7S8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1883. 



insects so utterly destroy the leaf, that many of 

 the trees are mere bare poles. In rapid growth the teak 

 heats every other tre^. In fresh laud of fair 

 quality and not en a severe exposure, it makes one foot 

 in height every month, lill it reaches ahout ten, when it 

 hegins to spread out, ami tJie rate of ascent diminishes. 1 

 think halniilila is a valuable limber and a ^od shade 

 tree. On the laud now clearing there is luuch miliia, 

 mostly of no great age. I am trying to save all the straight- 

 est s ems tor shade. 



Can you tell me it the gum of the goraka tree is 

 the true gamboge, and what the value of gamboge is in 

 the market.^ • 1 will send a sample for report as soon as I 

 can collect enough. 



Of FEuiTTEEES, the most flourishing I have here is the 

 rambiitan. Some thirty plants out in the field are growing 

 very vigortfUsly. The nam-nam plants have all perished 

 but two, aiid they are not promising. Of some hundreds 

 of oranges 1 planted, about twenty have outstripped the 

 destructive agencies to which the young plants are so sub- 

 ject. Many other native fruits that I have tried have sof^ner 

 or later failed from a variety ot causes, the chief of which are 

 insects and wind. It looks as if the breadfruit would do 

 well here, in sheltered spots, judging from the one plant 

 that has already become a tree. 



The SAGO PALM seed has not germinated well. Indeed 

 very tew have gruwu beyond those that were germinated 

 in the box when they airiv d. I wiUpossiblyhave 100 plants, 

 but I do not know what to do with them, as I have not an 

 inch of the sort of land they are said to require. 



After Mr. HoUovvay's warning about Pepper vines, I must 

 ascertain whether 1 have got the best kind. Sj far as my 

 eye can judge, I can see no ditiereice between what I can 

 get in a neighbouring village, for the trouble of removal, 

 and that hearinj a high price at the tropical garden, but 

 1 must bring the specunens together before txtending the 

 oultivatiuD. 



U he only tea field yet established in this di.striet is on 

 Oommilla estate-, two miles from here, th ■ properly of Dr. 

 Stork, and managed by Mr. A. J. Stork, who has had some 

 years of tea plauting upcouutry. The field was planted 

 last May, and 1 can hardly realize a more rapid growth 

 than has taken place, my opinion being just worth as much 

 as tha of any other man who las no experience whatever. 

 I believe this is the norihern limit of tea cultivation in the 

 lowcouLtry proper, but it will probably creep uorih- 

 ward, as far as the Maliaoya, beyoi.d which lies the 

 region of protracted droughts, which seems tlie one 

 condition likely to check its profitable production. It seems 

 to tlii'ive on all Boils and in all temperatures : from sea- 

 level up to the slopes of Pidurulalagala, while the art of 

 manufacturing the leaf is daily extending and improving. 

 Tea seems destined to be a far greater king than ever 

 coffee has been, and with cheap labour, perfect machienry 

 and ever-iiicreiSing skill, (Jeylon will be able to hold 

 her own wiih all thewoild. As long as the heathen Chinee 

 can pois, n ClhiisLendom with his spurious abominati'-n 

 there will be room in the markets for the genuine art- 

 icle, and the Ceylon jilaiiteis have always produced the best 

 oi whatever they cultivated and will no doubt continue to 

 do soon a more extei'ded list of products. Ceylon cocoa 

 has already topped the market, Ceylon holds its own with 

 lutaia and Java in cinchona. Ceylon tea is asserting itself, 

 and a multitude of mii.or products will help to keep the 

 pot boiling, HtmiUia rastaiyix has been a sad enemy to 

 the planting interest, but it has not been all evil. Had 

 cottee encoButered no more pronounced enemy than the 

 failing fertility of soil, the losing battle would have been 

 fought for a long series of years to come without calling 

 out the reserve and auxiliaries, and the cinchona, tea, cocoa. 

 Cardamoms, rubber, &c., would not have been in existence 

 is exported products for many a long year to come. The 

 cofiee leaf fungus is the immediate parent of nU the new 

 products that Ceylon is now sending forth, and the plant- 

 ing mind being roused and its energies directed into this 

 channel, there is no discernible hmit to the amount and 

 variety of Ceylon's products. Other tropical lands have 

 Bupenor soil, but Ceylon rests her capacity ot compet- 

 ition on three facts : a forcing climate, cheap labour, and su- 

 perior skill. 



» See page 530 Tropical Agriculturist (December) Vol. 

 II.— Ed. 



I have just finished sowing five maiinds of tea seed in 

 about half-an-acre of land. The weather and the soil were 

 intensely dry, and I ran two wells dry in one day trying 

 to communicate the necessary moisture, but to my great 

 comfort a mild saturating rain coiit'uued for sis hours, and 

 did more for me than all hands armed with watering, pans 

 could have accomplished, The danger is not over, however, 

 as there is no hope of the rain continuing at this season, and 

 copious watering will he still necessary to maintain the 

 state of moisture required for germination in a free light 

 soil — the only description at my command. 



FIBRES. 



We have received, with specimens of fibre referred 

 to, the following letter : — 



" Wilson's Bungalow, 5th Feb. 1883. 



" Dear Sir, — B y today's post I send for your inspec- 

 tion two kinds of tibre : No. 1, of the red Hapukenessa 

 tree, and No. 2, of the white Hapukenessa tree. I 

 shall feel much obliged if you will kindly let me 

 know whether the fibres could be utilized in any way, 

 and what a ton of each is I'kely to fetch. With many 

 apologies for troubling you, I am, yours faithfully, 



HeNRV E. DA3IBAWINNE." 



On which Mr. W. Ferguson remarks as follows : — 



" Kapukinissa is the Sinhalese name for the .Uibisctis 

 Abe/moiichits L., formerly Abelmosrhus moschaiua 

 Moench., the Musk Okra, so named from the musky 

 smell and taste of its seeds. It is a common roadside 

 plant about Colombo, and has large yellow flowers 

 with a crimson centre. This is the only plant that I 

 know to be called kapii-kinissa by the Sinhalese. The 

 fibres from Wilson's Bungalow are likely to be the 

 produce of two varieties of 7//6i4Ciis avgulonis Masters, 

 Abdmoschus aiigidosus W. and A. Thwaites has two 

 varieties of this plant — a yellow- and a purple-flowered 

 one. They are both plants of the Central Province, and 

 grow to ajheight of (i to 10 feet Fibre No. 1 is a darker 

 colour but freer of niucil ge in consequence 1 suppose 

 of having been allowed to stiep longer in water than 

 the other. It is most likely the purple-flowered 

 variety. No. 2 is a whiter fibre, 1 nt has not been 

 freed of mucilage so well as No. I, and is not therefore 

 so finely separated and feels coarser to the toucli. It 

 is likely the produce ol the yellow-flowered variety 

 of Hibiscus angulunus M.ast., but I do not think the 

 colour ot the flowers would affect the colour ot the 

 fibre, as shown in the specimen,^, which are both good 

 of their kind. The fact is that most plants of the 

 Malvaceae, or Mallow family produce fibre from their 

 balks, whilst the cotton of the world is produced from 

 the hairy covering of the seeds of about three species 

 of cotton (Gossypiutii), and the silk-cotton from the 

 covering of the seeds of our pulun-imbul, Eriudcndron 

 aii/racUmsum D C, and kotu-imbuJ, Bomhax malabar- 

 icum V. C, whilst the barks of the two allied families, 

 Sterculmctte and Tiliaceaj, the latter the linden or 

 lime of Europe, are equally fibrous plants. Nearly 

 every member of these families produces fibre which 

 can be utilized for rope-making or for paper manufacture. 

 If your correspondent will send rolled up in a 

 bit of paper small twigs of his two plans having 

 flowers, leaves, and if possible ripe or green fruits 

 on them, I shall then be able to give the proper 

 names c£ tbem. A parcel um.erS ounces marked by 

 mlsct llaneous post can be sent by poet for 12 cents. 

 I should say these fibres are worth about £30 a ton 

 in England." 



SAND-BINDING PLANTS. 



In copying what follows from the proceeding of the 



Madras Agri-Horticultural Society, we may say that 



the three predominant plants on our Ceylon sea beaches 



ftre Hpiiu/ex equarrosm, Ijiortica pes-capros (so named 



