S63 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST*. 



[Feb. I, 1887. 



TEA AVERAGES. 



The following are some of the averages realised 

 during the month, according to the circular of 

 Messrs. Walker, Lambe & Co., our list for December, 

 1885, ranged from Is *d to 2s per lb. 





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SIR M. E. GRANT DUFF'S REVIEW 



MINUTE.* 



In a Minute written on the principle of the paper 

 before us there was sure to be plenty of reference 

 to Sir M. Grant Duff'a favourite tastes and studies, 

 and readers of his former publications would ex- 

 pect a great deal in it on the subject of botany. 

 This part of the " Review Minute " is exceedingly 

 interesting. The hilly country surrounding Ootaca- 

 mund, the Simla of Madras, its alternative capital, 

 is especisilly favourable to the cultivation of the 

 new and now very numerous plants introduced of 

 late years into India. South America sends most 

 of them, and, as is beginning to be known in this 

 country, almost all the tecent additions to the 

 pharmacopoeia come from South America. It is 

 now long since the cinchona began to be cultivated 

 on the Neilgherries, and Sir M. Grant Duff speaks 

 strongly of the success of the Government officials 

 both in raising the tree and extracting the healing 

 alkaloids from the bark. There is, however, some 



• " Review Minute." By his Escellency the Right 

 Hon. the Goveruor. Madras, Printed by R. Hill, at the 

 Government Press, 1SP6. 



mystery about the matter. The price of quinine 

 has not fallen in Europe nearly to the extent 

 which might be expected from the great quantity 

 of bark added by Ceylon, India, and the Dutch 

 colonies to the old supplies from South America. 

 There is probably some commercial reason for 

 this unsatisfactory phenomenon.* It appears, how- 

 ever, from this Minute that the Madras official 

 quinologists have been highly successful in pro- 

 ducing a preparation of the inferior alkaloids of 

 cinchona which is an energetic febrifuge and 

 extremely cheap. It may be suspected of not 

 being very palatable, but the extraordinary numbers 

 of the vast Indian populations who suffer from 

 ague would not reject even the most nauseous 

 medicine if the reward of swallowing it were a 

 cure. Another South American plant, producing 

 a medicine of which the extreme value is beginning 

 to be recognized in England, the coca, grows 

 readily on the Madras hills, and so do various new 

 food plants, also of South American origin. Among 

 industrial importations, there are the two species 

 of rhus which produce the Japan lacquer and the 

 Japan wax, and the quillaia, or vegetable soap, 

 from Chili. It would appear, moreover, that some 

 curious experiments are bemg tried on the Neilgherry 

 Hills not only in respect of new trees and plants 

 and new modes of cultivation but in regard to 

 new methods of making hitherto useless vegetable 

 productions available for food. The silo appears 

 to have a considerable future before it in India. 

 A mischievous weed, the bideiis glabra, which o'ver- 

 runs the slopes of the Neilgherries, is found, after 

 being treated in a silo, to be devoured greedily by 

 cattle ; and Sir M. Grant Duff tells us that the 

 Madras Commander-in-Chief (presumably Sir 

 Frederick Roberts) was of opinion that the prickly 

 pear, the most intractable of vegetables to all 

 outward appearance, can by treatment in the silo 

 be made most acceptable to animals.— Lo?ido)i Times. 



new Palm in 

 but sufficiently 



Weadlaud pro- 

 Poeudo-Phcenix 

 diameter [near 



Tobacco Culture. — We are reminded by Mr. Wor» 

 thiugtou Smith ( prophet of evil ! ) that it is quite 

 within the buuudsof pobsibility that living Tobacco plants 

 may, iu this country, fall a prey to the Potato fungus — 

 Perouospora iufcstaus. It has been recorded iu Eng- 

 land amongst the Nicotianese. A New Palm. — Profes- 

 sor Sargent has reseutly detected a 

 Florida, not only new as a species, 

 distinct to constitute a new genus. Dr. 

 posing to call the plant provisionally 

 Sargemii. The trunk is 10-12 inches in 

 the base i' ], and 20-25 feet in height. The leaves 

 are 4-5 feet long, piunately divided ; piunae lauceclate, 

 12-16 inches long. No flowers, and only immature 

 fruit was found, so that the plant cauuot be fuUy 

 described. At present only six individuals have been 

 fuund. We extract these particulars from the Botanical 

 Gazette, vol. xi., No. 11. — Gardeners^ Chronicle. 



"Bouquets under water" reads a little far-fetched, 

 but the tollowing description of the process from J'ick's 

 Magazine, by which a boquetof flowers cm be pre.served 

 fresh for a long time may prove interesting to our read- 

 ers : — " A vessel of water is required, the vessel should 

 be large enough to allow the submersion in it of a plate 

 or dish holding the bouquet to be jereserved, and a bell 

 glass, to cover the bouquet. The dish or plate should 

 contain no moss or other material ; the water should be 

 limpid and quite pure. Place the plate at the bottom of 

 the water, and on the jjlate, submerging it, place the 

 bouquet, which is maintaiued iu »n up-right position by 

 a weighed base previously attached to it. This being 

 done, the bouquet is covered withthe bell-glass, the rim 

 of which ought to fit exactly to the flat part of the 

 plate; the beil-glass should be entirely filled with water, 



* The phenomenon exists only iu the imagination of 

 the writer. Quinine has gone down about two-thirds iu 

 price, since Ceylon flooded the bark market. — Ed. 



