March 



■ 883.] 



THE TEOriCAL AGRICULTURIST. 



697 



collection exists. Under the heading of " tropical and 

 temperate economic plants" it is truly stated that : — 



" When these hoiiaea were built, only 12 years ago, 

 some of the most conspicuous and now widely spi-ead 

 and even commercially important of the plants for 

 which they were iutoinled, were either absolutely un- 

 known in Europe, or known only as botanical curiosi- 

 ties of no known use to mankind ; such are some 

 of the cinchonas, of the American and African india- 

 rubbers, the Liberian coffee, &c. " 

 Special arrangements liave been made in the pi'o- 

 pagating department for the better culture of tropical 

 plants of a very delicate nature, such as the mangosteen, 

 durian, &c. In the octagon of the temperate house, 

 it is stated that : — 



" The Jjoii/anthcs Palmeri of Queensland, which has 

 never before flowered in this country, has perfected 

 its magnificeut head of scarlet flowers 3 feet high, 

 and these are being now followed by copious fruits 

 which are approachiug to maturity." 

 We should think this beautiful Queensland tree 

 ouglit to do well in Ceylon gardens. Amongst the 

 plants of special botanical interest which had flowered, 

 we notice, as included, a new species of Ijegonia from 

 Ceylon. Tlic arboreum, the pinetum, and the lake 

 having been noticed, we get details of 355 consign- 

 ments of plants and seeds sent to 186 recipients. The 

 packets of seeds were "2,000 ; stove and greenhouse 

 plants 5,200; trees and shrubs 5,103; and so on. 

 We now come to a jjortion of the report which we 

 must quote for the benefit of our readers : — 



" Cinchona Ledgeriana. — Mr. Morris writes, .Septem- 

 ber 7th : — " We are now layering Mr. Howard's plants 

 [sent from Kew], and hope to get about 50 strong 

 plants by the end of this month. We obtained about 

 half an ounce of fresh seed direct from Mr. Moens, 

 in Java, in May last. We have succeeded in potting 

 off 15,000 seedlings from it, and have every hope 

 of saving them all. This will do a good deal with 

 the plants sent by you in establishing this valuable 

 plant in Jamaica. The demand, however, for seed 

 and plants is so great that we cannot have too much 

 of it. I have also raised some plants from seed sent 

 by Dr. King, but I doubt whether his plants are so 

 true as those sent from Java. That is judging, by 

 the appearance of the plants in the younc; state." 



" Cocoa Plants for Enstern Colonies. — In the Kew re- 

 port for ISSO (pp. 13, 1-4) the steps were recorded 

 which had been taken to transmit from Trinidad 

 through Kew to Ceylon, Singapore, and Fiji plants 

 of the best known cidtivated varieties of the cocoa 

 plant. The seven wardian oises despatched from 

 Kew in the autumn of 1879 reached Ceylon in good 

 order. Out of 182 plnnts sent, 127 were nlive, 24 in 

 a doubtful state and 31 dead on their arrival at 

 Peradeuiys, November 5th, IbSO ; none of the 1 1 

 varieties sent wholly failed. 



"The plants for Singapore were despatched from 

 Ceylon March 9th, 1881. The Hon. Cecil C 

 Smith wrote, August 25th respecting them : — 

 ',' They are doing tairly well now, but it took some 

 little time to recover the elfects of their removal. 

 The cultivation of cacao is becoming important here 

 and in our neighbourhood it promises to be a decided 

 success. The same too as to coffee. The accounts 

 from the Johoro plantation and from Sunghy Lljong 

 (next to M ilacca) are very satisfactory, and 

 it was only last night that I was told that in tlie 

 latter place cinchona is doing admirably Uufortuu- 

 ately we cannot, nor can our planters, get the 

 Ledgeriana, but we shall make a further attempt to 

 induce the Dutch authorities to give us some." 



"The plants for Fiji were despatched from Ceylon 

 in April and reached their destination in the following 

 July. Unfortunately tney had all perished in transit. 



"In the same mouth, however, Mr, Prestoe des- 



patched from Trinidad a supplementary case contain- 

 ing the plants required to make up the full num- 

 ber of 20 of each variety which he had been re- 

 quested to procure. These readied Kew in good 

 condition, and were immediately forwarded to Coy- 

 lou. Out of SO plants 27 arrived in Octolier living, 

 while three were dead or nearly so. Dr. Trimen 

 retained nine of the plants, and despatclied the 

 reiiiaiuing IS to Fiji which they reached on Decem- 

 ber 23. Mr. Thurston, the Colonial Secretary, reports 

 as follows: — "With the exception of two plauts, 

 the contents of the case on lauding at Suva ap- 

 peared all that could be desired, and, the weather 

 being warm and moist, the others were at once 

 planted out in the ground prepared for them. Since 

 planting the cacao plauis as well as several cuttings 

 of Erythrian iimbrosa (Madre del Cacao,) which accom- 

 panied them, have budded freely, and appear in a 

 fair way to establish themselves rapidly. While 

 writing this letter I have received a note from a 

 planter to whom 1 gave a few plants of cacao (Java, ) 

 less than three years ago, to the effect that it is 

 bearing, one tree having over 20 pods upon it, and 

 'an immense quantity of blossom.' " 



The plants which reached Fiji ultimately, fortun- 

 ately represented no less than seven distinct varie- 

 ties, including Criollo, red and yellow ; Cunde- 

 amar ; Forastero, red ; .Sangre Toro, yellow ; and Ver- 

 dilico. 



Cola nut plants were sent to Ceylon, amongst other 

 Jjlaces. — We again quote : — 



"Columbian Barks. — With respect to the remain, 

 iug plants of calisaya of Santa FS, which as stated 

 in the last Kew Report (p. 15) were taken out to 

 the Nilgiris in September 1880, I have received the 

 following official information from Mr. Cross through 

 the India Office: — "I arrived on the 8th of Octo- 

 ber with all the Santa Fe plants (also the Cartha- 

 gemis) in fairly good condition, considering the ex- 

 cessive heat experienced during the voyage. . . 

 All are now going on well, and four cutting plants 

 obtained from the Sante Fe are now rooting. I had 

 to keep the plants for some time in the open 

 air, the propagating liouses were in such bad con- 

 dition, in fact they had never been in a good state-" 

 Mr. Cross gave some further information in a pri- 

 vate communication : — "All the Sante Fe plants taken 

 out by me were planted out and established, together 

 with a lew cutting plants and a couple of grafts, 

 one of which was put on a coudaminca tree si.x or eight 

 years old at a height of about seven feet up the 

 truuk. The object in this case was to bring the full 

 vigour of the trunk to bear on the graft so as to 

 produce early flowers aud seeds.' " 

 ^V^e put N. B. after the last sentence, because possess- 

 ors of very valuable Ledgeriana plants in Ceylon 

 might avail themselves of the process described, so as 

 at the earliest possible jicriod to obtain supplies of 

 seed. The Palo de Vaea or Cow Tree of South 

 America (Brosimum galactodcndron) is noticed, of 

 which it is said : — 



" Tlie milk which is obtained by making incisions 

 in the truuk is said to have au agreeable taste 

 like that of sweet cream with a slightly balsamic 

 odour ; it is somewhat glutinous, but said to be uour- 

 ishing and perfectly wholesome." 



As tlie home of this tree in Venezuela, where it at- 

 tains a height of 100 feet, is in 10" iiortli, it ought 

 to succeed well in Ceylon, whither plants have been 

 sent from K,ew. Of course, after the dreadful warn- 

 ing afforded by the case of the unhappy man, if he 

 ever existed, who killed himself by drinking India- 

 rubber tree juice and solidifying it with rum, no 

 one will drink this cow-tree milk and finish off with 

 alcohol. Of the Eucalypti it is said : — 



"It cannot be doubted that apart from their hy- 



