April 2, i88j.J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



Sis 



spread out not more than from 2 to 3 inches high in 

 high in a dry, aii-y, sminy place, and turned over with 

 a rnke twice or thrice daily tor a period varying with 

 the kind of seed and the dryness and temperature of the 

 weather. After this they shoidd be piled up higher, the 

 raking bemg continued as before but being limited to 

 only once a day. This latter process should go on luitil 

 the seeds are sufliciently dry. E.xperience alone can ti'U 

 when this is the case. It is needless to say that in the 

 cold weather the seeds should be removed under shelter 

 while dew is being deposited. As regards reeds that are 

 moist even when they are shed natm-ally, this drying is 

 really the completion of ripening process, for such seeds 

 germinate more promptly when they have been thus cU'ied 

 than if sown as soon as they fall off from the parent 

 tree, 

 (f). Seeds that bequiee a fuktkee process oi' bipen- 



INU AFTEii EALLINO OFF FJiOM THE PAEENT TBEE. — Among 



agricultural crops our gram is a well-known in.stance of 

 such seeds. It will germinate freely only several months 

 after it has been harvested. Instances of forest seeds, 

 ah-eady given higher up, are those of teak in Central 

 India and Bombay, of Terminalia tomeniosa ^i\A Aijuna^ ai 

 Ptcrocarptis Jfar.-^itpiiinij babxd, ash, &c. Drying increases 

 the germinative facidtly of each one of these 

 species, especially the poiver of sweUing up of the em- 

 bryo and of the peri.sperm (when there is one) by the 

 imbibition of water. In the case of teak in Central India, 

 it woulil appear that continued exposure to all the altern- 

 ations of the weather during a whole year, provided 

 fermentation is prevented, favours the second ripening 

 process. 



-Indian Forester. 



E. E. Feekandez. 



CINCHONA LEDGERIANA A DISTINCT SPECIES. 

 So far back as September 1881, Dr. Trimeii seat and 

 interesting paper on this subject to the "Journal of 

 Botany " (it was published in the number for Nov- 

 ember following) giving a full description of the new- 

 species, the same being accompanied by coloured 

 plutes shewing the leaf, flower buds, calyx, &c. Through 

 an oversight, we failed to reproduce this valuable 

 contribution to Cinchona literature at the time a 

 copy reached us, but we are now reprinting the 

 letter press for the April number of the TroiT 

 ical Atjriculfurist, and in doing so, we are able to 

 give at the fame time a curious paper from the same 

 journal (number for January 1883) by Dr. Kuutze 

 endeiivouring to controvert Dr. Trimen's argument 

 and to demonstrate that Ledgeriana is a hybrid. Dr. 

 Kuntze iu a previous monograph of cinchona endeavoured 

 to make out that there were only four species : — 

 Woddelliana (including Calisaya) ; Pavoniana (including 

 Micrautha) ; Howardiana (including Succirubra) ; 

 and Pahuiliana. All other cinchonas he regards as 

 synonyms or hybrids of these four sprcies ; but Dr. 

 Kuut'.e has faihd to convince scientific botanists of 

 the correctness of his views. In fact iiiany of his 

 notions arc rather laughed at, than gravely regarded. 

 Dr. Kuntze is a very eccentric and speculative botanist, 

 and his vie as on cinchona, hastily adopted on im- 

 perfect datii, are gene -ally allowed to have little « eight. 

 It is perhaps desirable that he should ha\e an 

 opportunity of etdl advocating them in a scientific 

 periodical, bnt it is as well for the public to under- 

 stand tha' thev have not b<en accepted by any 

 other botanist aciiuainted w-ilh cinchona in the Kast. 

 It was on iliis account doubtless that Dr. Trimen did 

 not r -fer to Dr. Kuntze's vie«3of the origin of 6'. Lrdi/eri- 

 ana m the short article towhich he refur.'^, for Dr. Tri'men 

 mustbo wellacijUainted with hisbuokou Clncliuva, having 1 

 reviewed it on its appearance in 1878, and be also 

 has alluded to it in bis "Medicinal Plants" under , 



"Cinchona, "and again in Mr. T.C.Owen's Manual (p. 19). 

 — Dr. Trimen has now, we understand, sent a brief 

 reply to Dr. Kuntze's statements iu the lalUr's pa|jiT 

 in the December number of the "Journal of Botany," 

 and has been enabled to show thatMr. Uammie, in answer 

 to enquiries, denies absolutely having made any such 

 statenii-ni as Dr. Kuntze credits hiin with (that 

 Ledgeriana originated spontaneously in a Calisaya fi.ld 

 and never came tiue from seed), and Mr. Uainmie 

 thinks Dr. Kuntze must have some other kind than 

 'jedrjcriana in his mind's eye. 



By Henhy Teimen, M.B., F.L.S. 

 (From the "Journal of Botany," Nov. H, 1881.) 

 All who have followed the progress of the great and 

 wonderfully successful experiment carried out iu the East 

 during the last twouty years, will be aware how prominent a 

 part as a quinine-yielding tree is now filled by the plant 

 known under the name of CiiicJiona Ledyeriaiui. The dis- 

 covery of its value iu 1872 gave new life to the flagging 

 Cinchona enterprise in Java, which has since, undi/jr the able 

 guidance of the present director, Mr. Jloens, taken so lead- 

 ing a position ; and the cultivation, propagaticu. and im- 

 provement of this species are now the principal objects of 

 the plantations of the Dutch Government. In our own 

 plantations in Sikkim, after years of neglect a.s one of the 

 troublesome and hopelessly variable forms of C. Culisitifa, 

 the plant is now the object of careful cultivation ; whilst in 

 Southern India and Ceylon private planting enterprise 

 especially has not been slow to turn to account the knowledge 

 acquired, and the spread of C. Lahjtriuna, iu plantations in 

 suitable localities, is merely a question of time. 



There is no occasion to go into details as to the history of 

 this species, but it is necessary to mention that the tree is 

 only known to botanists in a cultivated state. All existing 

 plants in the East are descendants of seed collected from 

 about fifty trees growing on the almost inaccessible banks of 

 the Kio Mamore in Bolivia, in June, 1865. It does not 

 ajipear that any European has been within a hundred miles 

 of this locality, or that the trees have been again seen. The 

 actual collector was a halt-caste, or native servant of Jlr. C. 

 Ledger, named Manuel Incra Mamani, who was afterwanls 

 murdered.* iWr. Ledger's seed was sent to Loudon, and 

 after being (unfortunately as it has turned out; declined by 

 the India Office, was purchased by the Dutch Government iu 

 Dec, 1865, and sent to Java, where it was raised and the 

 plants carefully attended to under the care of Van Gorkom, 

 then director of the plantations. A portion, however, of the 

 same seed was acquired by Mr. Jloney, a planter in the 

 Nilgiris, whence some found its way to the Government 

 plantations at Ootacamund, and a small quantity to those at 

 Darjeeling. Hence it resulted that plants of this valuable 

 kind were being grown both in Indiii and Java, but it was in 

 the latter country that its superiority as a quinine-yielding 

 variety was discovered. 



In Java, too, it was soon observed that though showing a 

 good deal of variation, the plants possessed some well-marked 

 characters, and the name " Li-dgerinna" became used (first 

 in 1873 ?) iu official reports and as a plantation name, to 

 distinguish it from other varieties of C. Cu/isai/a.f In India, 

 however, it was not distinguished from other yellow bark 

 trees, and it is only iu the last few years that the trees have 

 been picked out and identified by their botanical character- 

 istics. Seed Irom Indian Ledijeriami also found its way to a 

 few planters in Ceylon under the name of C. Calisaya; and 

 trees five or six years old have been found on several estates 

 mingled with other varieties, and generally unrecognized 

 until the characters were pointed out by Mr. Moens during a 

 risit to the island in Sept., 1880. 



The name Lcdi/eriana received scientific sanction in 1876, 

 being then published in Howard's magnificent work as f ' 

 Calisaya, var. Lnlyeriana, How.J In this book, which I 

 regret I have not at present at hand, much information wiU 

 be found with reference to the plant and its allies. In now 

 publishing it as a separate species, I almost feel to owe an 

 apology for adding another to the already far too numerous 



* J. E. Howard in Pharm. .Journ., March 13th. I88n 

 t Howard, (yuinol. Ind. Plant, p. 84. 



; It is used in Howard's Kotes on C nchoiui in Journ. Linn. 

 Soc. xiv. p. 174(1874). 



