JtjMS !, J887.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



821 



well for three years. The walls should be made of 

 bamboo trellis, openings for doorways being left at 

 convenient places. The trellised sides should be 

 clear of the ground by six inches, and also clear of 

 the top, where the side joins the roof by six inches. 

 Creeping plants should be grown on the trellis, but 

 they should never be allowed to surmount the trellis 

 and climb on the roof. In selecting the creepers, 

 do not choose grass and rampant varieties. Among 

 the most suitable are the Hoyas (nox plants), Ste- 

 phanotis, Cissus discolor, the smaller varieties of 

 Passitloras (passion flower J, the climbing fern and 

 some of the smaller spomoeas. The best, most 

 durable, and neatest material for roofing is a coarse 

 netting made of coir twine ; this is much in vogue 

 on the Bombay side though scarcely known else- 

 where. 



The next best thing for roofing is long elephant 

 or Moonj grass, which must be thinly spread over 

 the frame, so as to admit a checkered sunlight and 

 a modified rain; it must be tied on with laths of 

 bamboo. The leaves of the cocoa or of the toddy 

 palm may also be used, of course tied on in such 

 a way as to admit partial sun or rain, but they 

 are not tidy. Grass or palm leaves will want re- 

 newing at the beginning of each monsoon, whereas 

 the coir netting is calculated to last for at least 

 three years. In tying on the trellis, &c., only use 

 split cane, or coir twine as these two materials 

 stand the monsoon without rotting. The floor of 

 the house should be raised a few, say six inches ; 

 and the best material for the floor is a depth of 

 three or four inches of coal ashes, which material 

 never gets sloppy in the rains, and if thoroughly 

 watered once or twice a day in the dry season, 

 keeps the atmosphere in the house cool and moist. 

 If these ashes or cinders cannot bejprocured, broken 

 brick is the next best thing, and then gravel or 

 small hnikur. Take care to have a drain round 

 the house outside. 



Rockeries are a favourite embellishment to an 

 Indian conservatory. They may be made of rough 

 stones and rocks where procurable, but fused bricks, 

 which can be got anywhere, answer admirably. 

 Having selected the place where it is intended to 

 make the rockery, mark it out and remove the soil 

 to the depth of one-and-a-half inch, and fill up the 

 space with slaked lime; the object of this is to 

 keep white ants away. The best soil for the rockery 

 is a mixture of two parts leaf mould, one part 

 common loam, one part coarse sand. The same 

 soil is suitable for ferns, begonias, and other deli- 

 cate plants grown in pots. As you build up the 

 rockery, fill in the spaces between the stones with 

 the above soil, and water freely as you fill in, so 

 as to consolidate the soil, and completely fill in 

 the spaces. Take care that your rockery is clear 

 of the woodwork and trellis of the house. 



In spite of every care and cleanliness, white ants 

 will at times appear ; but the best preventative is 

 kerosine oil, prepared and applied in the following 

 manner, the discovery of which is due to Mr. Ridly, 

 of the Lucknow Gardens. Take a quart bottle and 

 fill it one-third with milk, let it stand till the milk 

 turns sour; then nearly fill the bottle with kero- 

 sine ; let a cooly churn the mixture as cream is 

 cuhrned for butter ; it will form a thick, white emul- 

 sion which mixes freely when stirred into water. 

 Use a sherry glassful of this emulsion to a kerosine 

 tinful of water. Stir well and water the whole of 

 your conservatory freely with it out of a rose 

 waterpot. It will not harm the most delicate plants. 

 The floor and rockery should be saturated with this 

 effective insecticide ; and if this process be adopted 

 every two months, white ants and other pests will 

 give your conservatory a wide berth. The only 

 plants likely to be injuriously affected by this kero- 

 sine compound are orchids, but as they are usually 

 mounted on hanging blocks they are not likely to 

 come in the way of the mallee in his general water- 

 ing of the house. 



Stands for pot plants should be made of wood 

 and painted green. Tubs and large flowerpots should 

 not be placed directly in contact with the ground 

 t)K( skould 9tan4 9t» iovsited botUe9 sunk to he^li 



their height in the soil. Having described the 

 manner of constructing the conservatory, the next 

 thing is a list of some of the most suitable plants 

 with which to stock it. Among the best are orchids, 

 marantas, ferns, palms, canes, begonias, dracoenas, 

 diefi'enbachias, selaginellas, alocasias, anthuriums, 

 caladiums, colei, crotons, fittonias, poffmanias, ne- 

 penthes, (pitcher plants), peperomias. In the North, 

 West Provinces, the Punjab, and other localities 

 where extreme heat prevails in the hot season, and 

 frost at night in the cold season, matting should 

 be used on the roof in the day time as a protection 

 against the heat and at night against the cold. 

 — Englislunan. 



^ , 



HORTICULTURE IN NATAL. 



The Colony of Natal, though younger considerably 

 than the Gardeners' Chronicle, has had a chequered his- 

 tory. Our concern with it arises chiefly from the devel- 

 opment therein of cultural enterprise, which may be ex- 

 pected to increase if the unhealthy excitement of the 

 gold fever do not afford a check to it. By opening up 

 new districts and making their resources known the 

 search for gold may, however, effect much indicate good, 

 which will remain after the gold fever has subsided. 

 The late Indo-Oolonial Exhibition served to indicate the 

 resources of the colony so far as timber and sugar 

 are concerned. Coffee, Tea, fibre plants, Tobacco, 

 Arrowroot, Maize (Mealies), drugs, and fruits were 

 also exhibited. But we are more especially concern- 

 ed here with the growth of plants for horticultural 

 purposes. The exports of plants and bulbs in 1885 

 comprised 845 packages, valued at £911. This is no 

 doubt not a large sum, but one which serves to show 

 how much it is likely to be increased in the future. 



" The suitability of this colony," we cite from the offi- 

 cial catalogue," for the growth of many plants and bulbs 

 in demand abroad, and especially those required for 

 the perfumery trade, has lately received attention. 

 The double-flowering Tuberose is now cultivated on 

 aconsiderable scale, and tubers have become an article 

 of export. It has been stated by a local florist that the 

 following plants would pay to grow in quantity if appli- 

 ances were also provided for extracting the perfume, 

 viz. : — Gardenia, Kose, Jasmine, Violet, Patchouli, Ver- 

 bena, Geranium, Vetivert, Iris, Oarraway, and Anise ; 

 and that there is every reason to believe that flower 

 farming will become a profitable, as it is a pleasant pur- 

 suit. The export of plants and bulbs averaged only 

 about £30 per annum till 1881 ; since then it has advan- 

 ced considerably, and for the last three years has avera- 

 ged £900 per annum." 



As an illustration of horticultural enterprise we 

 append, by the courtesy of Mr. Adlam, a list of plants 

 shown at a resent flower show at Maritzburg. All the 

 plants named are worth cultivation, and, with few ex- 

 ceptions, are found within a radius of 20 miles from the 

 town, at elevations of from 2000 to 4500 feet. We 

 heartily congratulate the promoters of this show, 

 who seem to have done what we have so frequently 

 urged our colonial friends to do, viz., to promote a 

 knowledge of their own native flora and its capabilities 

 rather than to attempt a servile copy of a European 

 flower show. How rich in garden plants the Natal flora 

 is, is shown in a letter from Mr. Adlam, in which he saya 

 that:— 



" Owing to the' gold fever, which has seized so many 

 in South-east Africa the country has been hunted over 

 by prospectors with an eye to goldbearing quartz, and 

 many a solitary mountain has been surmounted, many 

 dense forests penetrated, and rivers forded in places 

 in which, till now no white man has ever set foot. 

 Thus from time to time I have received fragmentary 

 imformation regarding new plants seen, and fresh 

 localitits for old ones, lighted on. 



" Very recently some dried specimens were brought 

 me from the Zululand border. A showy terrrestrial 

 Orchid, bearing a spike of thirty-six spreading light 

 purple flowers, each an inch across. The two lateral 

 sepals are narrow and spreading; the upper .sepal, 

 which has a long spur, bends with the two upper petals 

 over the minute column, which was too decayed for 

 ez«ii}in»t)QS. The lip ii rfai^l(fi,ble, long, lUflvoyff 



