994 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JUHB I, 1883. 



a o-ood year Plums, Peaches, aucl Cherries are sold in 

 Naples at id. tu Urf. per kilogramme. Quantity prevails 

 over quality, as the natives prefer to eat four Imd Peaches 

 rather thau one good one at the same price. The fertihty 

 of the soil causes a copious production in spite of the bad 

 system of cultivation, in which the training and trimming 

 of the trees is almost entirely ignored. The exportation 

 of Ijoth fresh and tinned fruit and vegetables is daily 

 increasing. New and even superior varieties of fruit obtain 

 no sale in the local markets, the populace refusing to 

 buy any but the kinds known to them. There is a large 

 export trade in Wahuits, especially from Sorrento, but it 

 has somewhat languished of late in consequence of the 

 exporters haAnng filled up their boxes with inferior sorts 

 so as to satisfy the great demand and obtain a larger 

 profit. Oranges and Lemons are much grown for exjMrt. 

 Fifs, especially in their fresh state, are enormously con- 

 sumed in Naples. There are twenty-three varieties known, 

 and no disease has hitherto attacked the Fig. The various 

 modes of its cultivation are very interesting, and the same 

 may be said with regard to the Orange and Lemon, so 

 extensively cultivated at Sorrento. These trees are subject 

 to no serious disease, and fear only the cold, against which, 

 however, no precautious are taken in this part of Italy. 

 Land on which Oranges grow lets at £27 per acre, and 

 sells at an even higher comparative rate since it is small 

 in extent and there are very many would-be purchasers. 

 All the Oiauges exported are measured by being passed 

 through through a ring, and only those are packed which 

 are of an uniform size. Increased facihties of railway 

 transport have reduced the retail price of the fruit in 

 distant northern countries from 1 franc to less than 20 

 centimes. Oitric acid has, hitherto, not been manufactured 

 in Italy, the Lemon juice being sent in casks to England, 

 but it is intended to start this industry at Ischia. Ohves 

 are extensively cultivated in the districts of Sorrento and 

 Oastellamare, and the oil produced is of excellent quality. 

 Want of skill and attention is again manifest in this branch 

 of agriculture. The cultivation is likely to remain stationary 

 on acco\mt of the lack of new ground availalile for the 

 piu-pose. Grapes are grown in all parts of the provinces 

 both for wine making and for the table. Thirty or forty 

 varieties of Vine are grown promiscuously, whereas a few 

 choice kinds would produce better results. No real improve- 

 ment can be exi^ected until selection becomes general and 

 the cultivation of inferior Vines is abandoned. The system 

 of training Vines in festoons from high poles or trees, 

 which prevails m the South of Italy, is an irrational one; 

 the Grapes ripen badly and make inferior wines, but on 

 the other hand room is left on the ground for growing 

 vegetable produce, and the Poplars which are so much 

 used for supportuig the Vines furnish valuable fuel m 

 considerable quantity. Foiu- Vines are attached to each 

 tree to a height of 4 metres. No rearing-houses for Vmes 

 have yet been built, and the want of them is much felt. 

 The Vine diseases most prevalent are the oidium, an- 

 thracnosis, and torula. Vine leaves are much u.sed as food 

 for cattle. Not less than 141 varieties of Grapes grow 

 in the provmce of Naples alone. Tomatos are grown and 

 consumed to a prodigious amount, both fresh and as sauce 

 for maccaroni. They are a favourite food with all classes. 

 This cultivation is constantly assuming larger proportions 

 on account of the extensive exportation of the fruits. 

 Amongst other produce, of which the cultivation is im- 

 portant, may be mentioned AVater Melons, Ai'tichokes, Peas, 

 ( lauliHowers of huge size, Strawberries, and all kinds of 

 earlv fruit and vegetables for export. There is plenty of 

 room for improvement in the tillage of gardens and kitchen 

 gardens. No schools of botany exist, and ignorance holds 

 undisputed sway. Hemp is better understood, and yields 

 remgnerative crops. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



THE BITTEPv PPaNCIPLE OF HYMENODICTYON 

 EXCELSUM. 



BY W. A. N. NAYLOR. 



The paper is printed on p. 961, and gave rise to the 

 following di.scussion :— . 



The Peesident said he was sm'e it would be the ilesire 

 of the meeting that Mr. Naylor might shortly find an 

 opportunity of completing his investigations on this subject. 



Professor Bentley said that this question was invested 



with interest now in consequence of the " cuprea " barks 

 and other barks obtained from alUed plants, which were 

 formerly placed among the cinchonas, having yielded a 

 certain amount of cinchona alkaloids. At the first blush 

 a botanist would naturally expect that Hymenodictyon ex- 

 ceUum would have yielded some of the alkaloids of cin- 

 chona, .since the genus Hymatodicii/un was formerly included 

 in the genus Cinchona, and this plant was the Cinchona 

 ex-celsa of Iloxbm'gh. One would natiu'ally e.xpect to find 

 paricme or some aUied alkaloid. The first plant in which 

 paricine.was discovered, as far back as 1845, was a rubi- 

 aceous plant, namely the Buena hexandra. The interest 

 of paricine being found in Hymenodictyon cxcehum was 

 still further brought out by the fact that it had been found 

 in red bark together with quinamine. Therefore the in- 

 vestigation of substances derived from plants which had 

 been within a comparatively few years disassociated from 

 the cinchonas became a matter of great interest, and he 

 looked forward with interest to the confti-mation or other- 

 wise of Mr. Naylor's present results by his further in- 

 vestigations. 



Mr. Holmes said that his name had been mentioned by 

 the author in connection with this bark, but he should 

 like to disclaim any thanks with regard to the matter. 

 The bark had been sent to liira by Dr. Dyraock, of 

 Bombay, a gentleman who had in a most disinterested 

 manner contributed very largely to the museum on various 

 oocasions. Dr. Dymock had kindly promised to complete 

 the collection of Indian drugs for the museum. 



Dr. Ond.aatje, referring to the virtues of Hymenodictyon 

 excelsum as a febrifuge, said that he was in India many 

 years back, when Sir William O'Shaughnessy was com- 

 piling his first book on Indian drugs, the ' Bengal Dis- 

 pensatory,' and this drug was then tried in the hospitals 

 of the Medical College and found to be most valuable. In 

 mild cases of fever it was almost equal to the cinchona 

 bark. There was another species almost as efficacious as 

 the Hymenodictyon excelsum. He beUeved that it was 

 the //. laxiforum. 



Mr. Luff wished to ask Mr. Naylor whether heat was 

 employed in drying the pasty mixture of the powdered 

 bark. He woidd suggest that Mr. Naylor, on resuming 

 his investigations, should e.xtract the alkaloid under some- 

 what different conditions. According to his (Mr. Luff's) 

 experience of alkaloid work, Jlr. Naylor had employed 

 almost the very conditions which were most likely to 

 bring about a decomposition of the alkaloid, namely, in 

 the first place, contact mth a fixed alkali, lime ; in the 

 second place, percolation with boiling or hot alcohol ; in 

 the third place, contact with a strong inorganic acid — 

 sulphuric acid — during the distillation ; and in the next 

 place precipitation with a fixed alkali, caustic soda. In 

 his experience those conditions were likely to produce that 

 destruction of the alkaloid which was generally spoken of 

 in chemical phraseology as saponification. This change con- 

 sisted of a decomposition of the alkaloid into another 

 alkaloid of a lower molecular weight and an acid. Prob- 

 ably the reason why Mr. Naylor obtained a resinous 

 mass, and failed to get a crystaUizable alkaloid or crys- 

 taUizable salts, was that he hail brought about this 

 kind of decomposition. All the different kinds of .alkal- 

 oids which Dr. Wright and he had worked upon were 

 decomposed by contact \vith even warm alcohol, by contact 

 with any of the alkalies, and by contact with any of the 

 mineral acids. He would .suggest that Mr. Naylor should 

 percolate the bark with alcohol acidified with tartaric acid, 

 for an organic acid produced scarcely any saponification, 

 and avoid precipitation with a strong alkaU such as caustic 

 soda or potash. Assuming that the alkaloid present with 

 the bark was paricine, which seemed probalile, Mr. Naylor's 

 experiments would point to an actual decomposition or 

 saponification of the alkaloid, for the general result of sa- 

 ponification was that, whilst the carbon perceatage of the 

 alkaloid remained the same, the hydrogen percentage was 

 increased; and this Mr. Naylor's figures showed. 



Mr. Grrhaed differed somewhat from the statement 

 which had just been made by Mr. Luff, especially mth 

 regard to the use of lime as the means of liberating 

 alkaloids under certain i-onditions. He thought that the pro- 

 cess employed by Mr. Naylor was admirably suited for the 

 purpose where an alkaloidal body was in combination with 

 an acid of the tannic acid series. Lime lent itself most 



