July i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



caraviins, it gradually entered the Hice countries, and 

 reached Ciiaa and Japan. Maize, however, is a 

 native of temperate zones, and Rice of the tropics, 

 con'^equentiy there are points where they part company. 

 The latter does not find sufficient warmth in Enrope 

 north of the Alps ; the former is at home in Ohio, 

 Illinois, and t\)c northern part of Kentucky, but in 

 the Gulf States it finds too much heat. In the hot 

 districts, where Cotton and the Sugar-cane flourish 

 to perfectiou, it becomes magniflcent iu stem and 

 leaf, and pi-oporiionatrly deficient in the ear or cob. 



We will now take Tea. It has not been a great 

 traveller as a tree, but the leaf ranges wide, and 

 frequently passes twice through the teapot iu comp.iny 

 with any other small leaves resembling it in size. 

 The first Tea was brought to England in lt>G6 by 

 Lords Arlington and Ossory, who obtained it from 

 the Dutch East India Company. Its original price 

 was 6O3. per pound. Fortune and other authorities 

 describe the Thei bohea and T. viridis {green Tea) 

 as varieties produced by the influence of age, soil, 

 climate, and cultivation. Souchong, hyson, &c,, are 

 sorts which receive thi'ir namrs according to the 

 time of picking and the age of th« leaf and of the 

 wood which bears it. Tea leaves, like grass in process 

 of being made into hay, can only retain their green 

 colour when quickly dried witliout oxidation of the 

 juices by exposure iu damp weather. Artificial green 

 Tea is coloured by the use of indigo, gypsum, and 

 Prussian blue, and being slightly poisonous, it has 

 sometimes been known to "murder sleep." 



The Paraguay Tea, so laigely used in Brazil and 

 neighbouring countries, is a Holly of restricted habitat, 

 with properties, very similar to those of Tea. 



The coffee tree is an indigenous ever-green in Arabia, 

 where the berry remained locally unused tiU a Mufti 

 of Aden acquired a taste for the beverage produced from 

 it iu Persia- In 1.554 it was sold at Constantinople, 

 where it h.^d a remarkable effect in emptying the 

 moscjues in favour of the cafeg. Thfi berry travelled 

 westwards in 1615 as an item in the Venetian trade. 

 The cafes of Paris and the corresponding shops in 

 Loudon became fashionable at the end of the century. 



To the preceding list of plants, which have been 

 distributed by the industrious bands of man, we 

 propose to add a few trees, placing first the Date — 

 a Palm which has travelled from the confines of Asia 

 through the Syrian and African deserts. Some of 

 the finest plantations are those around Medina. Those 

 of Egypt are imporiant. 



Two other equally important plants are the Biuana 

 and Plantain, tropical fruits which appear to be in- 

 digenous both on the Euphrates and the Orinoco. A 

 patch of Bananas yields four or five times as much 

 food as the same breadth of Potatos, aud the tree 

 grows from a sucker, bears fruit in eight months, 

 and sprouts and fruits again in three months. It is 

 therefore, a convenient tii;e for the tropics, aud has 

 been dispersed over them from the earliest ages. It 

 will 1)6 remembered that the Bread Fruit of the Pacific 

 — a tree producing fruit the size of penny Inaves, 

 yellow, sweet, aud pleasant to the taste — was once 

 set up in opposition to the Banana. The excitement 

 on the suliject culmin.ited iu London, in the idea 

 of a crop ot unadulterated bread growing ready baked 

 in a large spreadmg tree of the Friendly Islands. 

 Geor{,e III. was accordingly petitioned ou the suljeot, 

 and the Bounty was sent out to Otaheite under the 

 com. nan. I of Lieutenant Bligh, for the purpose of 

 secuting some specimens of the important tree The 

 BoaiUy reached her destination in I78S, aud shipped 

 1,500 young trees, which weie destroyed dnung the 

 mutiny. .\ few years later Admiral Bligh lece'ved 

 a simil r c 'mmissiou, and succeeded iu eonveyng the 

 Bread Fruit to the West Indies, where the coloui-ts 

 soon discovered it to be inferior as food to the 



foo-foo of the Plantain, or Banana, while the tree 

 itoelf is "f slow growth. 



Other food trees of the tropics are the Cacao, which 

 cannot wander beyond the regions of great atmospheric 

 heat and moisture ; and the Dourian, the largest of 

 tree fruits which Mr. Wallace enjoyed in the Malayan 

 Afoliipelago. For the sake of naming the second 

 largest tree fruil^, wc mention ihe Brazil-uut, whose 

 woody fruit holds sometimes a quart of those angular 

 and oily nuts. Circumstances prevent these trees 

 from tr.ivelling far, but there are others to be briefly 

 noticed. 



The Aspen trembles all through Europe. It may 

 have commenced its curious habit in the Caucasian 

 range, where it is still a prominent tree, but historically 

 it has always been dispersed over Turkey and Russia 

 as far as the Frozen Ocean, and there is nowhere 

 such a trembling of Aspen leaves as in the woods 

 around Moscow, where innumerable seedlings sprang 

 up after the conflagration of 181.3. The Aspeu is 

 found in the bogs of Denmark at all depths, while 

 the Alder, Birch, and Hazel do not occur below the 

 Oak level. Like the Scotch Fir, therefore, it is one 

 of the primaeval trees of Europe. It is also a native 

 of the woods of Invercauld, near Braeraar, where it 

 ascends to a height of 1,G00 feel. It travels into 

 Sutherl.indshire, loves moist situations and woods, 

 overhanging the Highland lochs. The margin of Loch 

 Katrine and the islet of the "Lady of the Lake" 

 are its favourite sites. 



Id the Highlands on the banks of the Dee aud 

 the Spay, in the pass of Killiecrankie, and everywhere 

 in England, what tree is so bewitching in its "beauty 

 as the Birch of Russian pleasure-grounds, and of 

 Siberian and Icelandic wastes ? On the Apennines the 

 Birch begins to grow at about 5,000 feet above the 

 level of the sea, in Lapland it cases at a line 800 

 feet above the Fir, and 2,000 feet below perpetual 

 snow. The Birch is the superlative tree as regards 

 the extent of ground it covers, in Northern Europe, 

 and in the variety of purposes to which it is con- 

 verted in Lapland, where the natives sit in birchen 

 huts on birchen chairs wearing birchen boots aud 

 breeches, with caps and capes of the same material, 

 warming themselves by fires of birchwood charcoal, 

 reading books bound in birch, and eating herrings 

 from a birchen platter, pickled in a birchen e-.-k. 

 Their baskets, boa's, harness and utensils are all of 

 Birch — in short, from cradle to coiBn the Birch forms 

 the peculiar environment of the Liplander. 



That fastigiate tree the Lombardy Poplar has been 

 traced from Persia, where it abounds, and from the 

 Himalayas, to the banks of tiie Po, and thence to 

 the margin of our English steamers. About a hundnd 

 years ago Lord Rochfort imported from Turin the 

 first cuttings of the Lombardy Poplar, which intro- 

 duced here the novelty a pole clothed with foliage. 



The Cedar of Lebanon is a modern tree in Europe 

 Tlie oldest are, or were, at Chelsea, the tallest at 

 Strathfieldsaye. the largest at Siou House. Lebanon 

 is a wet mountain whose frost and snow equals that 

 of Scotland ; cousequenth the Ced: r of Lebanon is 

 adapted to tlie Engli5h climate aud affects damp situ- 

 ations such as Ihe banks of the Thames. It likes to 

 dip its roots in running water for the purpose of 

 absorption in dry weather. On dry soils it will be 

 found a dwarf. 



The introduction of the Cedar of Lebanon into France 

 was au effirt of most interesting devotion on the 

 part of Bernard d Jus^ieu, who brou lit it from the 

 Holy Laud in 1737, aud koi t it alive oa the voyage 

 by sharing with i' the very small quantity of water 

 which he receive.l during a prolonged j a-ivaj:e. In 

 the a'isence of a dower-pot Jussieu is saifl to have 

 planted the Cedar in his hat, and hy giving it a 

 moiety of his daily glass of water he succeeded iu 



