March i, 1887.] THE TEOPICAL AaRlCULTURIST. 



^3S 



pearl-matter is first to remove the scale of the lower 

 part of the fish ; these must then be very carefully 

 washed, after which they are put to soak in water, 

 when the pearly film falls off and forms a sediment at 

 the bottom of the vessel, which is removed and placed 

 in liquid ammonia for future use. This pearl mixture, 

 when of the best quality, is very costly, being as much 

 as £4 or £5 per ounce. For use, it is diluted with 

 ammqnia, and injected into the glass beads, so as to 

 thinly coat them inside; afterwards the better kinds 

 have melted white wax poured in, which renders them 

 more durable. The French and Germans produce in 

 this way imitations of the finest oriental pearls of such 

 beauty, that the most practised eye can hardly detect 

 the difference. The bleak is procured in considerable 

 quantities for this purpose from the Thames and other 

 rivers in England. 



The invention of artificial pearls is due to a French- 

 man, named Jaquin, in the time of Catherine d'Medici, 

 and the manufacture is now chiefly carried on in the de- 

 partment of the Seine, where great improvements have 

 lately been made, especially in the art of giving the 

 irregular forms of large pearls to the glass-bulbs, and 

 thus increasing the resemblance, and in removing the 

 glassy appearance caused by the exterior glass coat- 

 ing, by exposing it for a short period to the action 

 of the vapour of hydrofluoric acid. Mucilage of fine 

 gum-arabic is also used instead of wax, which in- 

 creases the translucency, gives greater weight, and 

 is not liable to melt with the heat of the wearer's 

 body — a defect to which those filled with wax are 

 very liable. 



Eoman pearls differ from other artificial pearls, 

 by having the coating of pearly matter on the out- 

 side, to which it is attached by an adhesive subs- 

 tance. The art of making these was derived from 

 the Chinese. 



Motiieu-of-Pearl, the shells of the large bivalve 

 mollusc, Mdcajrina mariinrifcra, which also produces 

 the precious pearls.* These shells are collected in 

 vast numbers in the tropical seas, chiefly oii^ the 

 coast of Ceylon, Manila, Cuba, Panama, and the South 

 Sea Islands. Those from Panama arc small and 

 thick, and are known in commerce as "bullock"' 

 shells; those from Manila are finest in quality, often 

 as much as a foot in diameter, round and flat. There 

 are two varieties— the white or silver lipped and 

 the black lipped. So enormous is the trade in these 

 shells, that the imports of this country alone amounted 

 to 3,000 tons per annum, the value of which is nearly 

 £100,000. Although large quantities of these shells 

 are consumed in inlaying fancy wood-work, papier- 

 mache and in making knife-haudles and other small 

 ornamental o'ljects, by far the greater portion is re- 

 quired for making buttons, chiefly in Birmingham.— 

 The British Xortk Borneo Herald. 



To the Editor of the " British Xorth Borneo IleralJ.'' 

 Silt, — Without wishing any criticism to be implied 

 on the Early Notices of North Borneo and Sulu from 

 Chinese Sources which were printed in your issue of the 

 Ist instant, I should like to remark that I was especially 

 struck by the weight of the pearl mcutioned in the follow- 

 ing passage :— " In the year 1421 (a.d. is supposed to be 

 Understood) the mother of the Eastern King (King of 

 Suiu) sent to Oourta brother of her late husband, called 

 Paduka Suli ; he presented as tribute a large pearl weigh- 

 ing more than seven taeh." Kow seven Chinese taels 

 are equal i.V67 2 5 grains Troy, which if valued at 

 the prest nt valuation of pearls, presuming the pearl in 

 question to have been of the first quality, would give the 

 grand sum of £41,374. In the estimation of the Chinese 

 it may have possessed a still higher value, seeing the 

 fabulous prices they sometimes put on pearls. That 

 which Julius Cassar presented to the mother of Marcus 

 Brutus was valued at £48,417 10s; and the one which 

 Cleopatra, in her desire to expend in one feast a larger 

 sum than Mark Amhony had done in his most sump- 

 tuous feasts, swallowed with a draught of vinegar ; cost 



« This is a curious error. I\[other-o'-pearl is pro- 

 cured chiefly from large ehellg of (juite a different 

 epecies,— Ep, 



about £30,729 35s 4a. The pearl obtained by Philip II 

 of Spain in ir)87 from the island of Margarita off the 

 Columbian Coast which weighed 250 carats or 800 grains 

 was valued at $150,000. 



To those celebrated pearls just noted must now be 

 added (if credence is to be placed in theEirly Notices 

 of Borneo and Sulu from Chinese Sources) the above 

 remarkable one presented by a Queen of Sulu to the 

 H6ng-Te of the Kingdom. — Yours, &c. Oiim-Cnu. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Gree.v Tea.—" C " is right in saying that more 

 green tea is sold in this country than in Europe. The 

 reason for its popularity here is, no doubt, as a re- 

 cent English writer has observed, in a great measure 

 due to our intercourse with .Tapan, where green tea 

 alone is manufactured. In the making of tea, as in 

 everj^thing which this curious people do, the Japanese 

 have a waj' of their own. It would startle an Assam 

 planter to see them in picking time squatting down be- 

 fore the trees and stripping the branches of the leaves, 

 instead of scientifically selecting only the young, undevel- 

 oped leaf, the first leaf below that, and half tlie second, 

 from which would be evolved respectively " Broken 

 Tips " or " Orange Pekoe," " Pekoe " and " Souchong." 

 Any one accustomed to the elaborate machines for 

 " rolling " and " firing '' the leaves which are in use 

 on European plant^itions might be amused at the 

 •Japanese methccl, where the workers roll and squeeze 

 and twist the leaves in their hands on parchment stretched 

 over a charcoal fire. Very fine teas are, neverthe- 

 less, manufactured by the Japanese, and in the cele- 

 brated district of Uji rumour tells of tea worth i^iir. per 

 pound, though it is not definitely slated whether that 

 price has ever actually been paid for i*-. Moreover, in 

 the case of teas intended for export, only so much work 

 is done upon them as will enable them to be sent to the 

 "tea-firing godown" of Yokohama, where they are worked 

 up for the market before being shipped. As is now 

 well known, the difference between green tea and black 

 liesin the fact that in the former iermentatiou has been 

 arrested by " firing," the color of the leaf being in this 

 ■;vay partially preserved and fixed ; with the latter, by a 

 much longer process, fermentation up to a certain 

 point is permitted, and the leaves are not " fired" until 

 they have become cxidi^'^d by exposure to the air. In 

 Japan the leaves, after being pick •d and " wliithered " 

 by a short exposure, are fired in the way described 

 above sufticiently to stop fermertition, and in this 

 partially-cured state are sent to the European tea 

 merchants, by whom they are again '• fii-^d." In the 

 " godowns ' of Yokohama hundreds of women can be 

 seen at work turning the leaves over and over and 

 round and round in large basins built ever a charcoal 

 fire. The coloring or " painting ' is also done at this 

 period by means of a spoonful of indigo and powdered 

 aoapstone put into each basin, and thus disseminated 

 through its contents. But in Japan tea is not grown 

 for export only, but is the chi^jf article of home con- 

 sumption ; and these domestic teas as procured in the 

 country are probably the only samples of unadulter- 

 ated green tea which foreigners are likely ti meet with. 

 Thev produce a beverage which is refreshing, quite 

 harmless, and which, notwithstandmg the way in which 

 it is prepared, can, after only a short residence in the 

 country, be readily distinguished from hot water.— 

 Anierioaii Cultivator. 



A\EW''everlastiug"Vrood Pavement has been brought 

 out in Fr.-xnce. The v/ood bliicks are boiled in a solu- 

 tion of sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc and chloride 

 of sodium, mixed with a heavy mineral oil, linseed oil 

 and tallow. The blocivs are afterward compre-^sed to 

 a.bout one-tenth their original volume. In this state 

 they are said to practically defy wear and tear.— Joi';"c« 

 of rurc-itry. [Our Municipal Councillors ought to "put 

 their heads together"' in order to supply wooden pave- 

 ment to some of the principal streets or Colombo,— En ] 

 Fn TEEN years ago, the net forest revenue of British 

 India was £50,000. Now it is £100,000. Forest culture 

 has brought about tbu Qha,uge.— Journal of Forestry. 



