534 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1884. 



mass. Africa has also au indigenous bread-fruit tree; but 

 this must uot be confouuded mth the Baobab or monkey 

 bread, which is found over a large extent of the African 

 continent. This tree and the Dragon tree of Orotava are 

 mentioned by Humboldt as '• the oldest living organic 

 monuments of our planet." The Baobab reaches a height 

 of some forty feet, and m maturity is nearly as broad as 

 it is long. The natives hollow out chambers in the trees 

 and use them as tombs, and the cutting-out process does not 

 appear to impair the fruit-bearing properties of this ex- 

 traordinary plant. As may be surmised, the growth of the 

 Baobab is slow, and the tree consequently lives to a great 

 age. How long it retains its vitality has never, in fact, 

 been ascertained. Some have been found with dates of 

 the fourteenth century cut into them, and the calculation 

 has been made that the trees so marked are upwards of 

 five thousand years old. As an example of the slow growth 

 of the Baobab, Mr. 8mith mentions one at Kew, which, 

 though more than eighty years of age, was in 18-53 only 

 4i feet high, consisting of a slender erect stem, bearing 

 afew leaves at the apex only. As the wood is soft and 

 spongy, the task of hewing a chamber out of the tree is 

 not a very formidable one. The fruit is a capsule, eight 

 to twelve inches long, containing a large number of seeds, 

 which the natives use for food. Clothing is also obtained 

 from the Baobab, the bark being convertible into wearing 

 material. It was natiu"al that some of the food-plants 

 should have been named after the miraculous daily provision 

 made for the Israelites in the desert. Mr. Smith describes 

 several varieties of so-called -'manna,'' and he mentions 

 an edible lichen found in many regions of "Western Asia 

 and also of North Africa. This litchen losses its attach- 

 ment to the surface on which it grows, and being light 

 is carried by the wind to a great distance It sometimes 

 falls like snow, forming a layer several inches in thick- 

 ness. Sheep eat it, and the inbaliitants u.se it in times 

 of scarcity for bread. Specimens of this and other varieties 

 of manna may be seen in the museum at Kew. There 

 are numerous plants from which products that are rather 

 a bane than a ble.ssing are obtained by man. This is 

 particularly the case vrith a member of the mushroom family 

 {Amanita mu.-tcariu). a native of this country, but regarded 

 by us as poisonous. The Antanita is also found largely 

 in the north of Europe. It is common in Siberia and 

 Kamschatka, and there it is collected, strung up, and dried 

 — a process that is said to divest it of poisonous properties. 

 Thus prepared, the fungus is used as an intoxicant. It 

 is rolled up and swallowed at gulp, like a pill. The effects 

 are experienced about two hours afterwards. Pleasing 

 emotions are first produced, and then come actions that 

 are involuntary, and that suggest somnambulism. In 

 moderate doses the fungus is a stimulant to exertion, but 

 it often acts in a curious way. The partaker, for ex- 

 ample, will, when once affected by it, take a long .spring 

 to jump over a straw in his path, fancying he sees before 

 him a log of wood ; he gets, in fact, vei-y much into the 

 condition described in one of Dean Eam.say's anecdotes, 

 where some friends, returning home after au evening out, 

 take off their shoes and stockings to wade across a brook, 

 and are amazed to find themselves on the other side dry- 

 footed. They had mistaken a streak of moouUght for a 

 running stream. It is strange that so simple and familiar 

 a plant-name as ** apple " should have an unknown origin 

 and a doubtful meaning. Mr. Smith gives Dr. Prior's opinion 

 that it is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from the old 

 Danish "Appel" — a name which, in turn, is supposed to 

 have been derived from the more ancient word " apalis." 

 The Celtic word " Abhal," meaning a round body or ball, 

 is as good a derivation as any. The Romans are credited 

 with the introduction of the apple into Britain, but the 

 testimony on this jKiint is doubtful. There is proof that the 

 fruit was introduced into Rome itself in the time of Appius 

 Claudius (44!) ii. c), and that in the time of Pliny there 

 were many varieties of it, and that it was grown in 

 orchards. There h-ive been many different varieties of 

 apples in our own country from an early period. A sort 

 called " costard " was sold in the streets of London in the 

 reign of Edward 1.. and it seems likely that here we have 

 the origin of the word " costermonger.'' According to the 

 catalogue of the Royal Horticultural Society, there are 

 some 1,500 sorts of apples. Of oranges the variety is by 

 no means so great; but the orange tree has an advant.age 



over the apple tree in its greater productiveness, and in 

 the venerable age it attains before .any serious diminution 

 is noticeable in its fruit-bearing qualities. In some parts 

 of Spain there are orange trees six centuries old. One 

 at Versailles, growing in a box, is said to liave been sown 

 in 1421. As to the productiveness of this tree, Mr. Smith 

 speaks of some individual trees that have been known to 

 produce as many as sis thousand fruits in one year. 

 Several tropical and sub-tropical fruits brought to this 

 country have, when cultivated imder glass, attained a flavour 

 and a size surpassing that of the countries where they 

 are indigenous. This has been the case particularly with 

 the pine-apple, the grape vine, the melon, and even with 

 the banana and plantain. Bunches of bananas, weighing 

 from 50 to 60 lb. each have been produced at Kew. It 

 is impossible, however, in this country, to obtain any 

 adequate idea of the proUfic growth of either the plantain 

 or the banana. Common in all tropical countries, both 

 plants grow under favoiu-able conditions in weed-like pro- 

 fu.sion. and yield a weight of fruit that seems out of all 

 proportion to the space of land occupied. Mr. Smith gives 

 the calculation that the same area required to yield 

 33 lb. of wheat or 99 lb. potatoes will yield 4,40o lb. of plant- 

 ains. The phrase " economic plants " is a wide one, and 

 Mr. Smith gives to it its fullest interpretation. Every plant 

 that in any way is found useful to man, be it as food, as 

 clothing, as medicine, as timber, or even as an object of 

 adoration, is described in his book. In every case the - 

 popular as well as the scientific name is given to the plant, 

 and it is the popular name that forms the key-word through- 

 out. Probably not a single herb referred to in this Diction- 

 ary is without a representative at Kew, and a connection of 

 more than forty years with that finest of botanical gardens 

 has given Mr. Smith an insight into the nature and growth 

 of plants of which his book bears ample testimony. About 

 sixteen hundi-ed subjects are mentioned in the work. — 

 Lee h Merciir)/. 



TEA: OX THE RED SPIDER "AGAR US," LALL 

 MAKEE. 

 As it is called, resembles a mite, one of the greatest 

 pests that the tea plant suffers from, throwing back gard- 

 ens at the commencement of the season from long drought, 

 and even deficiency of rain. This contagious pestilency 

 predominates. But it is not so fatal or so injurious as 

 the "Leprosy" or "Mildew Blight." 



The red spider is a very diminutive insect, reddish 

 colour on the back, and white on the under part of the 

 body. It hves and feeds on the sap of the leaf. Its eggs 

 resembles white dust or very fine sopee. The eggs have 

 a very shght adhesive feeling by which it adheres to the 

 leaf ; "the numbers that are to be found on the leaves are 

 sufficient to extract all sap, after which the leaf withers, 

 showing in bad cases a resemblance as if the leaf had 

 been scorched by fii-e, leaving white stains. The red spider, 

 as I have generally .seen it. is worse to tea without .sh.ade 

 on flat land, but bushes along the slopes of hollows where 

 jungle is growing, are rarely bad with it. 



Causes. — Excessive drought, sterile, water-logged, and 

 partially-exhausted soU; deep hoeing too near the stems 

 of the bushes, thereby cuttmg away runners, feeders, and 

 young shoots, which comes forth from the main root 

 of the plant, thereby weakening it. 



Remedy and prevention against these pests, is to have 

 good hoeing between the lines of the bushes, and avoid 

 hoeing any depth within 1^ inches of the stem, thereby 

 not running the risk of cutting any suckers or feeilers, 

 which supply the nutriment of the bush, which, if done, 

 each lateral" root cut away weakens the bushes (same as 

 bleeding would act on the human system), and exposes 

 it to various diseases. Drain all stiff land where it is 

 necessary, leading the drains into hollows or any other 

 outlet. "AVhen pruning, thin out all supcrlluous twigs and 

 wood, i.e., non-bearing old wood, attacked by Lichen, &c., 

 and allow free ventillation through the bush; retain a 

 fair height with all breadth attainable. The average height 

 as mentioned in my articles in the Tea (jazette, " On the 

 i Cultivation of Tea.'" I have considered, after seeing the 

 1 way manuring has been done on a very extensive scale 

 at several friends' gardens who I have been staying with, 

 nstead of the manure bemg placed close to the stem of 



