5" 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Janttary r, 1884. 



roundish, beautifully polished, and of a bright scarlet colour 

 with a jet black spot at one end ; they are considered of 

 value in Europe, aud they might be made an article of 

 export. 



Simarouba (Simaruha amnra). — A tree three or four feet 

 in diameter, the wood is used medicinally, and it is emploj'ed 

 for making shingles and boards. It is much liked by the 

 people for inside housework, as it keeps away wood ants aud 

 other destructive insects. 



Dr. NichoUs further describes the properties of some 

 of the trees : — ■ 



During the journey I did not observe any indiarnbber 

 yielding trees, nor am I aw.are of such being indigenous to 

 the island, but a kind of gutta percha, known to commerce 

 as "gum balata,'' is obtainable from the bullet tree {Bnme' 

 lia retttsn), and it might be made a vabiable article of ex- 

 port from Dominica as it is now from British Guiana. I 

 made a small incision into one of these trees, and the liquid 

 gutta percha ilowed out freely. 



The Gomier (Biirsera t/vtiimifera) exudes from the bark 

 a fri^raut gum in great abundance, and were it systematic- 

 ally collected it would soon become an article of export. 

 It is burnt as incense in the Eoman Catholic churches in 

 the i.sland, and it is employed as a disinfectant and deodorant 

 at the Yaws Hospital and the Roseau Infirmary. 



His lordship the Bishop of Eoseau, who is ever ready to 

 do all in his power to advance the material prosperity of 

 the island, informs me that some manufacturmg chemists 

 in London think so favourably of this guui — which is im- 

 kuown in England — that they are willing to buy a large 

 quantity (at a price which wiU ensure the collectors against 

 loss) in order to introduce it to the home markets. 



The Mangue Eouge (Tovomita plumicri), aud the Man- 

 gue Blanc (Moronohea cocciiiea), which belong to the natural 

 order Guttifertp, both yield a yellow resin resembling gam- 

 boge. This resin may become of commercial importance 

 if it be introduced to the home markets. In Jamaica 

 the resin of Moronohea cocciiiea, which is thera called "hog 

 gum," is employed as a substitute for pitch, and it is 

 occasionally used medicinally in the stead of balsam of 

 copaiba. 



The Simarouba already mentioned amongst the timber 

 trees is the source of the quassia wood used mediciually 

 and for bremng purposes. The wood contains a bitter 

 priueiple — quassine — which is sometimes employed as a 

 substitute for quinine. 



The Greenheart {JTcctandra rodiffi). which as I have 

 shewn is one of the most valuable woods known, is also 

 the source of an important drug, for tlie bark of the tree 

 is the " Nectandrffi cortex" of the British Pharmacopteia. 

 This bark is exported from British Guiana in large flat 

 pieces from one to two feet long, and from two to six 

 inches broad. It contains an uncrystallizable alkaloid 

 called Beberia, which has tonic and ante-periodic properties. 

 Both the bark and its alkaloids are sometimes used as 

 substitutes for quinine, and the sulphate of beberia eut^ers 

 large y into the composition of the celebrated " 'Warburg's" 

 Tincture, a medicine used in the treatment of malarial 

 fevers. 



The Angelin (Andira iiici'iiiis), produces a drug which 

 used to be largely prescribed in English practice as a 

 febrifuge, an anthelmintic, and a purgative. The bark of 

 the tree is the part employed and it is known in England 

 as " worm bark" or " bastard cabbage bark." 

 If only capital and labour were available, the land, 

 after the clearing and sale or export of the timber, 

 would grow all tropical products from sugar to rice, 

 one hundredfold return of the latter having been 

 obtained from a swampy portion of the flats. Our 

 readers will thus sec that Dr. Xicholls' Eeport (w-hich 

 will be given in full in the Tropical Agriculturist) 

 is very able and interesting, and that the small 

 island of the Lesser Antilles has resources which 

 only need developing in order to restore the colony 

 to more than its former prosperity. A road or 

 tramway of 20 miles would open Dominica from end 

 to end ; and if English capitalists are not attracted 

 by Dr. NiclioUs' report, we shall be surprised if 

 some go-ahead Yankees do not form a company to 

 utilize lirst the fine timber and then the exception- 

 ally rich soil. 



A Curious Omission.— Some little excitement has 

 been created among importers of cinchona alkaloids 

 and theii- salts into the United States by the dis- 

 covery that when the Act was recently passed repeal- 

 ing the duty on quinine and its salt.s and cinconidine, 

 sulphate of cinchonidinine — probably through an over- 

 siglit — was not mentioned. The Act provides that all 

 alkaloids and tlieir salts, by whatever name known, 

 if not specially enumerated as exempt, shall pay a duty 

 of 2.5 per cent ad valorem. As tlie enumeration in the 

 free list is limited to •'rpiina, sulphate of, .''alts of, 

 and cinchouidia," the collectors at the ports have 

 decided that sulphate of cinchonidine is liable to pay 

 the duty, aud notwithstanding an appeal to the author- 

 ities they will probably maintain tlieir ground. — Phurm- 

 accutical Journal. 



Tea and Coffee,— Dr. G. V. Poor, lecturing in 

 London, with Sir Henry Thompson presiding, drew a 

 comparison between, tea and coffee, and said the 

 effect produced on the human system was in both 

 cases similar. Tea required less digestive power than 

 coffee, and it did not "cloy" the palate. The latter, 

 however, w-as a better stimulant, and there were but 

 few beverages more refreshing than the cup of coffee. 

 Tea was "the tobacco of women," and its ill effects 

 wrre due to presence of much astringent matter, and 

 this was one of the chief causes of dyspepsia. Coffee 

 was a stimulant which would prove a good substitute 

 for spirits, and as such its use should be encouraged 

 by those who were trying to reclaim the drunkard. 

 Since 1S54 the consumpiion of tea in the United 

 Kingdom had increased from 21b per head, to an 

 average of 41b 9oz ; but the consumption of coffee, 

 however, had in the same period decreased from an 

 aver.age of libs 6oe to looz each person. If adulter- 

 ation were stopped, the coffee planters 01 Southern 

 India and Ceylon might be able to carry off a lakh 

 or two of rupees, but with chicory and dandelion 

 acting so prejudicially against fragrant berry they 

 have not much chance. — Madicis Hail. 



The squatting or gi'azing industry of Australia, and 

 especially of Queensland, has only in the veiy slightest 

 degree advanced beyond the condition occupied in the 

 patriarchal and barbaric ages. This one exception is 

 that now-a-days the employment of labom* is avoided 

 by fencing the country into large paddocks. Otherwise, 

 we fail to see in wh,at respect our wealthy, highly educated 

 squatters, differ from those older squatters who flom'- 

 ished just before or after the Flood. The fact camiot 

 be denied, so far as the grazing iadustiy of Queens- 

 land is concerned. We are only just in advance of the 

 wood-dyed savages who occupied Scythia or Britain in 

 the days of Ciucinnatus. We have retrograded two 

 thonsaud years, and shall make no material advance 

 until we leam to do what is done in all the civilised 

 countries of Europe and America, and by the application 

 of the art of agi'icultnre to the soil, improve both it 

 and ourselves by raising ten times as much stock, on 

 a given area, as is at present done. It is Uttle or 

 nothing less than a sin, thus to relapse into a bar- 

 baric mode of life, and, because land is plentiful and 

 cheap, thi-ow overboard all the advantages of the age, 

 and nearly aU the amenities and sweetness of its 

 civilisation. When our squatters thi'ow aside the bar- 

 baric for a civilised condition, they will not only obtain 

 larger and sm-er refm'ns for their capital, but they vdW 

 also open vastly more extensive channels for investment, 

 while at the same time affording facilities for the spread 

 of settlement and the improvement of society that are - 

 now entirely out of the question. — Planter and Farmer, 

 [This is a true bill, but as population advances the wTong 

 vdll be righted: farms will succeed to " runs, " aud whero 

 pastoi al pm-suits are followed lucerne and other fomis 

 of fodder will be cultivated as well as the nativic 

 crrasses, — Ed." 



