Dec. I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



37i 



The natives of Java call the latter the Devil's leaf 

 and say that the etfects of its sting last for a year 

 or more when it does not cause rapid death; whilst 

 I'rtiea stimulans in Java is another most dangerous 

 species. Like the much talked of antidotes to snake 

 poisoning, an antidote to the effects of the similarly 

 venomous if less common violently stinging nettles has 

 yet to be discovered. Having glanced at the male- 

 volent and illbred members of the urticaceas, let us 

 turn to some of the useful and benign members of 

 the family. 



The foliage of Boehmeria candita, says Lindley, is 

 used advantageously in Brazil in baths, as a relief 

 for hffimorhoidal complaints, and in the same country 

 an extract of Pilea, mascosa is regarded as a remedy 

 for dysuria. Uriica dioica is used as an astringent 

 and diuretic. It is also used as a decoction, strongly 

 salted, which will coagulate milk without giving it 

 any unpleasant flavour. In Abyssinia an acrid species 

 {Urtica siynenais) is cooked and eaten by the natives 

 as a vegetable. The tubers of Urtiat tuherosa are es- 

 culent and nutritious, and are boiled, or roasted, or 

 eaten raw by the natives. 



The common nettles are used frequently in France ; 

 sometimes in England and in Scotland I have often 

 seen women of the poorer labouring class carrying 

 home great bundles of the tender and young portions 

 of the nettles to put in their " broth." 



The stalks of Urtica cannabina were manufactured 

 at one time into hemp, but were not so successful 

 as another species which will be mentioned hereafter. 



Urtica tenacissima, called "caloose" in Sumatra, 

 yields an extremely tough cordage. From the Pooah, 

 or Puya, of Nepaul and Sekkim, which strongly re- 

 sembles Voehmeria nivea, good cordage and strong sail 

 cloth is manufactured in the Eist Indies. The shoots 

 and tubers of the Urtica tuberosa are eaten by the 

 Chinese. This plant is also prescribed by "Celestial" 

 doctors for rheumatism, neuralgia, palsy, and lumbago. 

 But of all the plants of the Urticacepe f;«nily the 

 most highly prized by the Chinese is what they call 

 Chii-ma, which is generally kaown as "China grass" 

 amongst traders, and the Bdhmeria nivea of botanists, 

 which is the same as the Kankhoora or Ehea of 

 India, and said to be similar to the Caloose of Sumatra. 

 This Bohmeria nivea is most important to Chinese 

 trade, and is extensively cultivated in Ohe-chang-fn, 

 Kwang-sin-fu, Nam-sing-fu, and Wu-chang-fu. The 

 fibres of the stalks are soaked in native soda, beaten 

 and broken up with a rake-like tool, and heated 

 in a dry boiler. The staple is manufactured into 

 grass cloth and is mixed with silks in making several 

 fabrics. Chinese physicians also hold the plant in 

 esteem for medicinal purposes. The root is said to 

 be cooling, pectoral, diuretic, and resolvent ; and the 

 leaves, vulnerary, alternative, and astringent. 



But it is as a fibre-producing plant that BiJhmcria 

 ■nivea has the most importance. It is a perennial her- 

 baceous plant with broad oval leaves, with white 

 down on the under surface. It is assertd that it is pos- 

 sible to obtain three crops from it per annum. 



It has lately been the topic of much consideration 

 in the Indian Government, which considers that the 

 manufacture of this soievZ-rjctal might become' of 

 great value in increasing the revenue in India if a 

 pracitical scheme could be contrived for its accomplish- 

 ment. 



With a view to this end of the Indian Govern- 

 ment some time ago offered a reward for an econom- 

 ical method of preparing the fibre of the " China 

 grass. " A few months ago Messrs. Fremy and 

 Urbain, of Paris, invented a method for converting 

 the fibres into filasse ready for spinning. Since then 

 a Mous. Favier constructed a machine for gathering 

 the fibres by decorticating the stems by means of 

 steam. Belting for machinery has already been made 

 of this fibre, and I saw a statement the other day 

 to the affect that on this belting being tested it 

 was found that it coud bear a strain of 8,320 lb. 

 to the square inch ; whereas leather could only sus- 

 taiji a pressure of 4,239 lb. to the square inch. A piece 

 of wiiter hose male of the sime substance was sub- 

 jected to the high pressure of 600 lb, to the square 



inch, and it was proved that it only " sweatel as 

 much as a good ordinary hose does under a pressure of 

 100 lb." It remains to be seen whether some enterprising 

 Australian will start the cultivation and manufacture 

 of this valuable plant in the tropical soil of Queens- 

 land, where it would probably flourish. So far as is 

 known the Bohmeria is not indigenous to the main- 

 land of Australia; but an allied species, the B'lhmeria 

 calojihle, is endemic to Lord Howe's Island. There seems 

 no reason why Queensland should be behind our Indian 

 colonies in encouraging an Industry which has yet 

 been an exclusive source of wealth to China. 



Our friends the nettles may yet be the cause of 

 giving employment to hundreds if not thousands of 

 colonists, and of thus conferring blessings more than 

 sufficient to compensate for the venom and malice of 

 other members of their numerous family.— L. M. 

 Alston. — Qweeyislander. 



♦ 



EOOTS. * 



It is a fact which has become more and more 

 evident to the practical cultivator that the results of 

 his efforts manifest themselves on the whole io a sort 

 of compromise between the plant and its environ- 

 ment; I mean that although he sees more or less 

 distinctly what his plant should be — according to a 

 certain standard — it is but rarely, if ever, that the 

 plant cultivated perfectly fulfils in every respect what 

 is demanded of it. Of late years this has of course 

 forced itself more prominently before the observer, 

 because the facts and phenomena constituting what 

 is termed variation have been so much more definitely 

 described, and the quettions arising out of them so 

 much more clearly formulated. 



Two points can be asserted without fear of contra- 

 diction ; first, the plant itself is a variable organism ; 

 and, secondly, its environment varies. Now within 

 limits which are somewhat wide, when closely examined, 

 the experience of man leads him to neglect the 

 variations occurring around him, and so no one 

 quarrels with the statement that two individual 

 Geraniums belong to the same variety, or two 0.ik 

 trees to the same species, although an accurate des- 

 cription of each of the two Geraniums or of the two 

 Oaks might require very different wording. 



The 'Water-supply. — It has also become more and 

 more evident that although we cannot ascribe all 

 variations to their causes — very often, indeed, we 

 cannot even suggest causes for them — there are 

 nevertheless numerous deviations from the normal, so 

 to speak, exhibited by plants which can be distinctly 

 referred to certain deviations from the normal on 

 the part of their environment. 



To illustrate this we may take the case of two 

 plants of that very common weed, the Shepherd's 

 Purse, growing at different ends of the same small 

 plot of ground : the soil is sandy, and so much alike 

 all over as to be regarded as the same everywhere, 

 nevertheless the plant at one end is large, more than 

 a foot high, and luxuriant, with many leaves and 

 flowers, and eventually produces numerous seeds, 

 whereas that at the other end is small, less than 

 4 inches high, and bears but a few stunted leaves and 

 three or four poor flowers and fruits. The cause of 

 the difference is found to be the different supply of 

 water in the two cases; and if any one doubts that 

 this may be so, let him try the experiment of growing 

 two or more specimens of this weed in pots : the 

 pots to be new, filled with soil which has been 

 thoroughly niLxed, and all the pots exposed to the 

 same conditions — i.e., practically the same — except 

 that those of one series are watered sufficiently often, 

 and those of the other only just sufficient to keep 

 the plant actually living. 'Ihe experiment is ea.sy and 

 conclusive with such a weed as the above. Now it 

 is just such experiments as that above described — some 

 of them equally simple, others less so — that the 

 physiologist devotes much of his attention to, and 



* A lecture by H. Marshall Ward, m.a., f.l.r., 

 Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge; Professor of 

 Botany in the School of Fore.stry, Royal Indian 

 College, Cooper's Hill. 



