822 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [June i, 1887. 



thread-like, upright. We have reveral good Strep- 

 tocarpi, but oue from the same locality as above sur- 

 passes all hitherto seen. About a foot high, flowers 

 very many, a deep intense blue; leaves unknown— in 

 fact only a scrap was given me. 



" Cymbidium Sandersoui was first sent to Harvey 

 by the late Mr. Sanderson in 1860. In habit it is 

 most distinct from any other epiphytic Orchid we 

 have. Long spindle-shaped pseudobulbs, evidently tend- 

 ing to a true stem, IJ — 2 feet long, covered by a tuft 

 of robust two-ranked leaves. A tall scape ending in 

 a panicle of pale yellow flowers. I am told of a forest 

 where it was seen growing in abundance on trees. It 

 is a plant I have often searched for, but hitherto it has 

 never been my luck to come across it. 



" Disa macrantha, or crassicornis. — I have seen this 

 very fine plant in the same locality from whence Mr. 

 Sanderson obtained his specimens, now in the Kew 

 Herbarium, and can confirm Mr. N. E. Brown's re- 

 mark, that it runs D. grandiflora very close. It is 

 rare, and affects deep black, rich loam on sloping hill- 

 sides fully exposed to the sun. It has been found 

 recently close to town at an elevation of 2200 feet, 

 and also 20 miles from here ; elevation, 4000 feet." 



The following is the list of the native plants exhibit- 

 ed at the Maritzburg flower show in .January of this 

 year : — 



Aristea Eckloni Galtonia candicans 



Anemone Fannini „ princeps 



Agapanthus umbellatus Habenaria sp. 



Aloe sp. Hsemanthus natalensis 



Begonia dregei ,, Baurii 



,, natalensis Hypoxis latifolia 



Burchellia capensis „ elata 



Bauhinia natalensis Kalanchoe crenata 



Brunsvigia multiflora Lasosiphon sp. 



Clerodendron glabrum Lissochilus Krebsii 



Oalodendron capeuse Littonia modesta 



Oyrtanthus Mackeni Blontbretia Pottsii 



„ collinus (?) Morrea bicolor 



Ohlorophytum Bowkeri „ iridioides 

 Cymbidium Sandersoui (?) „ sp., large pale yellow 



„ Buchanan! flowers 



Calhurnia lasiogyne Nycterinia natalensis 



Crotalaria globifera Nerine flexuosa 



„ capensis „ pudica 

 Duranta sp., white flowers, Nymphsea stellata 



doubtful native Osbeckia Umhlasiana 



Disa polygonoides Pavetta assimilis 



„ sp., white and green „ Bowkeri 



flowers Phygelius capensis 



Dais cotinifolia Plumbago capensis 



Dianthus sp. Polygala virgata 



Disperis Fanniniie Protea sp. 



„ Cooperi Richardia africana 



Eulophia ensata „ hastata 



„ Dregei Satyrium sp., orange flowers 



„ sp., yellow and maroon „ sp- wnite and pink 



flowers flowers 



Erythrina Humei Sandersonia aurantiaca 



Eucomis punctata Tritoma natalensis 



Gomphocarpus albens Tritonia aurea 



„ sp., brown and yellow Vernonia mespilifolia 



flowers AVatsonia meriaaa 



Gerbera aurantiaca ,, densiflora 



Gioriosa virescens „ „ alba 

 — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



THE DRUGS OF MAURITIUS. 



Medicinal plants have been but little studied in Mauri- 

 tius. A remedy for dysentery is sought in the i^n'ca 

 aanvage or i-pica dii "pays (Ti/lophora a^thmatica). A 

 decoction of the slender thread-like stem of the parasitic 

 tsihitrafototra {Cagsi/tha Jiliformis) is given for- 

 intestiual derangement, and as atonic for scrofulous and 

 rachitic infants. An oleoresin resembling elemi, pro- 

 bably produced by Canarium Uohphania, is employed in 

 the form of plaster as a detersive. The yellow juice 

 which flows from the incised stems of the guava 

 ( Psidivm pomiferum ) is used as an application to ring- 

 worm, and a skin disease called tampane. The wood J 



of the shrub liane poilli/ {Embelia mia-antha is adminis- 

 tered as a tonic, and given in decoction for nephritis. 

 The leaves and seed of the soifar i/ota or cacloque 

 (Ccesal-pinia Bonducella ) are used for certain diseases, 

 and the seeds, powdered and mixed with pepper, con- 

 stitute a febrifuge. Small senna ( Cassia occidentalis) 

 is used in asthma, and as a fomentation in some skin 

 diseases. A decoction of the root possesses diuretic 

 properties, and the leaves are used by the negroes, 

 when smeared with a little candle grease, as a substitute 

 for adhesive plaister. — Journal of the Sockti/ of Arts. 



THE CLOVE TREE. 



The clove tree (caryojihulus aromaticus) says Rum- 

 phius " appears to me the most beautiful, the most 

 elegant, and the most precious of all known trees. " 

 In form, it commonly resembles the laurel, and some- 

 times the beech. Generally of the height of an ordinary 

 cherry tree, its trunk is straight, and rises to four or 

 five feet before it throws out branches. The bark is 

 smooth, thin, and adheres closely to the wood, which 

 is hard and strong, but of an ugly grey colour, ajd , 

 therefore, not suited for cabinet work. In the com- 

 mencement of the wet season, which is the month of 

 May in the native country of the clove, the tree throws 

 out a profusion of new leaves. Soon after, the germs 

 of the fruit are discovered at the extremities of the 

 young shoots, and in the four following months the cloves 

 are completely formed. The fruit, at first of a green 

 colour, assumes in time a pale yellow, and then becomes 

 of a blood-rt-d colour, if of the most ordinary variety. 

 It is at this period that the clove is fit to be used as a 

 spice, and of course, this is the period of the clove har- 

 vest. It is not, however, the period of the full maturity 

 of the fruit, which requires three weeks longer to per- 

 fect itself, and serve for the purposes of propagation. 

 In this short period the fruit swells to an extra- 

 ordinary size, loses much of its spicy quality, and contains 

 a hard nucleus like the seed of the bay. This state of 

 the fruit is what Europeans call the mother clove, and 

 the natives poleng. 



There appears to be five varieties of the clove, viz 

 the ordinary cultivated clove, the clove called the female 

 clove by the natives, which has a pale stem — the keri, 

 or loory clove, the royal clove, which is verj' scarce, 

 and the wild clove. The three first are equally valuable, 

 as spices, the female being considered fittest for the 

 distillation of essential oil. The wild clove has hardly 

 any aromatic flavour, and is, of course, of no value. 



Of all useful plants the clove has perhaps the most 

 limited geographical distribution. It was originally 

 confined to the five Mollucas islands, and chiefly to 

 Machian. From these places it was conveyed to 

 Amboyna a very short time only before the arrival of the 

 Portuguese. The portion of Amboyna called Leytimeer, 

 and the Uliasser islands, produced no cloves until the 

 arrival of the Dutch, by whom the cultivation was res- 

 tricted to Amboyna, every effort being made to 

 extirpate the plant elsewhere. To what distance from 

 the parent country the culture might be successfully 

 extended, there has been no opportunity of ascertain- 



Rumphius informs us, that the plant is not partial to 

 large islands, and does not answer well in Gilolo, Cerara, 

 Beuroe, or Celebes. It is probable that Beuroe and the 

 Xula isles are the utmost western limit of the success- 

 ful culture of the clove. The same writer adds that 

 the Javanese and Maccassars, when they were the 

 carriers in the spice trade to the western emporia of 

 the Archipelago, conveyed to their own country, with 

 great care, youug clove plants and mother cloves, from 

 which trees were reared that produced no fruit. Through 

 the speculative enterprise of Europeans the clove has 

 in latter times been cultivated so as to bear fruit in 

 some of the western parts of the Archipelago, in 

 the Mauritius, and in the West Indies. They have been 

 cultivated for nearly fifty years iu the Mauritius, 

 where they bear fruit, of inferior quality and high 

 price. The fact sems to be, that like the grape, but in 

 a much higher degree, the clove may be raised at a 

 heavy expense, and of inferior quality, in soils and 

 climate little suited to it. How wonderfully restricte<l 



