448 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jan, I, 1887. 



A Correspondent from Uva writes : — " I send you 

 by parcel post three fruits that I think are un- 

 mistakebly lemons (Malta or any kind you like to call 

 them.) I found a tree laden with these fruits in a 

 village garden near here, and the villagers treating 

 them as u-ild limes, using them only while bath- 

 ing and washing their hair with them. They can 

 give me no account how this lemou tree got into 

 the village. Can it be possible that a native lime 

 seed sported into a lemon tree ? not unlikely I 

 should think." The fruits sent are undoubtedly 

 citrons of a very good kind. 



Bonded Tea Warehouse Accommodations. — The 

 "Wholesale Tea Dealers' Association have memorialized 

 the Lords of the Treasury in regard to insufficient ac- 

 .comniodatiou for the proper storing of tea. They say, 

 also, " We are informed on the best authority that the 

 complaints from country grocers as to spoilt tea owing 

 to careless warehousing are more numerous this year 

 than ever. The tea comes in the months above men- 

 tioned in immense quantities , and warehouse keepers, 

 whose hands are full to overflowing with work, 

 allow the chests to remain for months uncovered with- 

 out even the lids being put on, aud thus teas, especially 

 the finer sorts, are greatly damaged." — Indian Tea 

 Gazette. 



Cocaine (Crude). — A case, containing 3,765 grammes 

 just arrived from Lima, was offered in sale. The ana- 

 lysis was given as follows : — 



CrystaUisable cocaine 01"4 



Ash ... 50 



Moisture, &c. 36 



100-0 

 The whole was bout,ht in at lOd per gramme- 

 We understand that one of the principal English 

 makers offered 4^d per gramme, but this bid was de- 

 clined. We have described this cocaine, which is ex- 

 tracted from the leaves in Peru, and of which fre- 

 quent shipments are received at Hamburg, in a 

 recent issue. CocA Leaves remains quite neglected, 

 47 bales offered in sale this day found no purchasers. — 

 Chemist and Driiygist. 



Kainit as a" Fertilizer. — The following de- 

 serves your consideration at this period of the 

 year, (say Messrs. Samuel Downes & Co., Liver- 

 pool, writing on September 30th). Intending users 

 will please to observe that it should not be ap- 

 plied to stiff but light sandy soils and mossy lands 

 which are deficient in potash :— The late Dr. 

 Voelcker wrote:—" By far the best mode of apply- 

 ing kainit to liyht or to heavy land is to sow 

 broadcast in autumn or early in icinter, both for 

 wheat and potatoes. For winter wheat on heavy 

 land the kainit may be mixed with dissolved guano 

 in the proportion of 2 cwt. of kainit and .S cwt. 

 of dissolved guano (8 per cent quality dissolved 

 guano), and sown broadcast, either before sowing 

 or soon after the seed has been sown. For pot- 

 atoes it is best to sow broadcast 3 to 5 cwt. of 

 kainit per acre early in winter, and to plant the 

 potatoes with 4 to C cwt. of G per cent quality 

 dissolved guano diluted with ashes or burnt soil, 

 or any similar bulky material, which has the effect 

 of spreading the dissolved guano more freely upon 

 the land, and preventing the concentrated manure 

 coming into direct contact with the seed potatoes. 

 Kainit should always be sown in autumn or early 

 in winter. For rather heavy land 2 to 3 cwt. are 

 sufficient; for light soils 3 to 5 cwt. per acre may 

 be applied with advantage. — Afiricultural Gazette. 

 — [Has any one tried kainit with dissolved guano, 

 or with white castor-cake as an application to tea '?^ 

 Since writing this, we have learned that Messrs. 

 Freudenberg & Co. have been appointed Ceylon 

 Agents; and the proprietor having got samples from 

 them, some experiments with kainit for tea are to 

 be made on Abbotsford, and the results carefully 

 noted for publication. — Ed._, 



Ceylon Plant in Bequest. — Says a corre- 

 spondent of a home medical journal: — " I hear tha 

 the leaves of a Ceylon plant, the Michelia nila- 

 gcrica, have been found by a foreign medical 

 authority to possess great antipyreti3 properties, a 

 decoction of the drug acting in this respect better 

 than one of cinchona bark. A peculiarly bitter 

 princij)le is also said to have been extracted from 

 these leaves." — From the " Treasury of Botany " 

 we take over all under the heading of Michelia, 

 as follows : — 



Michelia. A Florentine botanist of the early part of 

 the eighteenth century is commemorated by this genus 

 of Mac/noliacff, which consists of lofty trees, natives 

 of India and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, 

 and is nearly allied to J/^z/z/io^/a, but distinguished by 

 the axillary flowers, the looser arrangement of the 

 carpels, and the more numerous ovules. 



M. Champaca, the Ohumpaka of the Hindoos, is 

 cultivated commonly in India for the powerful fra- 

 grance of its flowers, which, indeed, according to Sir 

 W. Joues, is so strong that bees seldom if ever alight 

 on them. The tree is sacred to Vishnu, aud is there- 

 fore an object of superstitious regard on the part of the 

 Hindoos, who adorn their dark hair with the rich 

 orange-coloured flowers. The root, like all parts of 

 the tree, has bitter properties, and is used medicinally. 

 There appears to be some difficulty iu defining the 

 species ; or probably that just mentioned, having been 

 ong cultivated, has origiuated numerous varieties 

 which are mistaken for species ; thus 3r. Rheedu is re- 

 ferred to M. Champaca by Hooker aud Thomson. The 

 timber of M. Rheedu is employed in Bombay for cabi- 

 net work, and has been tried in ship-building, while 

 various parts of the tree are used medicinally as 

 stimulants, &c. M. Doltsopa, anotVer variety of the 

 Champaca, is mentioned as furnishing a fragrant wood 

 used in house-building in Nepal. Lindley mention . 

 the bark of 3t. montana as having proprieties liks 

 those of cascarilla, but milder, and that of M. gracilis 

 as having the odour of camphor. M. Champaca is 

 cultivated as a hothouse plant in this country, where, 

 however, it does not appear to be as gi-eat a favourite 

 as its Indian reputation would lead us to infer. [M. 

 T. M.] 



A Few Notes on the Soil of Ceylon. — As to 

 the soils of Ceylon, that of Colombo consists of 

 either sea sand or of laterite, locally called cahooh 

 or a mixture of the two. It is a pretty well esta- 

 blished fact that the sea in former ages covered the 

 present site of Colombo and the Cinnamon Gardens, 

 hence the sea sand deposited there. Further inland 

 we have the large expanse of paddy-fields -cultivated 

 by the natives who have been for ages experts in 

 terracing and irrigating their lands — may be said to 

 be a deposit principally of gneiss — still further on 

 the slopes of the hills of the Central Provinces, the 

 soil, where wonderful crops of coffee were in former 

 days made, is anything but rich, being of a loose, 

 friable, gravelly nature, very apt to ^et washed into 

 the paddy terraces of the Cingalese Gova below, 

 a circumstance which " Apaswammy " thoroughly 

 appreciates. In fact the wonderful returns of various 

 tropical products from the soils of Ceylon is more 

 due to the climate than to the richness of the soil. 

 When we arrived at Nuwara Eliya we exclaimed 

 what grand black soil. To our astonishment we were 

 told by a friend that this black deposit on the plateau 

 of Nuwara Eliya is utterly worthless, inert stuff, be- 

 ing simply peat in a high state of decomposition, 

 and which would burn as peat ciit from the bogs of 

 Scotland. Oil the slopes of the hills of Nuwara Eliya 

 the soil is of a better character aud grows good tea 

 and chinchoua the latter however suffering some- 

 what from the hoarfrosts in January, February and 

 March. Notwithstanding the poverty of the soil of 

 Nuwara Eliya wonderfully good English vegetables 

 are raised by an enterprizing .Scotch-man, Mr. White, 

 who has a large garden within the grounds of the 

 Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, and from which he 

 supplies people in that station, planters in the dis- 

 trict and hotels aud steamers at Colombo. W. M. R. 

 —2he Indian Planters Gazette, 



