Vol. XII. No. 299. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



329 



land by the difficulties of the Andes, stretching their 

 vast and rugged bulk from Panama on the North, to 

 the e.xtremity of Patagonia on the South. For the 

 future the easy passage of the Canal will be theirs. The 

 eastern and western hemispheres will meet at theirdoors 

 and bring with them a Pactolean Mood that will, it is 

 believed, metaphorically turn their soil into gold. 

 Upon these countries the eyes of ihe keenest business 

 men of the world are fixed, and it. is here that the next 

 lew years will see development unparalleled in the 

 world's progress. Everything oiispires to promote 

 their development, and land which hitherto it had not 

 paid to cultivate beyond the immediate necessities of 

 the inhabitants, will appreciate in value as markets for 

 its produce insatiable and lucrative, are opened within 

 easy access.' 



It is to be hoped that this will be so. 



Opportunities for Planters in British Honduras. 



In continuation of this subject of the latent 

 agricultural wealth in the Tropics, attention may 

 be called to an article which has just appeared in 

 The Field (August 23, 191-S). The writer of this 

 account, after referring to the diverse crops which 

 can be grown in the Colony, calls attention to the 

 tribute paid to British Honduras by Sir Daniel Morris, 

 when he said, thirty years ago, that in the surpassing 

 richness of its soil, in its wonderful facilities for the 

 growth of numerous tropical plants, and in its prox- 

 imity to, and close connexion with, the large and 

 increasing markets of the United States and Canada, 

 this Colony possesses advantages unequalled by any 

 country in the East Indies. 



In the face of these tacts the writer seeks to 

 explain the cause of neglected opportunities in British 

 Honduras. It has been said that agricultural progress 

 is retarded by difficulties of labour; but it has to be 

 remembered that with the completion of the Panama 

 Canal a large number of Barbadian and Jamaican 

 labourers will be out of employment. Moreover, there 

 are in British Honduras various tribes of Indians who 

 would make, it is said, excellent agricultural labourers, 

 and would be wiHing to work for low wages. 



Periclinal Chimeras. 



It is yet too early to form an estimate of the 

 economic \alue of Dr. Winkler's discovery that it is 

 possible to clothe one species of plant in the skin 

 of another. Considered in relation to certain observa- 

 tions that will shortly appear in an article on the 

 stomatal characteristics of varieties of sugar-cane in the 

 ^Vest Indian Bulletin (Vol. XIII, No. 4), the exist- 

 ence of periclinal chimeras — the name applied to the 

 above-mentioned class of hybrid opens up new lines 

 of thought that cannot be disregarded in the future 

 by plant breeders and those iniierested in genetics 

 generally. 



In the Journal of the New York Botanical 



. Garden (August 1913), Dr. A. P.. .Stout gives a highly 



instructive historical account of recent work on graft- 



hybrids, in which Dr. Winkler's work predominates.. 

 This investigator grafted the tomato and nightshade — 

 two distinct and well-m.uied species. When the scion 

 was well established, he decapitated the branch, cut- 

 ting through the points of contact between the scion 

 and stock, thus exposing on the cut surface the two- 

 kinds of tissue and the two lines of contact between 

 them. On this surface a callus formed from which 

 buds arose. If a bud arose entirely from a portion 

 that was nightshade the branch was purely a night- 

 shacie in its characteristics; if from a segment of tomato 

 tissue, the branch was pure tomato. If, however, 

 a branch arose over the line of juncture, it was com- 

 posed partly of tomato and partly of nightshade tissues. 



In continuing his experiments. Dr. Winkler 

 obtiined from an adventitious branch, plants that 

 were neither tomato nor nightshade, though with one 

 exception, each resembled the tomato more closely than 

 the nightshade, or vice versa. 



It was ai; first thought that these new plants were 

 real graft-hybrids, resulting from the fusion of the 

 vegetative cells of the two original species. Micro- 

 copic examination — prompted by Baur's discovery that 

 white-bordered leaves have peripheral lajers of white 

 cells covering green ones — showed that one of Winkler's- 

 hybrids which resembled somewhat the tomato, had 

 really a nightshade body covered with tomato cells. 

 Another had a tomato body covered with nightshade 

 cells. 



It may be added that, at present, the only true 

 graft-hybrid known appears to be Solanum Danvin- 

 ianum. This plant is really the result of vegetative 

 cell-fusion. 



Proposed College of Tropical Agriculture irt 

 Ceylon. 



A brief reference to this subject was made in the 

 last issue of the Agricultural News. From an 

 article in the Tropical Agriculturist (August 1913) ic- 

 appears that the scheme which has been put forward is- 

 purely tentative and that nothing definite has as yet 

 been decided upon in regard to the building of the 

 institution. The article under consideration is accom- 

 panied by suggested designs for the college, which, it 

 IS proposed, shall be situated at Peradenyia. The 

 cost of the proposed buildings, as designed, would be 

 about £:i8,00(). 



The subjects which the institution proposes to 

 teach include the ordinary ones in which instruction is- 

 given in agricultural colleges. Dealing with the 

 question of the teaching staff, the article makes very 

 sound suggestions, particularly in regard to the 

 Principal, whose ability as an organizer, and education- 

 ist, and as a specialist in tropical agriculture would 

 be of the greatest impo-cance. Much, it is believed, 

 would depend upon getting the right man for the 

 head of the college, and it is suggested that before any 

 further action is tiken,a Principal should be ajjpointed 

 who should superintend the construction of the build- 

 ings and their eijuipment. and arrange in advance th& 

 preliminaries of general administration. 



