Jtjly 2, 1883.] 



THE TEOPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 



DR.1TRIMEX ON LEDGEPJANA. 

 We do HOT suppose any man of science will envy 

 Dr. Kuntze's feelings, or, at least, his position with 

 reference to the hybrid theory in regard to Ledyeiiana, 

 which he started on such grossly insufficient evidence, 

 and which Di-. Trimen has now, after reference to 

 Mr. Gammie and Mr. T. N. Christie, blown to 

 the winds. There can be no doubt that Dr. Kuntze, 

 as Mr. Gammie suggests, confounded with Ledgeriana 

 the hybrid (ir/uota) which appeared in British Sikkim 

 as well as in Ceylon. But this hybrid or variety 

 stands midway between succu'ubra and officinalis, 

 having no resemblance to the well-marked and dis- 

 tinct species (for such it is now acknowledged to be) 

 to which the name of Ledger has been appropriately 

 given. Its discovery by Mr. Ledger's agents, just 

 in time to preserve to the world, apparently, the 

 very richest of the quinine-yielding trees, is one of 

 the most romantic incidents in the history of the 

 Pmchonas since the period when the wife of the 

 Viceroy of Peru was cured of fever by the bark. 

 CLNCHOXA LEDGEELiNA. 



BY HEXKY TEIMEN, M.B., F.L.S. 



[^Reprinted from the " Jouknal of BoTAjnr "/or Mm/ 1883.] 



With reference to the remarks upon Cinchona 'Ledgeri- 

 ana by Dr. Kuntze, printed iii the January number (pp. 

 ■5-9), it does not seem necessaiy to do more than con- 

 trovert the two statements upon which his hybridity- 

 theoi-y is based. 



Fii'stly. On p. 6 it is said '* 0. Zedgeriana originated 

 spontaneously in the Government plantations of Mungpo 

 iu Sikkini " ; and ''Mi'. Gammie and the late Mr. Bier- 

 maun assured me that ' C. Ledgeriana bad originated 

 spontaneously there in the Calisaya-field.' " To settle this 

 it seemed best to wi'ite direct to Mi'. Gammie on the 

 subject, and this is what he repUes (20th Feb. 1883) : — 

 "Dr. Kuntze must have one of oiu: hybrids in his mind's 

 eye, and not Lcdgcnana^ as having originated spontan- 

 eously in the caUsaya-field at Mungpo. Certainly I never 

 told liim so of Lcilgirianii ; " and he fui-ther adds, " Tou are 

 quite right in tMnkiug that all our Ledgerianas origin- 

 ated from the small packet of Ledger's S. American seed 

 I got from the Nilgu-is in the early part of 1866 , and 

 Moens is equally right in stating that I have never seen 

 it from any other source. So that the Sikkim experience 

 of it is idcutical with tliat of Java." This is conclusive, 

 and I think it is pretty clear that if Dr. Kuutze ever 

 knew C Ledgiriana he does not know it now. 



Secondly. Dr. Kuntze states (p. 7) " C. Ledgeriana is 

 the only cinchona that suffers from stei-ihty, and only 

 ripens more fruits if it gets fertilized and hyl)ridized by 

 other cincliouas ; that happens often, and therefore the 

 descendants of Ledgeriana are mostly degenerated," itc. 

 This being a xu'actical matter I have requested the opm- 

 ion of several cinchoua-gi'owers u^jou it, and I now 

 give some portions of a letter (30 Jan., 1883) fi'o m Mr. 

 T. N. Christie, who is a very tru.st\voi-thy observer, and 

 possesses one of thQ finest plantations of C Ledgeriana 

 in Ceylon. He says, "I find Ledgeriana ioth to blossom 

 comi:aj'ed with q/firinalis or calisaga^ but iu no way 

 sterfle. Cluuate and seasons affect the blossoming very 

 gi'eatly. The YaiTow Ledgers had a prolonged drought 

 in 1881, many of them di-ooped and partially withered, 

 and as a result were covered with seed the foUowiug 

 season, so much so that many of the branches had to 

 be propped up to bear the weight of the fi-uit. Last 

 year they had a wet season and as a result they have 

 not this year oue-thii-d of their last crop. There is no 

 sterility about the blossom when it comes ; I find it 

 comes perfectly ti-ue fi-om seed." This is our experience 

 throughout Ceylon ; the species flowers later in life than 

 the others, is quite as fertile as other kinds, and when 

 protected from cross-fertilization and carefully collected 

 the seed is remarkably true. 



The conttntiou of this species being a hybrid is thus 

 a singularly unfortunate one ; it is I think also much 

 to be regretted that such unfounded and careless state- 

 1 



meuts as those of Dr. Kuntze's should have been pub- 

 lished. Further acquaintance with more and older 

 ti'ees since the date of my foi-mer paper (Nov. 1881) has 

 confirmed my opinion of the specific distinctness of C. 

 Ledgeriana from C. Calisaga, and its " great variabihty" 

 exists only in Dr. Kuntze's imagination. 



In conclusion, I wish to insist again emphatically ou 

 the fact that there are no C. Ledgeriana trees in the East 

 that have not descended from Mr. Ledger's seed from 

 the Rio Mamore ; the species is doubtless a very scarce 

 one, and has not up to the present been re-discovered 

 in S. America. 



Peradeniya, Ceylon, March Sth, 1883. 



BRAZIL AND ITS COFFEE PLANTING 

 INDUSTRY. 



The following descriptions are from a work recently 

 published— " Wanderings South and East ' — and they 

 give a very vivid idea of Rio town and district. It 

 will be observed that Darwin was as enthusiastic about 

 Brazil as Haeckel was lately over Ceylon : — 



. . . "Every form, every shade, so completely sur- 

 passes in magnificence all that the European has ever be- 

 held in his own country, that he knows not how to ex- 

 press his feelings." — iJariciyi. 



It is the calmest, stillest night iu all the year, the loud 

 rattle of our cable chain has just ceased, and we are at 

 anchor in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. Across the harbour lies 

 the great city, shining with a hundred thousand lights ; here 

 dotted among the hills, and there in long even rows down 

 by the water's edge. Mountains loom vaguely iu the star- 

 hght, blotting out a hundred constellations ; there is a hushed 

 rippling sound upon the water, and the lights shoot across 

 its surface, now iu bright spangles, mow in waving lines to- 

 wards us from the shore. AVe arc on the eve of a great 

 experience — the experience of beholding Nature's fairest 

 handiwork. 



The sun rises gloriously some hours later, and we are on 

 deck again to catch the first glimpses of Rio'sbay. AVhat 

 can I say of it in the early morning's sunlight as it breaks 

 upon me '? How beautiful a scene it is ! Its rich green 

 hills, its barren rugged peaks, its thickly clustered liouses ! 

 What peaks ! where are any else so fanciful!' What hills ' 

 where arc such slopes of green, so rich and varic<l ? AVbat 

 groups of villas ! hundreds and huu-lreds of them glistening 

 amongst the green, now in great masses, now wandering 

 away amongst the hills. See, away above the town, the 

 strangely-.'ihaped peaks and precipices one behind another. 

 See again, amongst the islands of the bay, the same strange 

 peaks and rocks. See once more, far off there in the west, 

 that great wall of Organ Mountains, with their serrated 

 crests, like organ pipes, cutting the likie sky. See near again, 

 less striking hills and. islands, but all as green ; and forts 

 and piers and palm-filled gardens, and low and fern-hung 

 rocks. See, nearer still, the blue smooth water, ami a hundred 

 boats swarming around us, as all the world over, so at Rio. 

 I recall memories of Sydney Bay, and Smyrna, and Stock- 

 holm ami Stamhool, the Min river, too, in China and the 

 harbours at Hobart Town andWelliugton, and San Francisco's 

 Golden Gate, aud Turkey's Bosphorus and Naples' Bay. 

 Enough surely there is in those of the beautiful in lanti 

 and town and bay, but I can recall, charm I never .so 

 wisely, no bay like this Brazilian Rio, far or near. There 

 are here the little coves and haj'S of Sydney, and green 

 hills of that far east, and all the glories of the tropics, 

 and the blue water of the Bosphorus, aud the rugged peaks 

 of Smyrna, and the quaint church domes and castle battle- 

 ments of (n'uoa, and the broad open amphitheab'e of hill 

 walls of Wellington ; but the magnificent completeness of 

 no other place, for none other is there so exquisitely perfect. 

 It is the monarch of all scenery, the greatest combinatiou 

 imaginable of Nature's wildest glories, this peerless bay of 

 Rio in Bi'azil. There is such variety, as I have tried to 

 say, the utter peacefulness at sunrise of the western end, 

 where one might th-eam of paradise, and endless summer 

 days, and lotus-eating lives and perfect rest. The grand 

 and boisterous glorj' of the entrance, witli Sugar Loaf and 

 Gavia andCorcovado looming near, and affording endless 

 temptation to mountain-climbing minds ; the noisy, htu'ry- 

 scurry wonders of the great city itself, from every street 



