444 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1882. 



pair, and the surroundicg compartmeuts contain always 

 many labourers and soldiers." 



I had no idea white ants could produce any sounds, 

 but from the following it appears they can :— " In the 

 process of buikhng or repairing each labourer carries in 

 his mouth a mass of mortar which he sticks on to its 

 proper place. When engaged in this work all the soldiers 

 retire, except one or two, who saunter about amongst 

 them, but never assist. Every now and then this over.seer, 

 by Ufting his head and striking with his forceps upon 

 the wall of the building, makes a particular noise, which 

 is answered by a loud hiss from all the labourers, and 

 appears to be the signal for despatch ; for every time it 

 is heard they may be seen to redouble their exertions. 

 On the nest being attacked, in rush the labourers, and 

 out march the military, who again retire when all is 

 quiet." Again a species larger than Termes heUicosus called 

 the Termes viamm, makes the same sort of hiss according 

 to Mr. Smeathraau. He describes having heard a loud 

 hiss 1 ike that of serpents, but this statement appears to 

 me doubtful.* I would advise enquirers to get Kirby and 

 Spence's Entomology. In it they will find long and very 

 interesting accounts of the ways, habitations, food, &,c., 

 of insects. The book is an old one, but contains a vast 

 amount of information. — Imlian Agriculturist. 



Tomato Seeds. — These are furnished with an abundance 

 of a slimy mucilage, which many find it difficult to re- 

 move. If the seeds are dried as they are taken from the 

 fruit, they will adhere in a mass, and be difficult to separ- 

 ate. Eemove the masses of pulp which contain the seeds, 

 place them in a bowl and cover with water. Let them 

 remain where they can be examined daily; fermentation 

 will soon take place, and when the seeds are found to 

 be free from the mucilage, wash and dry them. This will 

 not injure the vitality of the seeds, if the fermentation is 

 stopped as soon as they are clean. — American Agriculturist. 



Lime applied to Soils, naturally destitute of it, sup- 

 plies an essential element of plant food. In most cases, 

 however, the good effects of this substance is due to the 

 chemical action which it exerts in the soil. It renders 

 available the plant food in the soil, without supplying it. 

 Liming is therefore a stimulating process,_ and can only 

 be practised with success upon soil that is already rich 

 in plant food. Freshly burned lime is the mcst effective, 

 as it quickly and thoroughly reduces organic matter to an 

 available form. Ground limestone, so highly recommended, 

 is of no special value, except on clay soils, or those desti- 

 tute of lime, where it acts as a direct fertilizer, and not 

 as a reducing agent. — American Agriculturist. 



OiNXHONA Bahk. — In some " Notes on the Pharmacy of 

 Cinchona," Mr. E. W. Giles called attention to the un- 

 satisfactory results that have followed the " fearful deteri- 

 oration of C'alisaya bark," both pharmacy and medical 

 practice having been prejudiced through the consequent 

 substitution of quinine for pharmaceutical preparations of 

 the bark. He recommends that all pharmacists should 

 keep in stock Indian or other non-official bark of sufficient 

 alkaloidal value, and that when opportunity offers they 

 should educate the medical profession to the use of it. 

 He considers that the standard adopted tor the cinchona 

 of pharmacy should be an alkaloidal and not a quinine 

 standard, tliat it should be a mean and not an extreme 

 one, and that it should admit barks from all sources. 

 Further, he described a process for the determination of 

 the alkaloidal value of cinchona bark which, he said, 

 though simple and easy of manipulation, gives results near 

 enough tor pharmaceutical purposes. He expressed a pre- 

 ference for a fluid extract as a ph.armaceutioal prepar- 

 ation, hut said that a fluid extract of cinchona worthy of 

 its name was still a desideratum. In the discussion of 

 this paper, Mr. Welcome recommended that the standard 

 of a pharmaceutical bark should be fixed at 2 per cent 

 of quinine with a proper proportion of the other cinchona 

 alkaloids. Mr. Southall spoke favourably of the decoction, 

 which he said was largely us™d in the Birmingham dis- 

 trict, and Dr. Symes said it was also a favourite prepar- 

 ation in Liverpool. On the other hand, Mr. Ekin reminded 

 the Conference that he had found the decoction to be the 

 preparation weakest in alkaloid. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 

 »The expl.anatin-1 may be found in the fact that snakes 

 often inhabit the galleries made by white auts.— Ed. 



Mangkoves.— Twenty-four young Mangrove trees (Rhi- 

 zophora .sp.l, of three different varieties, have recently 

 been brought home in good condition by Lieut.-Oolonel E. 

 S. Berkeley, and are now in the gardens of the Eoyal 

 Botanic Society of London, Eegeut's Park. The Mangrove 

 is found in abundance on the shores and creeks of trop- 

 ical islands, and at the mouth of large rivers in the East. 

 The tree is very valuable as fuel for river steamers, being 

 as a fuel next to coal in heat-gi%'ing properties ; the bark 

 is utilized for tanning leather, and is also said to furnish 

 a febrifuge, which, if true, is very curious, as a Mangrove 

 swamp is a fertile source of fever. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Report on the DIFFEBE^-cEs between the Essential 

 Oils of Cinnamon and Cassia, by Mr. A. H. Jackson. — 

 The reporter stated that, tested from a physical stand- 

 point, the oils possess distinctive and characteristic odours, 

 and that the cinnamon oil has a more fiery taste than 

 the cassia, but that neither the rehitive densities nor the 

 refractive energies are sufficient guides in distinguishing 

 mixtures of these oUs, though the density of the oil of 

 cassia was found to be somewhat greater than that of the 

 oil of cinnamon. The chemical examination seemed to 

 show that the constituent or constituents in which the 

 oils differ from each other are present only in extremely 

 small proportion. — Piiarnuiceutical Journal. 



Petroleum as an Insecticide. — I can fully indorse all 

 that Mr. Duffleld states (p. 303) as to the efficacy of petro- 

 leum as a remedy for many of the insect pests with 

 which gardeners are troubled ; and further, I would warn all 

 those who are not practically acquainted with it as an 

 insecticide to be extremely cautious how, when, and where 

 they use it before they are better informed respecting its 

 damaging properties, as the remedy may prove far worse 

 than the evil, as the following instances will show. My 

 own and first aquaintauce with this oil as ,an insect killer 

 dates back to some fifteen or sixteen years ago. Our plan 

 of using it is to put two wineglassfuls of oil with four 

 gallons of water, and mix it precisely in the same way 

 as that recommended by your correspondent at p. 363. For 

 green or black, or any kind of scale, I don't know of 

 anything cheaper or better. This much, however, I feel 

 compelled to say — viz., do not use it too often early in 

 the spring, when the foliage is young and tender, or the 

 consequences will be that the young leaves will fall off 

 before they are half grown, especially in the cases of 

 Peaches and Nectarines — in fact, I would not recommend 

 its being used on anything when the foliage is young and 

 tender, but when it is fully developed little or no injm'y 

 will result. — H. — Gardeners^ CJironicle. 



L.ATENT Vitality of Seeds. — Messrs. Ph. van Tieghem 

 and Gaston Bonnier have been making some preliminary 

 experiments to ascertain the effects of different conditions 

 on the latent vitality of seeds. On .January 9, I8S0, 

 several packets of seeds supplied by Vilmorin were divided 

 each into three equal parts. One portion was exjjosed to 

 the free air, but screened from dust ; another portion was 

 put into closed air, securely corked up in a tube ; whilst 

 the third was placed in pure carbonic acid. At the end 

 of two years the seeds were taken out and weighed, and 

 afterwards sown. With regard to weight all the seeds 

 exposed to free air increased in weight. Thus, for example, 

 fifty seeds of the common Pea were found to have in- 

 creased about i\.2 of their origin.al weight; and fifty seeds 

 of the French Bean about ^^ of their original weight. 

 The seeds confined in closed air increased in weight, but 

 infinitely less than those exposed to free air, and the 

 increase in some instances was so trifling as to be hardly 

 measurable. Thus fifty Peas increased about ^^^ of their 

 original weight; .and fifty Beans about (^^f, *^^ ^^i^'i' original 

 weight. As for seeds placed in pure carbonic acid, they 

 did not vary half a milligramme from their original weight. 

 The following are two examples of the comparative 

 germiu.ation of the seeds, the conditions being as near 

 as possible exactly the same : — 



Peas left in the free air, 90 per cent germinated. 



„ „ „ closed air, 45 per cent germinated. 



„ „ „ pure carbonic acid, per cent germinated. 

 Beans left in the free an-, 98 per cent germinated. 



„ „ „ closed air, 2 per cent germinated. 



„ „ „ carbonic acid, per cent germinated. 

 — Gardeners' (lironicle. 



