August i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



among plants is carried on in various ways. In park 



lands it is often noticed that, no flowers bloora under 

 tbe shade of the trees, although outside the shadi-d 

 circle the grass is studded with gaily-coloured d'^s 

 and patches. The ground beneath a fir-tree or a yew 

 is not only devoid of flowers, but as a rule the 

 toughest grasses, tenacious of life as they are, have 

 been clicked and throttled out of existence by the 

 layers of fallen leaves which cover the ground and 

 shut out ligbt and air. It is not the soil, but the 

 absence of suuligbt which is fatal. The leaves of the 

 tree, by intercepting tbe bghfc, deprive the germinating 

 seeds of one of the main sources of their well being. 

 Many large-leaved plants war in this way upon their 

 less favoured fellows; but to equalise tbe conditions 

 of the combat a little, many plants are especially 

 equipped to tight with large leaved foes. Some, like 

 the Convolvulus, are enabled to obtain a sufficient quant- 

 ity of air and light by climbing ; others, like the Potent- 

 ilia reptans, which have not learnt how to climb and are 

 in danger of being left too much in the shade, sent out 

 long trailing stems which throw out roots at every 

 node or joint, and find compensation in this way. 

 Annuals, plants, which die down each nutumu and are 

 grown from seed, fight at a great disadvantage when 

 they have to contend with perennials. Perenuiuls, 

 when once they ha\e their roots embedded in the soil, 

 are prepared at each successive approach of spring 

 to push up their fresh shoots through the moistened 

 ground, and they supply their nurslings with nourish- 

 ment from already existing stores. But annuals have 

 to begin at the beginning. Supposing the seed to 

 have falleo by good chance on suitable soil, it has 

 still mauy dangers to run when it begins to push its 

 rootlet downwards and to expand its first pair of 

 little leaves to sun and air. Taller plants may over- 

 shadow it, shutting out light and warmth ; quick- 

 growing grasses may draw away from its immediate 

 neighbourhood the moisture which it needs, and its 

 story is soon told. It dies in early infancy, and 

 by a death which may be termed violent. Although 

 the plants which are falling into the sere and yellow 

 leaf cannot be said exactly to watch over the rising 

 generation, there are many species which show some 

 kind of parental fore-thought for tiie welfare of the 

 seeds they bring to maturity. They are not content 

 with allowing the seeds when ripe to fall dovvn and 

 grow up beside them, but they send them away to seek 

 their fortunes in far off lields and lanes and road sides. 

 Some seed are provided uith an apparatus not unlike an 

 open umbrella, an umbrella with many ribs and no co- 

 vering. The round feathered heads of the dandelion are 

 examples of this, and children who blow them to 

 pieces to see the individual seeds sail away steadily 

 on the still summer air have no idea of the start 

 they are giving these seeds in their struggle for life. 

 All seeds do not start life so quietly. There is a 

 little bitter-cress (C'arilarnhv Impaticns) which grows in 

 North Wales, whose erect liiiear-si.'.aped seed j^ods as 

 they dry up contract unequally, and by this un 

 equal contraction cause the shells to burst and curl 

 up gracefully above tbe fummit of the pod. This 

 violent bursting of ihe pod causes the seeds to fly 

 out to a distance of 3 or 4 ftet. An American species 

 of witch-hazel (Hamam'-lis firi/inia>ia) shoots out its 

 seeds to a distance of 1' f' et and more — but when 

 anything done here is also done in America, it is 

 naturally done on a larger scali". The jellon- balsam 

 {rmpalioiit noli-me-tangere), now rather rave as a wild 

 plant in England, gets itB botanical name from its pro- 

 pensity to lire oil its seeds when touched or thiUen 

 by the wind. This scatt- ring of the seeds gives them 

 a fairer clnuice of finding unoccupied soil than they 

 would otherwise ha\e, and it is not so usual to find 

 these species glowing so close together as we find 

 (lsiRie«, for i'let.-xnce. In epite of its mild and idacid 



appearance the Daisy is a great warrior, its close low 

 lying leaves shut out light and air from any unhappy 

 seeds that chance to be underneath thtm, and field 

 bi'tanists soon get io know that there is little chance 

 of finding many varieties where daisies grow plenti- 

 fully. Grass and masses bold their own ag.inst most 

 antagonists, but grass is not so very successful in its 

 battles with the daisy, as those who try to preserve 

 the unbroken green of a favourite lawn often experience. 

 Curiously enough it is not always the seemingly 

 strongest plants, plants with the toughest fibre and 

 hardest texture of leaf, which win these floral contests. 

 The small white or Dutch clover (Trifolhim repeiis), 

 with a weakly creeping stem, usually not much more 

 than a foot in length, w-hen introduced into New 

 Zealand attacked and defeated an indigenous species 

 of flax, an exceedingly tough, robust plant with strouc 

 leaves over 6 feet high. The vegetable Goliatb had to 

 succumb to the floral David, and the little clover is 

 actually driving the big flax out of existence. This 

 struggle for life among plants shows that the farmers' 

 antipathy to "weeds" is extremely well founded. Es- 

 pecially in the case of varieties cultivated by miin ; 

 when his protecting hand is withdrawn it is found that 

 they are in great danger of being swept away by their 

 many competitors for a livelihood. One result to which 

 this botanical warfare largely contributes is that the flora 

 of a district changes. Some species die out, and " colo- 

 niFts" come I o take their place. Anyone looking through 

 an English flora will find that the number of plants 

 marked "a colonist," "an alien," or "native?'' is not 

 inconsiderable. And this is true not only of shrubs and 

 smallplants, but also of forest trees. Tbe remains of the 

 Ilyrcinian forest, which in the time of Caesar was com- 

 posed of trees which annually shed their leaves, is now 

 mainly made up of pines and firs. But with respect to 

 forests.there seems to be a rotation of various kinds of 

 trees, the kind of tree which grows up to take the place 

 of those decaying, depending upon the ligbt and air 

 and other conditions which are afforded to the young 

 saplings by the kind of tree already existing. — Month. 



THROUGH THE TEA DISTRICTS OF 

 NOllTHERN INDIA: No. 1. 

 (By a Ceylon Planter.) 



SaJU'LIXG CEVLON and InBIAN TjiAS. 



TiiE Importaxoe of Jat and of only Usi.vg 

 Good Seed. 

 S. S. "Agra," Kiver Brahmaputra. 



To a Ceylon man, the air of prosperity and of 

 piofitable business which pervades Calcutta is very 

 reassuring. The tea industry is of course only one 

 of several sources of business, but it is the only 

 planting enterprise in which European interests in a 

 large scale are involved, indigo excepted. It is not 

 till Ca'cutta is reached that the difficulties of a jour- 

 ney t) Assam are understood. The greater portion of 

 the journey is by river steamer on the Briihmaijutra, 

 a very slow and tedious way of travelling, especially 

 »h-n .against the stream. 'The steamers run weekly, 

 and 1 was most unfortunate in just missing one and 

 having to wait almost a week in Calcutta. 



I took advantage of this opportunity to spend a little 

 time at the office of one of the leading tea brokers, 

 where I gained much valuable information. We sam- 

 pled some teas, both lowcountry and hill, which I had 

 brought from Ceylon with me, and tried them against 

 numerous representative Indian teas. In manufacture, 

 tbe Ceylon teas (two samples excepted, which were umler- 

 fermented) were perftct and comp.ired favourably 

 with au>iliiiig which was put against them. The ap- 

 pearance of the liquor was also a point in which the 



