrivelled them up; it was necessary to protect them in
the absence of any Tertii of old cane in them, Their mo: le ofo bori
was quite different to that of canes grov from the eyes of canes.
Sixty plants were successfully Buspisitad and are being cultivated.
At present they are not far enou gh a advanced in their growth to speak
kinds, probably five or six at the jd sb: H Hunt think E worth e
vell and myself will send you a specim ane of eae i
January or February next, when they will be uani far adere
to show their characteristics. The way in which they first grow is quite
is, o ciate much more favourable for production of seed than the
of one variety only. I have never heard of the Bourbon c cane
predicting here fertile arrows, in ali the alleged cases of fertility the
arrows were either those of the pu ire or white-transparent varieties
which, as you are aware, are prone to variation. We shali again attempt
this year to obtain the same results. Iam anxious to have the benefit
_ of your opinion upon this year's ‘esl as of course, if we can establish
the fact of the cane oeensiona y; and, under derai favourable con-
ditions, producing fertile seed, it wi ill open an important field of
: om eim,
J. B. HARRISON,
297
LXXV.-—RAMIE,
(Boehmeria nivea, Hk.)
The difficulties attending the development of the Ramie industry
appear to be not confined alone to propering the fibre as detailed in a
recent note on the subject (p. 273).* Itis also found that that those
who have in a measure been ‘successful in preparing the fibre in com-
received at the hands of spinners and manufacturers. In a word, it is
found that Ramie fibre when produeed is practically unsalenble in the
London market at the present time. A corres Juge interested in
Ramie estates wrote to Kew a short time ago :—
* We have spent much capital on Ramie, but s yet cannot see our
* way to commercial success. e have produeod excellent filasse, but
* the cost has been far too great id the chie eulty seems to rest,
* not in the production of filasse many systems [if the question of cost
,
“ is set aside] have accomplished this, but in the spinning of the filasse
Sin No British manufacturing firm appears willing to take up
* this business except on terms that would practically give t
* monopoly ; they pu esas a guaranteed minimum of raw material
* whieh we cannot
In a subsequent m the same correspondent states ;—
“Tam age to thig k that the only way m succeed with Ramie
* or Rhea fibre. Have you had any adis imas or can you put
* me in communication witb, any manufacturers, who may be disposed
“ to take up this fibre as a specialty? I am interested in a works and
* process for the preparation ree Ramie filasse in the form similar to the
* enclosed sample. With our present appliances we could undertake to
* deliver it at from ten to twenty ewts. weekly. So far we have -: een
* able to find any manufacturers here so inclined, and the ed
* material has been sent abroad. you can render me any bras
* it will be esteemed a favour."
Since the receipt of these letters Kew has been favoured by Mes
Ide and Christie, a respectable firm of fibre brokers in the City, "idid a
mon ovember. In this
eopy of thei y circular dated the 15th November.
cireular, under the head of China Grass and Ramie, it is stated :—
n 31st ulto. a large parcel, consisting o 130 t
* ribbons and 20 tons ramie or rhea in various stage preparation,
“ were put up for publie sale, practically without reserve, and afte
r
* Kew Bulletin, November 1888, p. 273.
298
* numberless processes and machines Mg inventors have set forth
* for its manipulation, the result of this wired be viewed as dis-
* tinetly discouraging. It would almost open s if no bite demand
“ exists for this interesting fibre, and that, in ae pom attitude of
* the manufacturing interest, the application of skill either to cultiva-
* tion of the plant or extraction of the ‘filasse, is premature and
“& misplaced.”
In order to understand the present. position of the Ramie industry it
would be useful to adopt some kind of classification of the details con-
nected with it. In the first place we have the mere i: usines
cultivating the Ramie FA and of producing stems with the fibre in
the best possible condition. This is vavely the work of n planter.
Secondly, we have the the process or processes ied to separate the
fibre from the stems in the form of ribbons and filas t is necessary
for many reasons that this should be done either by t the planter on the
spot, or by a central factory close at hand. uirdly, we have the purely
technical and manufacturing er in which Ramie filasse is taken u p
the spinners and utilized in the same manner as Ve. on, flax, and
silk are utilized for the purpose of being made into fab
For our present purpose we may take it for eee that the eultiva-
tion of the Ramie plant presents no de asina difficulty. Also that if
a suitable selection of soil is made, and the locality possesses the neces-
sary climatic conditions as regards heat and moisture, there is no reason
to doubt that Ramie could be ; grown to greater or > ane in Noc of
our tropical possessions. As regards the second stage— is
involved the decortication of the Ramie iilis oid ew ge as ds at
p. 273, is by no means completely solved.
On this really hangs the whole subject. The third stage is dis-
appointing and unsatisfactory, because the second stage is still uncertain ;
ro
Luc
of machinery specially constructed to deal with it, Owing to the com-
paratively limited supply of Ramie fibre hitherto in the market no large
firms of manufacturers have thought it worth while to alter the present,
or put up new machinery to work up Ramie fibre. If appliances, or
processes for bere. | Ramie in the colonies were already E
and the fibre came into the market regularly, and in large quantities—
say hundreds of tons at a time—there is no doubt m anufacturers would
be fully prepared to deal withit. At present the industry is practically
blocked by the absence of any really successful means of separating
the fibre from the stems, and preparing p cheaply and effectively.
This, after me is the identical pr eil which has baffled solution for the
last fifty yea
LONDON: Printed by EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE,
de e = the ie Majesty s most Excellent ENT.
esty's Stationery Office
- [49,—975,—11/88.]
CONTENTS.
Date. | Article. | Subject. Page.
|
1888. ;
January AKIS | ym Fruit emen 1
Vietoria, South Aust P 6;
estera Australia Macs 10; Tasmania,
Zealand, p. 13;
C Goons, P. 15; ; Maar, p. 20.
u XXX. Saccharine 23
February XXXI Seeds of Herbaceous Plants at Kew -| 25
March XXXII. Forsteronia Rubber at Demerara | 69
CForsteronia go Benth.
y XXXIII. Felohopi (Pogostemon Patchouli var. 71
e XXXIV. We i Afíica ean Indigo Pla -| 74
5 XXXV. Vanilla = Vanilla planet, ` Andr) 76
with e,
5 AXXVI. Streblus Pager CStreblus asper, Lour. -| 81
A XXXVIL | Us A ibre (Urera tenax N. E. Br.),| 84
" XXXVII. | Ten ( Camellia teifera, Grif.) 86
| ; Madagascar Tea,
eo Pea. x 87.
April New Garden Plants - : ; 5] 89
May - Cm (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, | 123
i Brazilian Gum Arabic (Hymenea Cour- | 128
baril, L., deci | Angico Mart.
* XLII. Trin idad ie ede eril D) -|129
E XLII. aris Continued i 1 133
ae XLIV. ochin Vin C Vitis Martini, 134
gE- Fan x aye
ii XLV Madagascar Ebony 135
p XLVI Shantung Cebtage (makica denda, 137
June (LV I. Manufacture of — in Indi 39
» XLVIIL | Job's Tears Lackryma, d var, | 144
went ds with p
k XLIX. Ram a ( Bernat nivea, Hk. | 145
nd B ar. tenacissima, Gaud.)
» L. Botanical Station a at Lagos 149
July. LI. Bbabur' Grass (Ischemum angustifolium | 157
meme with plate,
= ue ma yos 60
LII. Valonia i in Cypru s (Quercus Æ ilo L.) | 163
" LIV. | Prickly Pear in South Afrien -77 65
LV. 2 po (Illicium verum, Hk. t), with 173
Colonial noe Rc ets ed)
amaica, p. 178; Bahamas as Teldan p. 180;
Barbados, 184; St. Lucia, p. 185;
D , Vincent, P 187 5 Geta, * 188
; Trinida
British Guiane, p. p. 192, dae
Article.
Subject.
men vr (continued)
Pantie: Movteearak. 214;
St. "Christopher and Nevis, p. 215;
Virgin Islands, p. 215; Bermu da,
p. 2
India-rubber in Upper Burma (Ficus
elastica, Roxb.)
Colonial Fruit Sein
Sierra Leon
Bt. Helena, p. 252.
Lagos rubber (Ficus Vogelii, Miq.)
Liberian Coffee at the Straits Settlements
Caffea liberica, Bull.
t oil and eake (Camellia Sasanqua,
unb.)
Denari Pink root (Spigelia anthelmia,
Food grains of India (continued) (Coix
gigantea; Roxb.
Yoruba Indigo (Lonchocarpus cyanescens,
Benth. ), with plate.
Tpecacuanha ( Cephaelis
Huskless Barley -
Ramie (Boehmeria Kaay. Trials of
métiadh and processes at Pari
— Copal ( Copaifera Gorskiana,
rh Culiivation j in Bengal -
—— eo EU
th pla
nra: (Forsteronia
a, G. Don n)
S Cane at Barbados
arum officinarum, L.
fBenié- (Boehmeria nivea, Hk. f.) -