82 2 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[April 2, 1883, 



I have had over this from Liberia prepared both in 

 the cherry and in the hnsk, but until lately it did not 

 fetch a very high price, but of lute things have changed 

 verj much. There is a market in England in which 

 certain coffees fetch an enormous price, and the object 

 of the buyer is to get as strong full-flavoured coffee as 

 possible, because he wants to fetch up the flivour in 

 the large amount of mixture which is sold as "coffee." 



In manufacturing districts the poor people drink a 

 much larger percentage of coffee than tea, and without 

 milk. So far, the vendors of this trash have educated 

 their customers' palates to a common coarse flavour, 

 and I doubt if they would appreciate a pure coffee it 

 put before them. For this reason it is well worth 

 trying experiments. I ouglit to remind you at the 

 same time that any of these special cofl'ecB are almost 

 invariably saorilloed in the London market. 



This is well borne out by the fact of some Jamaica 

 platitation coffee fetching 183s per cwt., whereas in 

 London this coffee, without it was recognised by the 

 ordiuary buyers, would pass almost unnoticed, if it had 

 not a pretty berry. — I am, yours truly, 



THOS. CHRISTY. 



Indian Tea Statistics. — By this mail we have 

 receiNcd from Messrs. Gow & Wilson, India Tea 

 Brokers, a copy of a statement prepared by them 

 on the above subject which gives a most hopeful view 

 of India (and Ceylon) tea prospects. We shall quote 

 the paper In full in an early issue. 



LiNNEAN Society, Feb. 1st. — Sir J. Lubbock, Bait, 

 President, in the chair. Dr. \V. C. Ondaatje called at- 

 tention to examples of red coral from Ceylon. — Mr. W. 

 T. Thiselton Dyer eshibited a model of the fruit of 

 the double cocoa-nut {Lodoicea seijc/ietlnriini, Lab.) of 

 an unusual form, obtained from Major-General C. G. 

 Gordon.— A series of microscopic sections of coal 

 plants were shown ou behalf of Mr, •!. Norman.— 1 he 

 following paper was read : ' On the Structure, De- 

 velopment, and Life-history of a Tropical Epiphyllcus 

 Lichen,' by Mr. H. M. Waid: The author's observ- 

 ations lead him to believe that the epiphyllous crypto- 

 gam in question supports the view that a lichen ia 

 a compound organism composed of an alga on which 

 an ascomycetous fungus has become more or less in- 

 timately affixed and dependent. It is developed on 

 the leaves of many plant*, but it has been more closely 

 W.itched on MU-helia furcata. 1 he lichen presents 

 four types — orange-red stellate patches, greyish-green 

 blotches, clear grey spots, and white shmiug circles ; 

 but these pass imperceptdjly into one another and vary 

 in size from a speck to a quarter of an inch in dia- 

 meter. The reddish spots of the earlier stages is an 

 alga of which the radiating filaments are in part re- 

 productive organs and in part barren hairs. It sub- 

 sequently passes into the grey and green stages, and 

 by a modification of growth the invasion of a fungus 

 mycelium succeed". The white matrix of the com- 

 plete lichen consists of the same algal thallus invested 

 by dense masses of the fungus hyph.-c, which pro- 

 duce shining black dots, viz., the fruit bodies. The 

 author describes in detail the peculiarities of growth 

 and reproduction of the alga and fungus and the form- 

 ation of the lichen. He alludes to and criticizes Dr. 

 Cunningham's account of Mycoiden parcmlica, which 

 plant is evidently closely related to that described by 

 himself Assuming that J/ycwWca and Ward's alga are 

 generically the same, either Cunningham discovered 

 a female organ of reproduction which becomes fertil- 

 ized and produces zoospores, he confounded this with 

 fertile hair organs. As regards the systematic position 

 of growth of the alga, acomparison with Cohechocie sug- 

 gests that there is very little in common beyond the mode 

 of the disc-like thallus and the production of zoo- 

 spores from certain cells. The genua Cliroolc/nix, more- 

 over, presents features which agree in several import- 



ant points, viz., orange-red oily cell contents, habitat, 

 and production of zoospores in ovoid cell.s developed 

 terminally and laterally. The structure of the thallus 

 and the relative positions of the main masses of fungal 

 and algal portions agree with what occurs in hetero- 

 merous lichens, as Graphidea, but the perithecia in- 

 dic:ite its nngiocarpous alliance, bringing the form 

 nearer such families as Pertusaria and Verrucaria, to 

 the latter of which it may ultimately be referred.— 

 Athencfum. 



Siiand's Patent Tea Driek— the following letter 

 was received by Mr. Shand from Mr. C.Ross Wright:— 



Barra, Eakwaua, 2ii(i JInrch 1883, 

 C. Shand, Esq., Colombo, 



As stated in my last to you, dated 2-itli relmiary, 1883, promising 

 you a report of my trial of tea niailr on yoiu- patent steam heated 

 tea-dryer, I have much pleasure in seiidiii;; you my experience with 

 it. Leaf dried ou the model now at " Jiarra " Tea house has a' 

 most perfect appearance, as I have no doubt you will have already 

 seen by the samples I sent you on Monday, 26th February, 1883. 

 The .samples were made ou the ajth February, and the broken pekoe 

 wa.s valued by " Cha " alia.': W. Cameron, Esq., from as. to 2s 3d 

 per Ifc. The leaf made into tea on this date wiis of the flushes after 

 4th rouiui of phu-kinp after pruning, and, having got a fair fer- 

 mentation of Jred, and } green, from 1 to 5 hours, with good temp' 

 erature of 9.5° at noon was placed on the machine as follows:— 



taken time 

 out. in. tea. 



Fermentation 4 hours p. m. p, m. m. lb. 



Put on liroken pekoe on stove tire 2" 5 2"40 35 4 



.. ,, patent machine 1-50 3'00 rio | 



Fermentation 4j hours. a. m. 



Put oji pekoe ou stove lire 11*50 13*37 47 4 



.. patent macMue 11*40 1*15 1*35 i 



Fei*mentatiou b hours. p. m. 



Put on pekoe souchong on stove tire 1*20 2*.S0 1*10 (j 



' ,1 patent machine 1* 5 3*40 2*36 § 



I find that the leaf dried on the patent dryer has to be put on 

 some 10 to IS m. prior to leaf fermenting, the same time as 

 that to be dried on stoves, as fermentation coutiuue to go on for 

 the said time ou tjie machine before it commences to be dried. 

 The tiring is somewhat slower than on the stoves (most excellent 

 for linal dryings, there is no chance of burning, and it reipiires 

 but little supervision) the leaf on the machine before getting crisp 

 (or shortly after putting the leaf on to the machine) is somewh- 

 taken out of twist, Ijut this doe.s not apparently make any differ 

 euce to the lookof the bulk. — Yours truly, C. Row Wright. 



Paper-Makin(; in the Past.— Europe learned the 

 art of paper-making from the Saracens, or Arabs, in 

 the seventh century, who probably learned it from 

 the Chinese. The process the Saracens brought to 

 Spain, after their conquest in 704, had been in vogue 

 in Chiua over I,tlOU years. The process was simply 

 beating to a pulp, in mortars of vegetable fibre, and 

 drying it in sheets. The Chinese malie paper in the 

 same way today, as they are opposed to the use of 

 labour-saving machinery. The only machine admitted 

 to the Flowery Kingdom is the Yankee sewing-ma- 

 chine. The use of paper for documents began about 

 the tenth century. The use of rags for paper- 

 making began in the eleventh century ; prior to th.at, 

 cotton, flax, &c , being used. The earliest record of 

 the building of a mill for paper making is 1370, tlie 

 mill being erected in Geroiany. The mill w*as, how- 

 ever, only for reducing the fibre to pulp by stamps, 

 ru 1 by water power, and was in no way like our 

 modern mills. In I58S a German made such good 

 paper that Queen Elizabeth knighted him, and gave 

 him a monopoly of gathering rags in the kingdom 

 for ten years. The real value of paper making be- 

 gan to be best appreciated when the art of prin'ing 

 was discovered, in the fifteenth oenlury. Had print- 

 ing been discoveaed earlier, there would have been 

 little use for it, as neither the bark nor straw-paper 

 of tlie Chinese, the papyrus of the Egyptians, nor the 

 part^hinent of the Greeks would have been sutiSci- 

 ently plentiful for the demands of the printing 

 press. Germany, using cotton, flax, and rags, and her 

 water and wind power for their reduction to pulp and 

 fibre, was ready for the printer and his press, and 

 these made possible the Reformation. — Printers' Gazette. 

 [Has the time not come for manufacturing paper in 

 Ceylon and Southern India ?— Ed,] 



