Sept, 1, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



149 



the other. The diy regions of the island were 

 then touched upon, and the lecturer expressed the 

 opinion that there must be a certain amount of 

 truth in the native traditions, that these parts, 

 where the stupendous ruins are now found, were 

 once " the granary of India." On this subject 

 Dr. Trimen remarked : — 



Modern experience shows us that, given only water 

 continuously, the soil is capable of great things ; it 

 is I think in many parts more productive than in the 

 parts of the island more favored by rainfall. If then 

 the great tanks, sluices and anicuts, whose mag- 

 nitude and skilful construction still fill us with wonder, 

 were ever in good working order an immense amount 

 of land may have been under cultivation and very fer- 

 tile. But beyoud the rums of these vast works we 

 cannot now trace any evidence of a large popul- 

 ation ; unbtoken forest covers everything. The ques- 

 tion is of great interest, for if the country were really 

 occupied by a large and industrious people engaged in 

 paddy cultivation, we have to believe that the com- 

 paratively short space of 1,000 or 1,200 years has 

 been sufficient to completely restore an aboriginal forest 

 vegetation over a large tract of country. But the ex- 

 planation maj^ perhaps he found in the consideration 

 that probably no great extent was cleared and cultiv- 

 ated at any one time or for any long period. It is 

 well known from the native records of the island 

 that the population was constantly being driven 

 from one district to another by the frequent m- 

 vasions from India, and thus their fields would be 

 abandoned after comparatively short periods of culture. 

 At that time too, it must be remembered, as helping 

 to account for a more rap'd return of natural forest 

 vegetation, that there had been no importation of 

 the exotic tropical weeds which now so rapidly 

 occupy open ground and give no chance to the natives 

 to resume their position. 



The vegetation of the region was described as 

 very monotonous, and the chief species of trees 

 were enumerated. The plants of this dry region 

 were shown to be essentially those of the Caniatic 

 and Coromandel coast, and so far as the flora is 

 concerned one would judge the separation of Ceylon 

 from India to be recent. The lecturer concluded as 

 follows : — 



I might continue this sketch of Ceylon botany 

 further to give some account of the flora of 

 of the river— banks and the great ruined tanks of the 

 seashore, the coconut groves, and the mangrove 

 swamps, but I have already been led into too much 

 technical detail. Besides, there is little of special 

 significance in these aspects of vegetation concerning 

 Ceylon. The floras of tropical seashores areremark- 

 pbly similar everywhere ; doubtless mauj^ seeds are im- 

 aorted directly by ihe waves and currents, and poss- 

 ibly this may have been the case in Ceylon with 

 the cocoimt itself, the original home of which noble 

 palm still remains one of the unsolved problems of 

 geographical botany. J will therefore not enter into 

 this orother of the special points of interest which 

 suggest themselves. I have endeavoured in this address 

 rather to awake yom- interest by briefly calling atten- 

 tion to some of the larger questions which arise when 

 one attempts to understand the present distribution 

 of plants, in even one small island ; and if I have 

 succeeded in doing so, I shall feel that this rather 

 technical lecture is justified. 



On the conclusion of the lecture the chairman 

 called upon Dr. Cleghorn to speak, which that 

 gentleman did briefly being followed by Mr. D. 

 Morris, who at some length dwelt upon the more 

 remarkable features of the vegetation of Ceylon, 

 and stated that tlie two sights which made most 

 impression on himself were the talipot trees 

 in blossom along the Kandy railway line and 

 the gigantic rhododendrons in blossom on the 

 Nuwara Eliya patauas. He passed a eulogium 

 on the work which Dr. Thwaites and Messrs. 

 Geo. Wall and Wm. Ferguson had done in con- 

 nection with the botany of Ceylon, and spoke in 



the highest terms of praise of the energy which 

 the Ceylon planters had displayed in introducing 

 new products when old ones failed. Dr. Carruthers, 

 President of the Linnean Society, then spoke, 

 and expressed the hope that in the dry regions 

 of Ceylon, irrigation might effect such a change as 

 had taken place at Salt Lake City, which from 

 being a barren region had become a most pre- 

 ductive one. Mr. J. H. Barber then spoke briefly 

 as representing the planters of Cejdon, and a vote 

 of thanks to the lecturer proposed by the Chair- 

 man and another to Sir William for presiding, 

 proposed by Mr. Geo. Wall and seconded by Mr. 

 Barber, brought the meeting to a close. 



THE EXTENT OF CINCHONA CULTUEE 

 IN JAVA. 



The Dimbula Planters' Association took a sensible 

 course in asking the Colonial Government to ob- 

 tain from the British Consul in Batavia, reliable 

 statistics of the cultivation of cinchonas in Java, 

 but perhaps the reason why no acknowledgement 

 »f the letter addressed by Mr. Beck to the Colonial 

 Secretary has been received, is due to the fact 

 that the letter was not sent, as it ought to have 

 been, through the Central (Kandy) Association. Due 

 courtesy to that Association was not shown in the course 

 pursued, and how the interests of the general 

 body of planters was consulted by Mr. Beck first 

 and the Association afterwards, in keeping to them- 

 selves information so important, //' true, as that 

 communicated by Mr. Mundt, perhaps they will 

 explain. 



We have no hesitation in saying, that, if what 

 Mr. Mundt stated to Mr. Beck has been correctly 

 repeated by the latter, to the effect that there are 

 175,000 acres of five years old cinchonas in Java 

 the whole or the greater part Ledgerianas, then 

 the Dutch Colonist most grossly exaggerated, — 

 from want of careful collection and weighing of 

 facts, we presume, for, be it observed, he said he never 

 saw the vast area of cinchonas the existence of 

 which he so confidently asserted ! The senior editor 

 of this paper was in Java in the closing period 

 of 1881, that is less than five years ago, with 

 the advantage of the guidance through the cin- 

 chona region of the Preanger Begency of Mr. J. B. 

 Moens, the Director of the Government plantations, 

 who most readily supplied all available information 

 regarding the character and extent of the cultiv- 

 ation. The distinct impression left on our mind 

 was that in Western Java, where the cultivation 

 was originated and to which it was mainly con- 

 fined, the number of estates, apart from the Govern- 

 ment plantations, could then be counted on a man's 

 fingers, some being merely in the course of form- 

 ation. The Government Gardens themselves, though 

 carefully cultivated, were really of limited extent, 

 while the valuable Ledgers like many other rare 

 and valuable plants, were chary in yielding seed : 

 some seasons scarcely any was gathered; and even 

 when good seasons occurred, the seed liarvested 

 was sold at high upset prices. Subsequently to the 

 period of which we have spoken, Mr. Moens visited 

 the eastern part of Java and stated that he had 

 found Cinchona officinalii^ flourishing on some estates 

 there, after a different fashion to the spindly plants 

 of that species which he showed us in the moun- 

 tains around Bandong. But although the plants 

 were represented as good, there was no indication 

 that the extent under them was other than limited. 

 Mr. Moens since then has, from his residence, 



