June i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'l'. 



971 



commendation to taste the bitterness. All wo cau 

 say is that finer bark we never saw. In colour it 

 looks like old succirubra bark, but in thickness and 

 quality it is evidently far and away beyond any 

 succirubra bark ever grown. 



Mr. VV. Lee Kirby, of Brooklands estate, Coonoor, 

 writes: — "As many of your readers are interested in 

 the cultivation of cinchona on the Nilgiries and else- 

 where, the following analysis of the barks of 39 trees 

 just received from Dr. U. H. Paul, of Loudon, may 

 prove of some interest to them, more so as tliis 

 analysis unquestionably shows that, after a certain 

 age, which one may conclude to be the eleventh or 

 twelfth year of growth, the sulphate of quinine which 

 makes the ledgeriana variety so valuable, gradually 

 disappears, aud dissolves into inferior sulphates and 

 alkaloids. I ref' r particularly to tree Z, in the list 

 given below, as I have every reason to believe all 

 the other trees, witli the exception of those marked 

 E. K., are plants raised from this tree Z, planted in 

 1861), and raised from the original seed procured by 

 Mr. Ledger from Peru in June 1S6.5. The foliage and 

 bark of the tree itself testify iu every minute part- 

 icular to its true type. The trees E. R. are also of 

 the same age, raised from Mr. Ledger's seed, but of 

 a different character, and here is noticed also how 

 the sulphate of quinine is dissolving into cinchonine. 

 A question of great importance to be solved is, will 

 the renewed bark of old trees give the amount of 

 sidphate of quiniue one might assume the original 

 bark of these sixteen year old trees would have 

 yielded at the age when their barks contained the 

 most sulphate of quinine? I have proved that even 

 suckers hardly an inch in circumference growing out 

 of a tree still standing contain a very extraordinary 

 proportion of quiniue sulphate to the tree from which 

 the sucker comes, as can be seen in the tree marked S., 

 where the bark from the small shoots gives an analysis 

 of 5'49 per cent against the bark of the tree itself, 

 analyzed, 8'83 per cent of sulphate of quinine. These 

 trees beiug entirely isolated from any other varieties 

 of cinchoua may possibly yield seed which will pro- 

 duce a yet more valuable quinine-producing ofl'spiing, 

 as a friend of mine, and one of the oldest cinchona 

 planters in Java, writes me, he has obtained from a 

 parent tree, the bark of which only analyzed 7A per 

 cent of sulphate of quinine, progeny which has yielded 

 as high as 14 per cent of quinine. AVe may there- 

 fore still hope to see, with good cultivation and a 

 suitable climate, together with a juicious selection of 

 seed or seedlings of undoubted origin, "Ledger" 

 bark selliug at half a guinea per pound even when 

 the price of quiuine has fallen 25 per cent below its 

 present market value : — 



Analysis bv Dr. Paul, 2Gth Januaky 1883. 



ni,;>i;,>.. nii:..M:».. rn.;.,.,t..,.. Linclio- 



(Signed) B. H. Paul, c. i: s. 



■ THE BREADFRUIT TREE (ARTOCARPUS 



INCJSA, LINN.). 



Whilst there seems a sort of mania abroad at pres- 

 ent for raking up and discussing all sorts of plants 

 producing valuable or imaginary products, reminding 

 us of the old herbalists, there are several useful plants 

 which seem to be neglected, and, as far as Ceylon is 

 concerned, we may instance the breadfruit tree, 

 introduced to the island early in this century, and 

 of which we have only one variety, and that a very 

 inferior one, bearing only once or twice a year. No 

 attempt has yet been made by Government or privaie 

 individuals to introduce better varieties, several of 

 which are known to exist in the South "Sea Islands, 

 unless it be by the Hon. F. M. Mackwood, whose at- 

 tempt to introduce good varieties failed in cousequence 

 of the plants having died on their way to Cejlon, 

 from want of a proper mode of sending them, no doubt. 

 The failure of the unfortunate Captaiu Bligh's first 

 attempt to introduce the breadfruit tree from the 

 South Seas to the West Indies, in the " Bounty," is 

 well-known, but in .January 1793 he arrived in the West 

 Indies iu His Majesty's ship "Providence," having on 

 board breadfruit trees, and a vast number of other 

 choice and curious plants. The breadfruit of Dampier, 

 Anson, Cook, Allis and others, which is a native of 

 the Moluccas and the South Sea Islands, is likely to 

 have been introduced to Ceylon by the Portuguese or 

 Dutch before 1793, and is known to the natives 

 as the rata (foreign) del. A close ally of the real 

 breadfruit, the del, Arlocarpus vobilis, Thw. and one 

 with a small {cu'it, the Artocarpns Lakooclta, Kos., are 

 natives of Ceylon, whilst the jak-tree, Arlocarpus in- 

 tecjrifolia, Linn., is a doubtful native. 



When the Rev. W. Ellis, the accomplished author 

 of Pohjneman Researches, visited Ceylon in 1854 or 1855 

 he mentioned the fact that we had only one variety 

 of the foreign breadfruit tree in the island, and that 

 a very inferior one : this fact was mentioned by Mr, 

 W. Ferguson in his footnote to Cameron's Gardenimj in 

 Ceylon, in Ferguson's Ceylon Dircntonj for 1SS3, p. 218, 

 and has several times been alluded to in these pa^^essince, 

 and though thej seem to have in the South Seas many 

 Vhrieties of the breacfruit with l.irge aud small fruits, 

 and of several qualities, some of them in fruit at all 

 seasons, just as we have varieties of the maugoes in 

 Ceylon, nevertheless here we are in 1883 without any 

 regular attempt, except the one referred to, to intro- 

 duce better varieties of the briidfruit iuto Ceylon. 

 The late Mr. Dyke, Government .\genl of the Northern 

 Province, for many years kept getting supplies of 

 plants from the Western Province to be dietributed in 

 Jaffna of this valuable vegetable. Our Ceylon variety 

 bears uo seeds, but in the South Seas and West Indies 

 they seem to have seed-bearing ones called Nucifeiu 

 or breadnut tree, aud seedless ones, Apyrena or bread- 

 fruit tree. 



In addition to the extracts we give from Bennett's 

 Galherinijs of a. Naturalist, who gives a list of uo less 

 than 24 varieties of the breadfruit, and Horuc'e Fiji, we 

 would refer our readers for fui ther information to 

 EMia's Polyiiesiaii Researches, vol. 1, pp. 39-43, Williams's 

 Enlerprize in the South Sea IsUtiuls, pp. 421-23, for 

 most interesting facts on the different kinds aud uses of 

 the breadfruit tree. We extract as follows : — 



Ne.\t to the above-mentioned fooil plants comes the bread- 

 fruit (Art'icarpus I'dfiirt) which is a most useful as well as a 

 highly oinaniL-utal tree. It sometim<:s attains a height of 

 50 feet, but the average is from 3() to 10 feet. In general its 

 trunk will measure about 15 feet to the first branches, with 

 a girth of 3 to 4 feet. It is a horizontal branching tree, 

 with a cone-shaprd head. Thi^ le.avi-s of the young trees are 

 .sometimes J left iu length, and from 12 to 15 inches iu width. 

 Those of the older trees are httlemoie than half that si^e. 



