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'X 



'tnE TROPiCAL Ai^mcvL'rtjmst, 



[Aug. 2, i'5o6. 



EooT-wOKJis IN THE SuRARCANE.— M. Treub, the 

 excellent Director of the Buitonzorg Botanic Garden, 

 has published an account of a third species, Heter- 

 odera javanica, which affects the roots of Sugarcane 

 in the same manner as the two other species, II. 

 Schachtii (found on numerous plants, esiDecially in 

 ■Beetroot), and H. radicola, also found in numerous 

 plants. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



MARACAiiiO Coffee. — Cou.sul Plumacher, in his an- 

 nual report just submitted to the State Department 

 on the commerce of the consular district of Maracaibo, 

 says that coffee continues the principal product of 

 that region, and New York its most advantageous 

 TMarket. The export of colfee to the United States, 

 which was thirty million pounds during 1884, was 

 less than twenty-eight million pounds during 1885. 

 The production of cotfee was nob less than heretofore, 

 but low prices led inland producers to store and hold 

 their coffee to await better prices. Kecent revolutions 

 and low water in the rivers havo also interfered 

 with the shipment of coffee from the interior to 

 ports of export. The exports have been mainly in 

 American bottoms. The new crop i^romises to be 

 plentiful and good. The export of cacao is steadily 

 increasing, and will probably be doubled by the com- 

 pletion of railroads now in course of construction. 

 The demand and ijxices for hides and skins were 

 uniformly good. Commerce at Maracaibo suft"ers from 

 a monetary crisis, revolution, monopolies, political 

 uneasiness, postal irregularities, and prevailing low 

 prices of prmcipal articles of export. The total ex- 

 pots of the year to the United States were estimated 

 at s2,8t'7,682.— iV. Y. Cummcrcial Bidhiin. 



The Tkade ix Jute. — Some curious facts in 

 connection with the trade in manufactured goods be- 

 tween Germany and England are brought to light in a 

 report by H. M. Charged' Affairs at Dresden ''on the 

 effects of the German Customs Tariff' Eeform of 1879, 

 and on the revision of 1S85." The points with which 

 we are more immediately interested are those treatt-d 

 of in chap. 4 under the head of " Jute Manufactures," 

 in which Mr. Strachey says : — " Germany began to 

 spin and weave Junte fibre about a quarter of a 

 century ago. In 1S74 the spindles were estimated 

 at about 17,000 ; they are now nearly 150,000. These 

 may seem miserable figures by the side of the 18,000 

 Indian spindles, to say nothing of the Scotch, but they 

 show the vigour with which the youngest of the 

 textile manufactures has been pursued by the Germans. 

 All the coarse Jute tissues such as granary sacks, 

 baggings, hessiaus, and tarpaulins, arc now made in 

 8axouy, Prussia, Bremen, Gua Elsass, and elsewhere 

 iu the empire. "When spun in high numbers the 

 fibre lias a fine golden glance, and in its natural 

 shade, or dyed, may be woven into cloths and plushes 

 of great durability and beauty. Jute may also be 

 printed or interwoven with cotton, woollen, and silk, 

 making the cheap and effective furnitiu-e stuffs now 

 so largely used in hotels, railway stations, theatres, 

 &'c., and in Germany in private houses. It is hardly 

 a secret that the fibre of the Corchorus capsularis 

 is tb«; real component of most of the real Algerian 

 curtains positively imjjorted from Algiers, of the genuine 

 clothb of Smyrna, of the undoubted tapestries of 

 Teheran and Herat. Germany contributes her .share 

 to the productions of all these fabrics, whether sold 

 under their 2iroj)er names, or under the more attractive 

 foreign euphemisms. Chenmitz and Zittau in iSa.xony, 

 Klberfeld, and some other Prussian wool centres, 

 now compete with the analogous goods of Paris, 

 Amiens, of Tourcoing and Eoubaix, and with our own 

 made in Bradford and Huddersfield. " — Gardener/ 

 Chronicle. 



Thk Colonial Exhibition. — One of the most inter- 

 esting of the minor features consists in the illustra- 

 tions of the uses made of (lowers, gras.scs, &c., for 

 ornamental purposes. In the Cape Court, for instance, 

 a botanist of our acquaintance who has made the 

 llestiaceic a subject of special study for nearly a 

 quarter of a century, and has been twitted for his 

 devotion to so unattractive and so generally useless 

 a race of plants, was delighted to find his favourites 

 tliuugbi cruameutal euougb by the Cape ladies to b«; 



used as decorations for their hats, together with leaves 

 of the Silver tree (Lenoadondron), everlasting flowers, 

 &c. In the "West Au.stralian Court are some orna- 

 ments constructed of what we take to be scales from 

 the involucre of a Protead. They are effective, but 

 we have not yet been able to examine them closely. 

 Popular names are, as usual, an intolerable nuisance; 

 some magnificient things are made in various Australian 

 Courts from " Cedar." but the Cedar of one court is 

 not the Cedar of another; and whatever be the 

 true name neither of them is entitled to be called 

 Cedar ; the collections of timber, economic plants 

 and their products by Baron Von Mueller, Dr. 

 Schomburgk, Mr. Brown (South Australia), Mr. Bailey, 

 the colonial botanist of (.Queensland, the officers at 

 the Cape and Natal, Briti.sh <!uiana, Canada and 

 India are full of interest to the botanist and culti- 

 vator. Baron Yon Mueller sends his wood samples 

 in the form of little books, which admit of the various. 

 sections, transverse, vertical, or radial, being seen, 

 while it allows the specimens to bo packed book- 

 fashion in small compass. Each "book" has for title 

 the name of the plant from which it is produced. 

 Mr. Brown mounts small sections of wood bark, .tc, 

 with the dried ilowers on grey board— the whole very 

 neat, compact, and effective. I'he Queensland woods 

 are iu the form of small slabs let into card board 

 mounts like photographs. The photographs of the 

 Melbourne and Sydney Botanic Gardens, as well as 

 those of Ceylon and Calcutta are excellent. Our 

 readers will be familiar with some of these from the 

 illustrations that we have from time to time published. 

 The Botanic Gardens, Ballarat, is, however, new to 

 us. The models of fruit from Australia are iiitiTest- 

 ing, but their interest is;iesseued by the considerable im- 

 portations, in excellentcoudition,of fresh samples. — Ibid. 

 Coco-De-Mek, or Double Coconut. — Frederick 

 Stearns has on exhibition, at his oflice in the labor- 

 atory, two specimens of the Coco-de-mer, or Double 

 Coconut, a remarkable fruit of one of the largest and 

 most wonderful palm-trees. They were sent him by 

 the Hon. E. V. Mussey, United States Consul at the 

 Seychelles, a small group of islands in the Indian 

 Ocean, north of INIadagascar. This palm-tree, it is 

 stated attains a height of 100 feet, its stem being 

 nearly two feet in diameter, bearing on its summit 

 a crown of fan-.^haped leaves. It is remarkable for 

 growing in a socket of a hard, woody texture, per- 

 forated with holes made by the roots. This curious 

 appendage derives its origin from the Coteyledon, 

 which in the palm attains the extraordinary length 

 of 2 feet, growing downwards like a root, having the 

 germ seated in its thickned end. "When perfect, the 

 thick end opens on one side, like a sheath. In time, 

 the nutriment of the nut becomes exhausted, and the 

 part of the cotyledon between it and the young plant 

 withers. The latter, however, maiutains its placental 

 vital connections with the sheath end of the cotyle- 

 don, which is henceforth nourished by the plant, aad 

 increases in size with its growth, which thus cou- 

 tinues seated in the cradle of its birth through life. 

 This formation appears, however, to be common to 

 the palms, but very much more largely developed in 

 this variety. The fruit is a large oblong nut, cov- 

 ered with a thin rind. After the removal of the outer 

 rind it has the appearance of two oblong nuts firmly 

 united together, often weighing 30 to 40 pounds. 

 They are borne in bunches, each consisting of nine or 

 ten nuts, so that a whole bunch will often weigh 400 

 pounds. It takes 10 years to ripen its fruit, the 

 albumen of which is similar to that of the conunou 

 coconut, but it is too hard aiid horny to serve as 

 food. 'L'he shell is converted into many useful ar- 

 ticles by the natives. The lea^'es are made into hats, 

 baskets, and the like. The demand of late years has 

 become so great that in order to obtain the leaves the 

 trees are cut down, and, as no care is taken to form 

 new plantations, it was at one time feared this palm 

 would eventually become extiuct. In 1804 the lead- 

 ing botanists in England petitioned the (Government 

 for its protection. By more recent information, 

 however, it apjjcars that in one island alone there are 

 raauy thousaude of these valm-tteos.— Detroit free Prea. 



