54<5 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[Feb. I, 1887 



Ebony 



Deer Horns „, 



Sapau wood ... 



Kitul fibre ... 



SsteutialOils... 



2,85.3,716 



Tothl _ ... 



— 1 am, sir, yours faithfully, 



J. FERGUSON 

 Of the CeyloA Observer and Tropical Aj/ricultitrist, 

 Colombo, 26th'NoTomber, 1«86. 



EAST AFRICAN DRUGS. 



Of curative drugs, the East African manifests but 

 little kuowledge. Near Lake Ugombo, a small wild 

 aloe, when the green skin ha» bet-u peeled off, forms 

 an ice-cold »nd healing application to burns ; and 

 in the neiglibourhood of Dar-es-Salaam, a highly 

 aromatic plant, with hairy purple stalks, called 

 arcazamudi, is reputed a good native cure for pains 

 in the stomach. The Somalis occasionally eat the 

 local variety of dragon's blood, a resiu of acidulous 

 flavour obtained from the moli tree {Dracaena 

 schizuntha). Between Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam 

 occurs a creeper with bean-like, bairy, S-shaped 

 pods having severe stinging powers ; it is about four 

 inches long, of yellowish brown colour, and is called 

 njiapu. The pain yields to cowdung and wood ashes. 

 In the same region, a broad-bladed grass, called 

 ■mwanya mwitu, enjoys some fame as a .styptic. 



Arrow-poisons come much more prominently within 

 the range of native study, and most tribes use some 

 description of vegetable poison for anointing their 

 spe.irs and arrows. The most important is a species 

 of Strophantlius, either S. hispidus S. Komhi, which 

 will probably prove to be the sole source of this 

 class of poison used on the eastern coast, from 

 Zanzibar to Somali-land, and even far into the interior. 

 The plant is a runner, bearing large, rough-ribbed 

 leaves, arranged in clusters of three or four together 

 Each shoot consists of three branches, of which one 

 bears the seed and the other two the leaves. The 

 flower is yellow, with curiously tailed petals. The 

 seed has the form of a huge military frog-button, 

 with lobes nine inches long, and is the direct source 

 of the poison. This, according to St. Vincent Erskine, 

 is called umtsuli in Gaza or Southern Mozambique, 

 and is 10 energetic that men wounded by arrows in 

 the fleshy part of the leg have been known to die 

 within three hours, and with small bucks the poison 

 takes effect before they can run out of sight. He 

 likens the active principle to strychnine. These facts 

 quite accord with the description given by R. W. Felkin 

 and A, W. Gerrard {Pharmaceutical Journal, April 9, 

 1881, p. 833) of the poison used by the Wanika and 

 Wakamba tribes, west of Mombasa, except that several 

 roots are supposed to contribute to the deadly effect. 

 These authors mention an antidote composed of 

 sundry roots reduced to charcoal, which, however, 

 proved a failure on trial. Careful investigation of 

 the umtsuli reveals the fact that it is a powerful 

 cardiac poison, as powerful as digitalin, and more 

 powerful than veratria, when injected under the skin. 

 But it causes only nausea, vomiting, and some weak- 

 ness when taken by the mouth. The flesh of animals 

 killed by this poison is eaten by the blacks without 

 ill effects. Probably identical with this is the ''poison 

 tree," from the roots of which the natives of 

 Somaliland extract a black and pithy substance for 

 poisoning their arrows. Perhaps, also, the pitch-like 

 poison obtained from the boiled-down bark of a treo 

 used on the Rufiji river for application to arrows, 

 lances, and even bullets; and the muaix", or poisonous 

 decoction of the bark of a tree, employed in the 

 trial by ordeal of the natives of the Nyassa and 

 Zambesi valley, is the same article under another 

 guise. 



Indulgence in narcotics appears to be confined to 

 tobacco, which is very commonly grown u>ider culti- 

 vation. It is a special product of tho Hendei district, 

 whence considerable quantiti.p.s of the sun-dried leaf 



beaten into little round flat cakes about two inches 

 in diameter, are sent down to Pangani for export. 

 The tobacco is coarse and strong, but of fairly good 

 flavour. The Kiswahili use water-pipes {kilio), made 

 of gourds of various shapes. They swallow the fumes 

 in smoking, and seem to enjoy the paroxysm of 

 coughing which results. — Journal of the Societij of 

 Arts. 



THE LONGEVITY OF MATTER. 



In your September number is a very interesting 

 paper on the above caption— the leading idea being 

 that the germs of plants are infinitesimally small 

 and comparatively iudestructible. I have given this 

 subject more thought and experiment than any other 

 in agriculture. 



1st. My attention was first called to it by the fact 

 that lands once in forest and cultivated, when fenced 

 up and left fallow, produced the original growth of 

 trees. 



2il. When I was a boy, tobacco was cultivated by 

 my father ; this was put into a tall building to cure, 

 and the basement was used to feed tho woi k-horses, 

 being far off from the home-stabies. Probably twenty 

 years afterwards, I pulled down the house, having 

 no use for it so far off, and spread the manure, which 

 was several feet deep, over the adjoining grass fields. 

 The result was a luxurious growth of red clover on 

 all the manured spots. Tbis set me to speculate 

 upon the vitality of seeds. I do not believe that 

 the forest growth was an original growth and renewal 

 of the old trees; still less could we believe that in 

 a few days red clover was made anew by natural 

 laws. Nor shall I discuss here the question whether 

 God or long centuries of Nature's forces made all 

 the Fauna and Flora. 



3d. The vitality of seeds is proven beyond cavil. 

 Now if the clover germ lasted, say twenty years, tiU 

 favorable surroundings, sunlight, moisture and plant 

 food burst it into the living plant, why not so lie 

 dormant for centuries? 



4th. The Irish potato, up to my times, was be- 

 lieved to be and called by scientists a tuler, like 

 turnips or beets. But I proved by the microscope 

 and logic, that it is in facta bulb; that is like the 

 onion or tulip, having many "germs" or ''ova," 

 instead of one. From Northern seedsmen, rare potatoes 

 were cut very closelj^, the eyes of the seed end being 

 so near each other that they had to be set into slips 

 of carrots ; but they, when planted, produced as 

 large potatoes as any. 



5th. I found out also that tho old theory of the 

 surroundings of seeds yiourishiitff the plants is a fallacy. 

 Like the germs of other plants, the " eyes" of the 

 potato are a perfect "ovum" by which nature, forc- 

 ing itself into the soil, and failing to reach it, dies, 

 notwithstanding the starch, water, &c., which com- 

 pose the edible part of the potato, are in reserve. 

 This is proved by the experiment, when potatoes 

 were laid upon the soil, they at once took root in 

 the Fod, the potato remaining comparatively whole 

 and unchanged. When the potato was put in the same 

 cold frame not touching the ground, the plant shoots 

 put out feebly and then periehtd, the potato being a 

 little nhrivelled only. Now if the potato meat nourished 

 the "ovum" shoots, it should have been used up 

 before the plant peri.shed. What, then, were the 

 agents of the temporary plant growth ? They were 

 the water in the potato and the elements of the 

 air — no more — which, being supplied elsewhere, do not 

 need the food of the potato meat at all. 



6th. Now, then, we are prepared to answer whence 

 came the " germs" or " ova" of the second growth 

 pines or oak^, or other trees F They came from their 

 invisible germs, which, having the ordinary covering, 

 decayed, yet remained vital in the soil, to spring anew 

 into plants when the needed forces ensued. All of 

 this is to my mind as lofiical as any demonstration 

 in Euclid- I use.l the term " ova" as the most in- 

 telligible term for the Faun* and Flora. 



7th. One more experimental proof : AVhen the 

 McAdam road was made from Richmond to Lexington, 



