March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



699 



Mr. Jamieson of Utakamimd says nothing of the dis- 

 ease when noticing tlie plants at Bnrliyar (about 

 2,500 feet elevation, we believe). He ■m-ites of this 

 variety when gro%vn under such conditions as exist 

 at Burliyar, as vastly superior to the Cojj'ca Arahica, 

 and lie proceeds : — 



" Having had opportunities of examining the flowers 

 and fruit of the plants introduced and planted at 

 Barliyar in 1S77 as true ' Liberian coffee,' I am now 

 quite satisfied that it is a distinct variety from the 

 plants received in 1874-75 as ' U'est Africun coffee.' 

 There is no distinguishable difference between the 

 leaves and habit of growth of the two varieties. The 

 flowers of the West African are not so large and the 

 berries are borne in larger whorls, and are more spheric- 

 al in shape than that o{ the true Liberian variety ; 

 but the most important difference in a commercial point 

 of view is that the West African is a much freer and 

 more abuudant cropper than the other ; it is also 

 hardier and ripens its fruits about two niontbs earlier 

 than the latter, and it has never produced any abortive 

 berries, which is frequently the case vviih the Liberian 

 variety." 



Mr. Cockburn Stewart, formerly Private Secretary to 

 Sir Hercules Robinson and now of the Mauritius 

 service, wTote as follows when Civil Commissioner 

 of the Seychelles Group : — 



"Vou will be interested to hear that the Liberian coffee 

 which was sent originally to Miiuritius Ijy you in 1877 or 

 1S78 has succeeded here in a marvellous manner. The 

 soil and climate of these islands appear to be just what 

 is required for the cultivation of Liberian coffee. Cacao 

 planting is beginning to make great progress here, and 

 it is impos-'ible to imagine anything liner than the pro- 

 duce of this tree in Seychelles. Vanilla grows abund- 

 antly, and is of a magnificent kind. It is a pity that 

 these islands are not better known in England, for they 

 doubtless present a great field, and will in a short time, 

 if properly managed, become one of the most import- 

 ant spice-producing countries in the ea-t. 



" There is no money in the place, unfortunately, and 

 it is by far behind-hand ; but 1 feel convinced that a 

 great future is in store for the Sychelles." 

 It is stated that the i-eceipts at Kew during the 

 year were : — 



"3,671 living plants of all kinds, and 2,106 packets, 

 bags, and boxes of seeds from 218 contributors." 

 In the list of contributors we notice " C. Magnay, 

 seeds of Talipot palm." We can but repeat that this, 

 the palm of Ceylon, par excellence, ought to be largely 

 gi-own in Colombo gardens and by the road-sides. 

 The various Colonial Botanic Gardens receive ap- 

 preciative notice, and regarding Demerara we learn 

 that 



" Mr. Jenman at the end of the year made a very im- 

 portant journey for the purpose of collecting. His 

 destination was the high sandstone sav.innah, above the 

 Kaieteur falls. His collections, which are at the 

 moment undergoing examination at Kew, comprize 

 numerous plants of entire novelty and of the highest 

 scientific interest." 



There is a good deal of information about cinchona, 

 commencing thus : — 



" Cinchona. — Fiyhrkl variety. — A good deal of atten- 

 tior has been attracted in India and Ceylon to a cin- 

 chona, which there is little doubt is a hybrid between 

 C. officinalis and C. nuccirubra " 

 Dr. King is quoted to the following effect : — 



" Chemicidly the bark resembles that of officinalis. 

 With us this 'hybrid' offers to do splendidly at an 

 elevation where sncoirubra won't grow well, officinalis 

 never has thriven here. I believe our plant to be a 

 hybrid, because it never comes true to seed. Seedlings 

 come out nearly pure otficinalia, " 



What Dr. King says of the Sikkim hybrids does 

 not seem to be true of robusta in Ceylon. Unless 

 we are mistaken the vast majority of plants gi-own 

 from seeds gathered from this form come true to 

 type ? Dr. Triraen's figure of a flowering specimen 

 of Ledgeriana is reproduced from the Botanical 

 Maijazhie. which reminds us that amongst a mass 

 of matter meant to be acknowledged and noticed, 

 but not yet overtaken is a copy of this portrait of 

 this the king of cinchonas, with a full description by 

 Dr. Trimen. 



We now come again to Cocoa, regarding which we 

 quote ;-- 



" Cocoa.- The cultivation of the cocoa or chocolate 

 trees (theohroma cacao) has been eagerly adopted by 

 planters in different tropical colonies, i have oiven an 

 account (pp. 10, 11,) of the result of the step's which 

 have been taken to introduce the best strains from 

 Trinidad into our eastern possessions. I quote Ihe 

 following account from the transactions of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society (1881, pp. 32-33) of the 

 mode of cultivation in central America as likely to 



be, interesting to our colonial correspondents : 



'The cacao trees grow about as large as moderate 

 sized plum-trees, and are exceedingly beautiful. They 

 are raised in nurseries, and afterwards planted in orch- 

 ards, and by the side of each a banana is set to shade 

 the young cacao tree until it is five or six feet high. 

 At intervals in the orchards is planted a tree eaUed 

 'madre d; cacao,' a species of Enjthrina or coral tree. 

 It shed? its leaves towards the end of the dry season, 

 and during the wet season flames out into crimson 

 flowers, resembling these of the gladiolus, and in such 

 nunvbere as to completely cover the tree. It thus 

 afibi-ds abundant shade during the whole year; and to 

 give this shade to the ciicno tree is the object of plant- 

 ing it. On the plantation of the Lacayo family, ' Las 

 Malaccas,' the mother trees are old, and more than 

 70 feet high, and in May, the first rainy month, are all 

 in gorgeous blossom. When these trees are seen from 

 an elevated position, mixed with the green of the 

 banana, a cacao orchard uffoids a siglit not merely of 

 beauty hut of wealth. The flowers of the cacao tree 

 are borne in bunches and are of a delicate pinkish white. 

 The trees are very infertile, producing only from 

 twenty-flve to thirty ounces of seed in a year." 

 The latter statement is curious. Thirty ounces of seed 

 would be a little short of 2 lb. per tree, and at 400 

 trees to the acre the result would be about 750 lb. 

 or nearly 7 cwt. per acre. This does not look like 

 extreme infertility? Mr. Morris is quoted in favour 

 of the manihot as a shade tree for cacao. As he talks 

 of it as a tree, he evidently means the rubber tree, 

 Manihot, Glaziocii and, if so, experience in some places 

 seems to shew that this tree is detrimental to the 

 growth of others near it. We quote what refers to 



Surinam.—" Mr. Henaen states that in Surinam the 

 cocoa »iih yellow pods, call led ' Creole coca,' is gener- 

 ally planted. Another sort with red pods, named 

 'Caracas cocoa,' is also at present planted by everyone 

 who can get the seeds. Where both are grown in the 

 same field the red degenerates before the Creole. 

 Planters there assert that the Caracas grows more 

 quickly and strongly, and thai it bears more and better 

 than ti.e Creole. The beans are lighter than those of 

 hen Creole variety, so that on an average the ker- 

 lets of 10 or 12 Creole fruits will yield one half kilo- 

 gram (M lb-;.) of cocoa, while for the same quantity 

 14 to Hi fruits of Caracas are wanted. The Caracas 

 has mure spongy beans than the Creole, but the 

 flavour of the former is superior." 



"Regarding Hcynileia vaatatrix, the outcome of Mr. 

 Marshall Ward's researches is indicated thus :— 



The most practical outcome of Mr. Marshall Ward'.s 

 iuvestigatiou would be apparently to suggest the im- 



