214 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1882. 



So far their condition is perfect, as inSeed is the case 

 with this coffee in all sizes from the seed-leaf. 



Two trees three years old, fully exposed from the 

 beginning, are now 8 feet high, well branched and fully 

 flowering, in the highest state of health. [This carefid 

 statement by so high an authority as Mr. Prestoe is 

 surely encouraging. — En.] 



.4- 



.Jamaic.4. — In order to encourage and extend the 

 cultivation of valuable economic plants in the island 

 of .Jamaica, the Government has announced its will- 

 ingness to supply allotments from over a hundred 

 thousand plants now ready in the public gardens and 

 plantations at a charge representing only the cost of 

 propagating them. Amongst the plants specified are 

 the Trinidad cacao, Liberian and Mocha coffee, cin- 

 namon, nutmeg, clove, pimento, vanilla, cardamoms, 

 black pepper, cinchona, jalap, tea, cassia, camphor, 

 indiarubber, balsam of tolu and the coconut and sago 

 palms. The I'ailway and coastal steam-boat com- 

 panies, too, have offered to lend their assistance by 

 conveying the plants free of cliarge. Cinchona seed 

 will also be supplied at the rate of .5s. per ounce for 

 C officinalis (producing the crown bark), and 3s. per 

 ounce for C. succiritbra. An ounce of seed is estim- 

 ated to be sufficient to produce twenty thousand 

 seedlings, which, if carefully raised, will plant five 

 acres of land. — London Times. 



Chinese Varmish Tree. — In Dr. Bretschm^ider's 

 notes on some botanical questions connected with the 

 export trade of China, it ia remarked that " il is 

 generally accepted by authors writing on Chinese 

 varnish, that it is produced by Hhiis vernicifera, the 

 Japanese varnish tree " The Chinese varuish tree is 

 found in the provinces of Che Kiang, Kiangsi and 

 Sze-chueu. According to Bretschneider the figures of 

 the tree in Cliinese botanical books do not at all re- 

 semble Rhus vernicifera. I learn from Mr. H. T. 

 Murtou that a Chinamm at Singapore has about 

 forty acres planted with varnish trees. Specimens 

 sent to Kew prove thit it is Alewites vernicia (r= A. 

 cordala and ISheocorc i vciiicia ). Seeds of this plant 

 had been previous'y obtained through a correspond- 

 ent from Sze-chuen, and have been distributed to 

 Ceylon, Demerara, Dominica, Jamaica, Washingtuu 

 (Department, of Agriculture), and Zmzibar. Dr. Kirk 

 reports (September 9) from the la^t-mentioned place 

 that the seeds " are all a foot high, and I am plant- 

 ing them out." — Journal of Applied Science. 



Chinese Hemp Palm. — {Chammrops Fortunei.)— In 

 tire " Journal of B itauy " for June, 1879, Dr. 

 Haucfl states that he is " assured that tin? fibrous 

 leaf-sheaths " of Caryota Oehlandra, Hance, " supply 

 all the coir so extensively used in this part of 

 Cliina for covering ti-uik'), miking brooms, mats, 

 and s.indals, and for other purposes." He has lately 

 sent to the museum of the Royal Gar lens an iu- 

 terobting c dlectio i of objects manufiictured from 

 this materi.ll, and though they are for the most 

 p.art different to anything we po-sessed before the 

 material itself is apparently identical witli t'uat 

 derived from the fibrous leaf bases of Gh'imcerops 

 Forlunei. We are in lebted to Mr. Robert Fortune 

 for a rain-oloak and ha*-, (such ai are figured in his 

 " Residence among the Chiiiese, " p 14.o ) made fro u 

 this material. He calls the palm producing it 

 "the hemp pciliu " (Chaniir. rops sp.), a tree of great 

 iinportauce to the Chinese in a commercial point, of 

 view, on account of the sheets of fibre which it p o 

 duces ye.irly on its stem " ( page 189). He de.'scribe-i 

 it as o cupying " a prom'nent phice " on the sid ^s of 

 the mountains in Che Kiang. While Mr. F )r';une 

 was at Shanghae an earthqu.dce t lok place. On the 

 following dav ''groups of i liinese wei-e seen in the 

 gardens, roadsides, aal fi Ids engaged in gaihering 

 hairs which are said to make their appearance on 

 the surface of the ground after an earthpuake takes 



place. Some of the Chinese did not hesitate to affirm 

 that they belonged to some huge eubterraneous 

 animal, whose slightest shake was suSicient to move 

 the world." Many of the fibres of the hemp-palm 

 were shown to Mr. Fortune as the hairs in qnesuon. 

 — Journal of Applied Science. 



HrBiscns Rosa Snensis. — A flower of a superb variety 

 that we have lately examined is so remarkable in its 

 conformation that its peculiarities are worthy of beinu 

 placed on record. All goes on as correctly as should 

 be the case with a properly conducted Hibiscus till 

 after the corolline whorl is reached ; then the flower 

 breaks out into the wildest extravagance, so that it 

 is difficult to reduce the tangled mass of petals to 

 anything like order. In the ordinary course of things 

 there should be within the petals a tube, bearing at 

 its upper part an agglomeration of anthers, and form- 

 ing the column or tube of stamens so characteristic 

 of well conducted Malvacea?. Within and at the bot- 

 tom of this tube of united stamens is, or should be, 

 the ovary whose slender style traverses the tube and 

 breaks up above its edge into five branches, each tipped 

 with a knob-like stigma. In the flower before us we 

 have a very different arrangement. Instead of the 

 staminal tube we have six solid branches or axes 

 clothed with petals of all sizes and shapes, and each 

 bearing at the top a few stamens surrounding the 

 base of a small but perfectly formed ovary, whose 

 styles and stigmas, however, though present, are but 

 small. It would therefore seem as if the main axis 

 of the flower, after throwing off sepals and petals as 

 usual, suddenly branched into five or six divisions, 

 each provided with an irregular number of petals, and 

 terminated by an ovary. It is difficult to suppose 

 any real transformation here ; but if such a pheno- 

 menon be invoked, then the five or six branches of 

 the flower must be stamens, but stamens must be 

 very mad inded to bear complete ovaries at their 

 tips, though e we are far from denying the possibility 

 of such an occurrence. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



The Daily Swellixo of Plants. — With delicate 

 means of measurement Herr Kraus has recently proved 

 the_ existence' of a phenomenon in all plant organs, 

 which is connected wdth their variable water-content, 

 and consists in a pei-iodioal swelling and contraction 

 in the 2-t hours. Leaves, &c., decrease in thickness 

 from the early morning till the afternoon, when they begin 

 to swell again, attaining a greater size by night than 

 by day (this is well seen in agave, aloe, and the like). 

 Similary with buds, flowers, green cones, fruits, &c., 

 and with stems and branches. Herr Kaiser had before 

 proved such a period in trunks of trees, and Herr 

 Kraus shows that both wood and bark share in it, 

 independently or unitedly. The various experiments 

 of Herr Kraus — removal of foliage, watering, shutting 

 out light, &c., lead to explanation of the phenomena 

 by the varying reciprocal action of those factors which 

 bring water into the plant and those which carry it 

 away. By niglit only the water-absorbing activity of 

 the parts below ground operates, by day the water- 

 consuming activity of the parts above ground besides. 

 The water-consuming activity depends mainly on the 

 foliage and on light (removal of leaves or of light 

 stops the contraction) and consists essentially in traus- 

 pii-ation. Herr Kraus states tliat when a plant is 

 watered these thhigs occur : — In a short time, less 

 than an hour, the stem begins to swell ; both wood 

 and bark take part in this, the wood always first. 

 The swelling progresses at a pretty quick rate, up- 

 wards of several metres per second. After some time, 

 perhaps an hour, contraction gradually recurs. The 

 contraction began at the upper jiart of an acacia after 

 10 minutes, whereas the swelling at the lower part 

 continued .50 minutes. This shows that tlie contract 

 on is due to the activity of the foliage, and is gi-adually 

 extended downwards. — London Times. 



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