JUtY 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



37 



.. lOJ feet 

 .. lOJ inches 

 .9 „ 



Succirubra Tree. 



Height 



Gh-th at foot 



,, at 1 foot from ground 

 This goes to prove that the Ledger is the fastest 

 growing tree and the most profitable one to cultivate. 

 —I remain, yours faithfully, HENRY MANNER.?. 



[This result is interestiug and encouraging. The 

 Boil, though poor, is no doubt free, and the subsoil may 

 possibly be better in quality than the surface. — 

 Ed.] 



DR. TRIMEN'S LEDGERIANA : ME. T. N. 

 CHRISTIE TO THE RESCUE. 

 St. Andrew's, Maskeliya, 7th June 1883. 



Dear Sir, — Were the question raised by Mr. J. E, 

 Howard purely technical it woxild be presumption on 

 my part to say anything in support of Dr. Trimen's 

 dpscription and figuring of C. Leilgcriaiia but it is 

 not so, and a statement of some facts — which are 

 always stubborn — may help to clear aw.ay any con- 

 fusion resulting from Mr. Howard's latest paper. 

 The plant which Dr. Trimen figured was one of those 

 raised from Mclvor's seed by me, and planted on 

 Mahanilu by Mr. Agar, and its descent from Ledger's 

 original seed is undoubted. Other plants, exactls' 

 similar in blossom, raised from the same pinch of seed, 

 have given over 12, 13 and 14 per cent sulphate of qliin- 

 ine ; and the very trees which Mr. Howard called in to 

 help him, the Yarrow Ledgers, have the same blossom, 

 and came out of the same nursery bed as the Ledger 

 figured by Dr. Trimen ! Before the least doubt had 

 been thrown upon his figured type. Dr. Trimen se- 

 lected a tree here for specimens, as being botanically 

 a tyiiical Ledger, and his selection was well borne 

 out, when, on the following day, the analysis of that 

 very tree arrived from England and showed 11 '29 

 S. Q. The statement that the " satiny gloss and 

 hairy margin of the leaves " was put forward as a 

 characteristic of true Ledgerianas is almost incredible. 

 The veriest tyro in cinchona cultivation could have 

 told Mr. Howard that these ' ' characteristics " are 

 common to Ledgeriana and all tlie C'alisayas when 

 young, and that there is not a sign of either in the 

 mature foliage. When Mr, Howard goes on to 

 identify by these characteristics Mr. T. Christy's 

 Bolivian calisaya seedlings as true Ledgerianas, his 

 bases are as reliable as those by which a gipsy 

 foretells your fortune. I have some of Mr. T. 

 Christy's Bolivian plants, 18 months old, and I most 

 certainly say they are not Ledgers. They seem to 

 be Calisayas of some kind, but are as protean in ap- 

 pearance as they have been in name. That there 

 are several ^uichonas in cultivation in Ceylon (and 

 I suspect in .Jamaica also) underthe name of Ledger- 

 iana, which are not that plant, is to a great ex- 

 tent due to Mr. Howard himself. We all remember 

 the misunderstanding which arose about the Annfield 

 and Emeliua Calisayas, some two years ago, due 

 chiefly to the fact that most of these Calisayas seemed 

 exactly similar to Mr. Howard's figured " Ledgeriana" ; 

 and here I may quote what I wrote 9 months ago, 

 in the Dikoya essay, long before I had any idea of 

 this controversy arising: — "Dr. Trimen's illustr.ition 

 of the blossom (but not of the tree itself) is part- 

 icularly good, a contrast to that given in Howard's 

 great work, where the figured plant is far from 

 being a typical Ledgeriana, if indeed it is one at 

 all." If you will refer to Kew Gardens Report for 

 1880, p. 12, you will find :— 



" Ceylon. — In 1876, some seed was received at Kew 

 from Java, and part of this was communicated to 

 Mr. J. E. Howard, F. R. S., who raised seedlings. 

 He carefully selected the most promising of these, 



and very kindly supplied Kew with cuttings both 

 of the figured and of another selected plant in the 

 course of last year. Tliree of the rooted cuttings 

 were given to ilr. 3. A. Campbell of Lindula, Ceylon, 

 who was anxious to have a perfectly authentic strain'. 



" Janmica.— Three other plants propagated at Kew 

 from the same authentic strain were sent to 

 Jamaica. " 



Now, if, after having lived for years beside mature 

 Ledgerianas, which have given the highest analyses 

 we have yet hoard of, I may presume to think that 

 I know a Ledgeriana wlien I see it, I say that those 

 "authentic" cuttings, whicli I have seen in the Wal- 

 trim clearing, are not Ledgerianas at all. Mr. 

 Campbell himself writes to me on .5th instant :— "No 

 one who knows a Ledgeriana tree of a pure type, 

 according to Mr. Moens' idea of one, would think of 

 calling the trees I have (raised from cuttings received 

 from Mr. Howard) Ledgerianas. Two of them are 

 very shrubby in their growth, and with hard sr.iny 

 leaves. The other is a Oalisaya of the broad-leaved 

 variety, very nmch like what I believe is called in 

 Java Galimya AnrjUca. I have also another plant 

 that Mr. Howard kindly gave me which I under- 

 stood him to say had been r.aised from Ledgeriana 

 seed received from Java. This is the best, so far 

 as appearance goes, but I should not call it a Ledger- 

 iana." 



Mr. Howard seems to have absolutely nothing to 

 base liis assertions upon. He clings to "Mr. Moens' 

 own authority" only so far as he himself wishes to 

 believe, viz., that the first seed received at Kew was 

 genuine ; he repudiates Moens' identification of Dr. 

 Trimen's plant, and be asserts that otiier seed for- 

 warded to him by Mr. Moens as true Ledgeriana 

 turned out to be nothing of the kuid. Now, why 

 should the iufalibility of Moens be relied on in 

 the one case a bit more than in the other ? 



Those who know C. Ledijeriana, and who have 

 read its literature, can only arrive at one conclusion, 

 and that is tliat Dr. Trimen, who has seen the 

 Ceylon and Indian plantations, and many mature ana- 

 lyzed trees, knows and has figured V. Ledijeriana, 

 and that Mr. Howard, vnth the knowledge of liot-house 

 plants and dried specimens, does not know and lias 

 not figured C. Ledyeriana.—Yonvs faithfully, 



THOS. NORTH CHRISTIE. 



CEYLON GAMBOGE: WHY SHOULD IT NOT 

 BE COLLECTED?— THEFTS OF CINCHONA 



BARK. 

 Dkar Sir, — A short time ago an article appeared 

 in your paper on gamboge which set at rest some 

 doubts 1 had as to the value of Ceylon gamboge. 

 Several years ago my attention wos drawn to this 

 article as a dye, when seeing the pillars and walla 

 of the inner temple of the Maligawa (chief temple) 

 in Kandy being repainted with fanciful flowers and 

 animal-, &c. On referring to some works there on 

 the subject there appeared to be a difierenoe of 

 opinion as to the value of Ceylon gamboge, both as 

 a pigment and as a medicine. Dr. Pereira speaks 

 of twi. kinds discovered in Ceylon by Hermann in 

 1670. He (Pf-reira) describes the color of Cevlon gam- 

 boge 83 excellent and its medicinal effect precisely 

 the same as thiit of Siam. A Dr. Royle about tho 

 year 1SS7 used it and described it as in every way 

 inferior ! It seems now beyond doubt that it is not 

 80, and Dr. 'Rojle must have had some badly collected 

 article to experiment with. Dr. Percira says the 

 two kinds ari' the goraka and tho kana (Sinh. " eat- 

 ing") goraka, .and further on that " there seems to be 

 no difficiilty in obtaining th.' gamboge in a pure state, 

 and if BO it miglit become an article of commerce 



