July i, 1882,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



63 



side. The reason why trees as a rule clo better on 

 tlie side below the dr.ain than on the upper side 

 seems obviously to be the exemption from percol- 

 ation from the drain which carries off the water th.at 

 would otherwise rot the roots of the trees on the lower 

 side. In the same way it is found on rocky hill sides that 

 plants placed on the lower side of boulders or detached 

 stones almost invariably succeed, being pi-oteotea from 

 surface «»ash and also from being damped oflf. But there 

 are exemptions to every theory that can be deduced 

 from isolated experience and in the case of cinchona 

 it is almost impossible to establish rales applicable all 

 over even on one estate, much less over a district 

 or for the counti-y generally. A practical hand who 

 knows by long experience what " gi-afting" means, 

 has been trying the art on cinchona after the Mata- 

 kelly plan and finds success is easily attained ; but 

 he prefers a pointed wedge-like graft inserted between 

 tw-o cuts in the stock to the outside splice recom- 

 mended at Matakelly. Instead of 300 grafts a day, 

 our practical friend considers 50 a good day's work, 

 and he does not believe a cooly can be trained to do 

 more than 40 at his best, if the work is properly done. But 

 even that should be jirofitable work — costing only a cent 



the virtue of the bark, and .at any rate be -a very 

 interesting experiment; but I was met by the state- 

 ments that it would be too expensive to attempt it 

 in large plantations, and that expensive tools would 

 be necessary, otherwise the branches would be much 

 broken and injured. 



The Calisaya will never answer at Naduvatam, 

 but I have written fully on this question in my report. 

 There are four varieties only, "the ordinary Calisaya," 

 "the Ledger," the "Anglica," and the '■ Javanica; " 

 the two former are known to be most superior ; they 

 are scarcely distinguishable, and I shall be surprised if 

 further research proves the "Ledger" so very superior. 

 The very favorable reports on thi< variety are probably 

 due to the high cultivation of a few individuals ; how- 

 ever, I may be wrong. Mr. Eowaon told me that 

 ** Anglica and Javanica" had been analysed and gave 

 a very poor yield ; and this has been found the case 

 in Java, where their cultivation is given up; the last 

 named is only a brushy shrub. 



I quite agree with Mr. Cross that grafting could 

 be of no value when the object i- "bark;" and Mr. 

 Cross agrees with me that the art of hj'bridizing would 

 not be at all likely to increase the value of the bark. 



Mr. Cross appears to be of opinion that the 

 natural bark may be richer in alkaloid than renewed 

 bark ; this is opposed to .all the experience hitherto 

 gaiued. I believe I am right iir saying ihat everj' 

 analysis has hitherto proveil the great superiority of 

 the latter, and that it always fetches a much highfr 

 price Mr. Cross is also wrong in saying that a tree 

 once barked will always require to be wrought after 

 the same manner as long as it lives, as it is a fact 

 th.at trees which have been many times barked are 

 now growing splendidly from coppice. 



We must be cfireful not to he guided too much 

 by any report on the analysis of Mr. Cross's thirty 

 sm.all selected specimen?. I much fear more harm than 

 good has been done by the analysis of only fa^'oured 

 individuals, and thnt it is likely to be the result of 

 much annoyance ; I do not myself believe in the vaunted 

 superiority of such varieties as "Angustifolia" or 

 "Crispa" over ordinary "Officinalis" nor of " Ledg- 

 eriana" over ordinary "Calisaya." It is due probably 

 only to high cultivation orto other favourable conditions 

 appertaining to the selected individual; time only, 

 however, can fully prove this. 



a gi'aft. When cinchona was first put out among 

 coftee it was generally supposed that the centre of the 

 square fonned by each quartett of coffee bushes was 

 the Iiest place to occupy ; but experience has she^vn 

 that plants put in the coffee rows rather than between 

 them are much more likely to succeed. The coolies 

 in weeding, pruning and picking between the coffee can 

 scarcely avoid trampling or otherwise injuring plants in 

 the centre of what is their walking path. On the other 

 hand when coolies have been carefully warned and watched, 

 both tea and cinchona have come on fairly well 

 between the rows, and now that self-so\vn seedlings 

 of cinchona are becoming so plentiful in many estates, 

 those who wish to ciiltivate this most promising type 

 of young plants must do all they can to prevent their 

 bemg pulled out for weeds or trampled down beyond 

 recovery. 



Since writing the above we have received the fol- 

 lowing very encouraging report from Mr. Bisset of 

 Kotmale : — 



"I have just had some bark analyzed (by Mr. .Symons) 

 taken from trees growing on old cotfee land — trees 

 six years old. The plants were obtained from New 

 Forest (Mr. Clu'istie), and now give the following 

 results : — 9 '20 per cent crystallized sulphate of 

 qumine, and, as ' Calisaya Ledger stem bark ' is 

 worth 11/ per lb., with Howard's quinine at 9/6 per 

 oz. The bark of a hybrid tree analyzed shewed 

 the following : — 4 "20 crystallized sulphate of quinine 

 valued at 4/10 per lb. When bark of this value 

 can be grown on land that ceases to be remuner- 

 ative with cotfee, in spite of present depression, pro- 

 prietors have nothmg to fear." 



WHAT IS A HYBRID AND WHAT IS 

 A GHOSS ? 



Mr. Gammie, of the Darjiling cinchona plantations, 

 writes : — 



" In your issue of the '26th April, Mr. Bosanquet 

 says :^' That we are led astray by the misuse of 

 the word hi/hriil, and that we should be more strictly 

 coiTect in looking upon robusta as a o-oss between 

 officinalis and succirubra.' This to me is incompre- 

 hensible, for I had no idea that more than one 

 meaning could be attached to the term ' hybrid,' 

 viz., the joint offspring of two species. But Mr. 

 Bosanquet would call the jouit offspring of two so 

 distinct species as officinalis and succmibra a cross. 

 The technical term ' cross,' as I understand it, 

 means the joint offspring of two varieties of the 

 same species. For instance, that between a shorthoi'n 

 and a Hereford is a cross, and that between an ass 

 and a horse a hybrid. It appears to me that, as 

 far as the misuse of the tenns is concerned, Mr. 

 Bosanquet himself is the guilty pai-ty. His extra- 

 ordinary assertions about an apparent succii-ubra of 

 one or two years of age turning into a robusta, and 

 a sucker from a succirubra gi-owing up a robusta, 

 only prove that he is not an accurate observer. 



' ' Cross-f ei-tilization is no doubt, as he states, a matter 

 of daily occurrence, especially among plants — such 

 as cinchonas — with flowers of dimorphic fonnation, 

 and produces all the good results of robustness and 

 fertility, as Dai-win so amply proved ; but cross- 

 fertilization, as explained by Mr. Bosanquet, viz., 

 the union of two distinct species, is quite a different 

 matter, and is ' exceedingly rare in nature.' He 

 refers to the so-called hybrid tea as an instance of 

 hybridity, but I look upon it not as a hybrid but 

 merely a well-marked and ti.\ed variety. According 

 to the best botanists (see Flora of India), the ' China' 



