August i , 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



"WILLUGHBEIA CEYLANICA " : A SUP- 

 POSED "CEYLON RUBBER." 

 Some months ago a correspoudent sent you speci- 

 mens of a climbing plant with its large globular 

 fruits, 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and a bottleful 

 of rubber collected from the plant and its fruits, 

 and which I had no trouble in identifying as the 

 WiUughhria Ceylanica, Thwaites' Enum.. 191. It 

 was figured and described several j'ears before (IS48) 

 in \\ ight's Icnnes of Indian plants t 12S8, as the 

 Chilocar/ms Oeylaniciis. and the late Dr. Gardner 

 called it Winrhia chirrhrfera, Ms.* It is not an un- 

 common Ceylon plant from the coast up to 4,000 

 feet. The large handsome fruit of this species is 

 not edible that I am aware of, but that it is a fa- 

 vourite food of monkeys I discovered in the forests 

 at Delpatgedara in l.'-42. The plant is fully described 

 by !<ir Joseph Hooker in i^/ora r;/'ii?'!V(K/i/»f//n, 3,624. 

 but as the genus was named after Francis U'illugh- 

 by, F. K.S , a friend and pupil of Fay, and the 

 author of some works on Natural History, it has 

 evidently been wrongly spelt in the Flora of British 

 Inilia as Widoiujhbda. From the seeds of the fruits 

 sent by your correspondent at H euaratgoda, if I re- 

 collect aright, I have raised several plants in the 

 Cii'cular VV alk, and I have now to apologize to him 

 and to you for not sooner noticing the plant and the 

 rubber from it, which I return yoii in a hardened 

 mass in the boll'c as it came, tin reading lioxburgh's 

 account of his Wi u;/hb''ia rdtdis {Fl. Iitd. 2, 57). I 

 was discouraged by what he said about the rublier from 

 that plant, and a friend well up in these subjects 

 having seen the specimen of rubber and knowing 

 the plant that produced it pronounced it as a worth- 

 less putty-like mass, but nevertheless I regi-et that 

 this information and your correspondent's letters about 

 the plant ami its rubber were not published at the time. 

 Noxburgh's I'emarks on his IT. cilulii are to the 

 effect that the milky viscid juice "hich flows from 

 every part of the plant is changed into a bad or 

 indifferent kind of elastic lubber, or caoutchouc, on 

 exposure to the air 



All tliis iufiirmation respecting the Wil'wihheia 

 Ccylanira, applies to the specimens of plant and 

 fruit sent by your correspondent, J. 1". Abraham, 

 whose letter is dated Nawalapitiya, June 20th. The 

 ])lant belongs to the same family, Dogbanes, or 

 Apocynacea?, as the Landolphias, but none of the latter 

 are n itivcs of India It is singular that this common 

 Ceylon plaut. with such a remarkably large fruit, does no 

 seem lo ha\e a Sinhalese name ; 1 know of none, 

 and neither of your correspondents has given one 

 for it It ought to be somewhere amongst the iVlaha- 

 gedi-kiriw;els. W. F. 



[Mr. Abraham's letter refeiTed to isas fo'lows. — Ed.] 



■ Kawalapitiya, 20tli June 1SS3. 

 SlE, — I send you per G-10 a.m. train today two fi-uits 

 and some leaves of the "Ceylon Kubber " " Laudol- 

 phia Florida" which I plucked from a large creeper iu 

 the jungle. It resembles the L. Florida. I made in- 

 cisions in the stem of the creeper n nd obtamed a milky 

 juice, which after a whUe, was liardened into rubber of 

 a superior quality .f If you will cut the fruit you will find 

 a quantity of milk inside which will foi-m into rubber 

 iu a few minutes. I will send you a fail- sample of 

 this rubber if you do not succeed with the fruit I now 

 seud. Mr. Cluisty mentions in his *' New Commercial 

 Plants" that the fnut of L. Florida is eateu by the 

 natives of Madagascar, and I am informed by the vii- 

 lagers here that this fruit is likewise eateu by tliem. 

 Ha', ing examined the fruits and leaves, I am inclined to 

 believe that tliis creeper is a genus of the Landolphia 



* See Dr. Tiimeu's Report on Pcradeniya Gardens, T. A., 

 Vol. II, ]mj;e i)2s. — Ed. ■• 



■f All the authorities agree that it is very inferior.— Ed 

 11 



family. I could not get any flowers in it, being out of 

 season. As you always take great interest on such mat- 

 ters I shall be glad to have your opinion on this subject.— 

 I am, SU-, yours faithfully, J. P. ABRAHAM! 



RULES RESPECTING COOLIES IN .\SSAM 



Our (offee-plauters in Ceylon have coni|ilaim'd of 



I Government iuterferei ce and forms to be filled up, bm 



whal would they say to the As-ani tea estate rules, a 



I few specimens of which we take froui the Indian Tea 



Gazelle, t 



A new set of rules, even more voluminous and re- 

 strictive than the last, has been elaborated, and they 

 make their appearance in a recent A.ixam Cazvllc Ex 

 Iraordinary, where the rules, schedules, and forms 

 occupy 60 pages of print ; and the ( hief ( ■ominis 

 sioner's resolution intioducing them sets out by saying 

 that the same piovision, in every respect, shall be 

 made for tlie drjiendauls of labourers as for the la- 

 bourers themselves. It will be seen, thus, that the 

 Government interference is sufficiently wide-reachiug 

 Four different registers have to be kept by the depot 

 manager, and he has also to submit a daily report, 

 and to fill up and forward a form to the'Embaik 

 ation .\gent whenever a steamer is expected to arrive. 

 He then has to submit to the Deputy Commissioner 

 four different forms monthly, besides a return on the 

 arrival of any emigi-auts at the depot. He is to see. 

 also, that all labourers bathe, on admission to the 

 depot, and that e\evy article of clothing that is 

 soiled (whetiier new or old), shall be thoroughly 

 washed before its reissue, t'ast-off and ragged clothes 

 are to be destroyed at once. It is not said who is 

 to pay for these. [We never knew of a cooly who 

 considered his clothes sufficiently ragged not to be 

 worn ] l-.ach man. boy, woman and girl, is tosb 

 provided with a ball of soap for themselves. The 

 depot dhobie, we presume, provides the soap for wash- 

 ing the clothes ^Vheu necessary, food suitable fot- 

 uifants and invalids (fre.sh milk, soup, sago &c ) shall 

 be freshly prepared and regularly supplied " through- 

 out the 24 hours," and auy m -^lect of this on the 

 jjart of the depot manager or his agent involves can- 

 cellation of the license. ^Ve ; hould hav e thought, 

 however, that the manager might have been allowed 

 his night's rest, .and not keejj on the watch foi- the 

 whole 24 liours Chapter \'I. duals with everything 

 connected with the coolie when he is located on the 

 estate. Every individual is to h.ive 50 superficial feet 

 of house accommodation; and mi estates employing 

 more than 50 labourers there must lie a resideut 

 medical officer appointed VVhc:i the in-ice of rice in 

 the local market exceeds K3 thi maund, the emjiloyer 

 is bound to sujiply at R3. or make good the dift'er- 

 ence. ( h.aptcr VII introduces us to the rules for 

 employers. Each employer has to keep 11 different 

 registers for the information of the authorities. This 

 will, of course, involve the employment of several 

 exti'a clerks, as copies of these registers have to b^ 

 regularly sent. The forms themselves are very elab 

 orate, and it will require a constant supervision by 

 the maiia<;cr over his native clerks to prevent mis- 

 takes in filling up the registers and returns. 



PABAGUAY AS A PLACE OF SETTLEMENT. • 

 ■ Sir,— X see in your paper of .January 13th. a sh(u-t note 

 Irom a convspnndent signing him.-^elf C. H. C, ridiculiuj; 

 my idea of n man starun^ in this country with a capital of 

 £1,000, aud at the same time recor.imending such a one to 

 goto auy other repubhc iu South America. WhenC. K. 

 C. _ speaks of other republics, dors he mean the Banda 

 Oriental (a uest of cut-throats), or tiie others farther north 

 who are perj)etually at war, and at any rate unsuitablK 

 for English settlers? Now there .-ire three other repub- 

 lics left, viz. Ciiili, Argentine, aud Paraguay. The first 

 two (especially Chili) are very exjii'iisive countries for a 



