754 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, 1883. 



that an excise duty of jd ou every ^ lb. is to be charged on 

 every article made in imitation, or prepared for the purpose of 

 being used as coffee or chiiory, by means of an excise label or 

 stamp; and every packet containina; coffee with anyother article 

 or substance mixed tbereiivith, shall have affixed thereto a label 

 denodug the prop'_'r nam^s of the several articles of which the 

 mixture is cojuposed. Thus there are now two cbisses ot" duty: - 

 1. A custom duty on the importation of coffee and of chicory 

 or the two articles mixed, of 1^1 per lb, on raw, or 2d per lb. 

 on roasted,; 3 an excise duty of 2d per lb. on mixtures mad6 in 

 imitation of coffee or chicory. The Custom's officers are to allow 

 the free importation of those mixtures, but as soon as they shall 

 have been distributed iu every part of the Uuiied Kingdom, the 

 Inland Revenue officers are to step iu, and see to the excise duty 

 on those mixtures being properly h-vied. It is difficult to conceive 

 a more complicated or ridiculous system, ur one mure calculated 

 to lead to evasions and cheating: a duty which couhi easily have 

 been levied by the present staff of "Custom's officers in the few 

 ports «here such imports would be received, will req lire a whole 

 army of excise officers for its collections in every grocer's shop 

 throughout the country, or more probably, the Government will 

 be cheated of the duty. As long as coffee is handicap led with 

 such regulations, and the industry of the mixers and adulterator 

 is protected and encouraged at the expense of the consamers, it 

 18 useless to look for any increase iu the quantity of coffee con- 

 sumed in this country '"" 



Ravages of GraO and the Sp.rvices of a Natural i:xt—\i will be 

 iu the recollection of members that, owing to the miscarriage of 

 .lorrespondence on this important subject between one Govurnment 

 ilepartment and anotlier, your Committee wa3 unable to report 

 progress last year in the investigations being earned ou or to 

 submit any remedial measures. Your Committee is glad, however, 

 to say that early in the year His Excellency the Governor pro- 

 mised that, if your Committee would draw up a statement of 

 the points in coimection with the insect upon which information 

 and advice are required, lie wotUd forward it to the Right Hon. 

 the Secretary of State with a request that he would procure the 

 best scientific advice obtainable in England. With this end iu 

 view your Committee coramuuieated with the various District As- 

 sociations and endeavoured by the appointment of a sub-committee 

 to obtaiH th(' necessary data. Owing to varioiLS causes, however, 

 it has been found impossible to form a sub-committee, but two 

 members have kindly furwarded such valuable reports and state- 

 ments with specimens that your Committee has decided to transmit 

 these to Government in the hope tliat when submitted to a com- 

 petent entomologist at home he will offer suggestions that may 

 prove of service in eradicating or mitigating the ravages of grub. 



BkHAVIOUR of InDIA-KTJBBER when StTBJECTED TO TeN'- 



siov. — As a result of a series of experimjnts made ou 

 some samples of vuloauiseJ Para iudia-rublier, M. Jenatzy, 

 of Brussels, found that, under uuifuroily increasing loads, 

 a band of caoutchouc takes increasing elongations until it 

 becomes twice as long as it was originally, after which 

 the successive (slongations decrease ; and he a'so finds that 

 the weight necessary to quadruple the length is three times 

 that under which the length has become doubled. — JotiV' 

 nal of the Society of Arts^i. 



The AV.A.X Plant. — The wax plant, indigenous in Caro- 

 lina and Pennsylvania, is uow being cultivated on a large 

 scale in Algeria, while its acclimatisation in Tunis has 

 been been attempted with favourable results. The fruit, 

 enclosed in a bag of course cloth, is p]un.,'ed into boil- 

 ing water, and in a few seconds the liquid wax flo its 

 on the surface. This is skimmed off and dried, and forms 

 a gooil substitute for beeswax, as it has the same chemical 

 composition. Its odour is agreeable, the root possesses 

 raedicioal virtues, and the leaves are useful for protecting 

 textile fabrics from the ravages of insects. — Ihid. 



Paper froai Bark. — The strongest and commonest of 

 the several Japanese papers is made from the bark of the 

 Mitsumay a shrub which attains about a yard and a-half 

 in height, and blossoms iu winter, thriving in a poor soil. 

 When the stem has reached its full growth, it is cut off 

 close to the ground, when off-shoots spring up, which are 

 again cut as soon .t i thoy are large euough. A pip'-'rof 

 sup-^rior quality is nude from Koza. a shrub of the mul- 

 berry family, which grows to the height of two yards and 

 a-half. It is a native of Ohiaa, and has cot long been 

 imported into Japan, where it is uow much cultivated. 

 The stocks are planted two feet apart, often serving as 

 hedges for separating the fields. The shoots which, under 

 good conditions, attain their full sizi', are cut down in 

 October, on the fourth or fifth year after planting. Paper i 

 is made with these two descriptions of bark iu the fol- 

 lowing manner : — The twigs are steeped in water for a . 

 fortnight, when the outer portiou becomes detached, and I 

 is carried away, if iu running water. The inuer bark is i 



removed, washed and dried, and then subjected, for three 

 or four hours, to action of steam and boiling water, which 

 softens it. It is theu struck with staves, until a fine paste 

 is formed, which, mixed with water, serves to make paper 

 by a process similar to that employed iu Europe. Kozu 

 paper is very strong iu the direction of the fibres, and 

 to obtain paper of equal resistence in every directioo, 

 two, three, or four thicknesses are superposed, with the 

 fibres running in different directions. It is thus that the 

 strong papers are obtained, that serve for covering um- 

 brellas and other similar purposes, as well as artificial 

 leather. The Japanese also make from the Gampi a trans- 

 parent paper as strong as that from Kozu^ but much finer 

 and more supple. — Journal of the Society of Artfi. 



New Plants. — Under the name of " tambor," specimens 

 of a tree growing in Oeutral America were received by the 

 late Mr. Hanbury with the information that its fruit yields 

 by pressure a large quantity of a very fine oil, resembling 

 castor-oil in its purgative effect, but rather pleasant to the 

 taste, and with the advantage that it does not gripe. The 

 herbarium specimens have uow been describeil by Mr. 

 Hemsley as belonging to a new species, to which be has 

 given the name OmpJiolea oleifera. Another plant which has 

 been identified as the source of a fragrant volatile oil, said 

 to come from Jamaica under the name of '• tobacco-bush 

 oil," and many eventaally be utilized, is the Hedyosmuin 

 iiHtuii^i. The plant itself is popularly known as the "headache 

 weed," and is said to be generally used by the natives for 

 making tea and binding round their heads when it pain, 

 whilst a preparation of the leaves and flowers is said to be 

 used as a stomachic and vSpasmodic. An ittteresting de- 

 scription of the manufacture ou a large scale of an essential 

 oil from an American species of birch, the Betula lentay 

 has been given by Mr. G. AY. Kennedy. The whole plant 

 is used for distillation, and the oil is sold as ''oil of winter- 

 green," which it closely resembles. The production of pep- 

 permint oil on the largo .scale in New York State has been 

 also described. It is said that this oil, as exported from 

 Wayne county, is colourless and resembles the English oil, 

 except that its odour and taste are somewhat less pungent 

 and penetrating. With respect to the source of Chinese 

 and Japanese peppermint oil, Mr. Holmes, having made a 

 curious observation that typical specimens of Mentha arvensis 

 var. Javanica^ from which plant it has been said to be 

 derived, had not the taste of peppermint, but a flavour 

 similar to that of M. viridis, took the trouble to obtain 

 from China and Japan specimens of the peppermint plants 

 of those countries. Both plants were found to possess most 

 of the characters of M. arvensisy but the Chinese plant 

 was found to more clo.sely resemble and indeed to be identical 

 with J/. canaiU-nsf>!, vax. ylahrata, specimens of which, ob- 

 tained from different localities in the United States, were 

 found to possess the flavour of peppermint iu a feeble 

 degree. As the chief point in which the Japanese plant 

 differs from M. arvensis is in its flavour, Mr. Holmes pro- 

 poses to name it Mentha arvemisy var. piperascens. Mr, 

 Holmes raises the question whether these variations in the 

 essential oil are dependent on development, climate, soil 

 or sex, and whether the oil in each case is a mixtm'e iu 

 whiclt one ingredient is present in variable proportions in 

 different plants. The increasing demand for a preparation 

 known as "bay rum," which is made by tlie distillation 

 of the leaves and berries of the bayberry tree (Myrcia acHs) 

 with rum, has directed some attention to other members 

 of the MyrtaceED yielding aromatic volatile oils, and an 

 exhaustive enumeration of them has been supplied by Pro- 

 fessor Maisch. The botanical source of another essential 

 oil. oil of cassia, would appear now to be satisfactorily 

 cleared up. Herbarium specimens in flower, derived from 

 the districts iu China in which the cassia tree is cultivated, 

 show that the plant is the Oianamomum Cassia, and, as far 

 as can be ascertained, ''cassia lignea," cassia buds, and the 

 leaves from which oil of cassia is distilled, are obtained 

 from this tree only. It may be mentioned here that, accord- 

 ing to a report presented by Mr. A. H. Jackson to the 

 Conference, although the oils of cinnamon and cassia may 

 be distinguished from each other by their odour and taste, 

 they have no other very characteristic physical property 

 in which they differ, aud a chemical examination indicated 

 that any constituents iu which they might differ from each 

 other are present only in extremely small proportion. — 

 Pharmaceutical Jonrnal, 



