January i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



487 



reached the Editor of the Pharmaceutical Journal 

 CD the 2l8t November, the very next day Mr. Howard's 

 dfath occurred, aad Dr. Paul, thinking that under the 

 circumstances I might perhaps wish to revise the paper, 

 has now kindly given me the opportunity of doing so. 



I have, however, no desire to make any alteration. 

 Even if there be anything which might be now prefer- 

 ably rewritten, the fact of the paper being already 

 published in your coUimus, as communicated to the 

 Pharmaceutical Journol, would be a literary objection 

 of an insuperable kind. As it is however not likely 

 that my article can appear in the periodical to which 

 it was first addressed in less than a month's time, I 

 have thought it desirable to give this explanation. — 

 I aiu, sir, yours faithfully, HENRY TRIMEN. 



KERR'S PATENT TEA-KOLLER. 



Deak Sir, — I have much pleasure in confirming what 

 you say about Mr. Kerr's tea-roller, having seen it 

 work, with the result it gives. It is just the thing 

 for small tea estates, doing its rolling well and 

 requiring very little power, while its cost will, I 

 believe, be very reasonable. You do not say what is 

 the amount of leaf it will roll per hour, but I believe 

 a moderate-sized machine worked by two coolies can 

 work off over a hundred pounds weight of green leaf 

 per hour. The double machine, involving only a 

 proportionately small extra cost and driving power, 

 will probably become the favourite. As deeds are 

 better than words, I may add I have ordered two 

 machines. TEA PROPRIETOR. 



NEW PRODUCTS, FIBRES, &c. 



Deab Sir, — When the successful cultivation of such 

 staple products as cotfee is becoming doubtful, owi'i" 

 to the ravages of leaf-disease from some kind of grub 

 infeatinu; them, which will eventually alike infest 

 cinchona, tea, and other products, unless the cause 

 which produces them is removed, which cause must 

 be found from circumstances far remote from those 

 that are supposed, to attempt to cure lerif-diseaso 

 without removing the cause is like attempting to cure 

 a patient with a bad stomach with a rotten car- 

 case by his side ; the remedy is extremely simple and 

 feasible, scarcely involviug even increased expenditure. 

 It would be interesting to know whether the disease 

 afi'eots native plantations also, such plantations, I mean, 

 as are found about the dwelling premises of the 

 Kandyan villages : I cannot remember of any com- 

 plaint being made of their trees being affected, and 

 I have never observed, during my visits to the vill- 

 ages, of the existence of sickly trees, which, on the 

 contrary, appear to be richly nourished, only by the 

 soil afforded by the decayed vegetables rouud the trees, 

 in some places heaped up to a foot or so in height. 

 For the present the remedy must remain a secret. 



With regard to new products and industries, I be- 

 lieve fibres appear to be pre-eminent. The natives 

 obtain some very fine bark from trees in the jungles 

 with which they tie their fences : the fibres of these 

 trees must be very strong. I am sorry 1 did not try 

 to find out what fibre or bark it is. In the exhaustive 

 report about fibres in the supplement of the Observer 

 of othinst., which I got by chauco, nothing is men- 

 tioned about the fibres obtainable from the suriya 

 tree [Thespasia pcpulnm) and from the allied species 

 Allhiea malracccc, marshmallow, Hibiscus esculado, the 

 common bandakai. The fibres of the Amprican aloe,-, 

 pine, and varieties of the Bombax or Gossypiimi, also 

 allied to the Hibiscus family, appear to be the most 

 favoured; yet those of the Hibiscus species are 

 deserving of trial. In the Lunalic Asylum at Co- 

 lombo sometime ago. Dr. Wambeek used to get fibres 

 made, as a healthy occupation to the insane, from 

 aloe and pineapple leaves. These were steeped in 



water, beaten with a m.illet, then washed and beaten 

 again; when the pulpy part was removed, the fibres 

 were removed hy fingers, used as the teeth of acouib: 

 indeed the wooden combs that are sold in the marketi 

 for the use of the poorer classes of people may be 

 well used, being less liable to break or to bend ; per- 

 haps metal ones also can be used. A report of the 

 industrial operations, including arrowroot making, 

 appeared as a leader in the "Examiner" about the 

 middle of 1860, which is worth perusal. The fibres of 

 the mudar, Calotropis giijanlea, are largely used by 

 the fisflers, for making twine for their nets. The 

 trees and plants are cut and dried in the sun, then 

 the fibres are peeled off and twisted into twine. All 

 the plants that I have mentioned above seem to thrive 

 in any locality regardless of climate and soil; require 

 no effort in cultivating, but a saline atmosphere and 

 saline soil are preferable to the varieties of the aloes, 

 whilst the pineapple, I believe, grows on rocky soil. 

 The bandakai (Hibiscus esculenta) is generally cult- 

 ivated ; but a wild specimen of this as well as the 

 roseola (Hibiscus acidulata) commonly called the. 

 Footprint, with fleshy red or pink calyx are found 

 wild and in a creeping state in the jungles on the 

 Badulla road from Batlicaloa. The mudar plant, again 

 thrives well onsea-and, and the advance of seas, and 

 which form into hills in Hambantota is to a great 

 extent arrested by the growth of these plants ; the 

 flowers are eaten by goats there. — I am, yours truly. 



SILEX. 



THE LEAF-FUNGUS. 



Dear Sir, — I have just read " Swaddy" 's last letter, 

 and will endeavour to answer his several questions, 

 so far as they are capable of being answered. But 

 before doing so, I should like to say that, neither 

 at the time of the appearance of the leaf-fungus, nor 

 since, have I been able even to suspect the source 

 whence it originated. From time to time I have 

 combatted the many ramdom guesses that have been 

 hazarded as to its origin, nearly everyone of which 

 I knew, from the real circumstances of the case, to 

 be untenable. It appeared suddenly and mys- 

 teriously on .the Maiulsiraa range, which was, then, 

 the outermost eastern zone of the coffee region, all 

 beyond being undulating lowcountry to the sea. That 

 it had already an existence ou some other plant 

 flourishing only in that district, I did, indeed, sug- 

 gest some years ago ; btit I did not suspect that it 

 was Buddhistical in its nature, having afflicted the 

 vegetable kingdom sinco creation, under endless forms. 

 Doubtless, in common with every other vitid organ- 

 ism, it iias bjeu evolved from some simpler prim- 

 ordial element ; but "polymorphism" somewiiat disturbs 

 this theory, and is like a great "fault" in tlie vein 

 of that science. Polymorphism, once established as a 

 fact, would, indeed, offer a possible solution of the 

 mystery; but to establish that hypothesis, it would be 

 necessary to discover one or more of its coexisting 

 forms, and be able to transfer it, experimentally, 

 from its shapf ou, or in, the one host — be that 

 vegetable or animal — to its fungoid condition on the 

 coffee leaf. The tapewoim has a poljmorphous 

 existence, so has the butterfly and a hundred 

 other insects; but as I understand "Swaddy," 

 the polymorphism of the leaf-fungus is something 

 quite distinct from the familiar and necessary meta- 

 morphic stages in the life-history of these beings, 

 that, in fact, it may and does change its beiug, and 

 with each lu-w host becomes a new creation able to 

 propogate itself wiihout returning to its original form, 

 This is interesting aud worthy of some further ex- 

 amination. In the meantime, I express no opinion 

 upon it. I will now answer " Swaddy" 's questions. 



1. I was silent ou the subject of itisu£icie7icy or 

 absence of crominj duriivj fertilization, because, as I 



