468 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1882. 



admit their view of the question. As far as the coffee 

 tree is concemeJ, its life appeal's to me to be divided 

 annually into two parts : — 1st, that of growth which 

 commences with the first monsoon rains and ends 

 when the season for blossoming begins, during the 

 8 or 9 months of which the plant is gathering and 

 storing material for the second period : that of blossom- 

 ing. On the Uva side of the coxmtry, the same hold- 

 ing good to a nijdilied extent. Now, as " W. " says, 

 the etfeet of the dry weather usually experienced at 

 this second period is to cause a check, which check, 

 I contend, is necessary, not in order to produce 

 aborted leaves in which light the blossom is Ijy some 

 regarded, but that by causing greater local concentra- 

 tion, the tree may be enabled to put forth its highest 

 powers towards reproduction. The process being similar 

 to that of the concentration of salts in solution by 

 evaporation. This theory appears to me easy of com- 

 prehension and a reasonable explanation of the eft'ects 

 of a normal season and artificial checking, which, 

 bearrug out the system I uphold of early pruning and 

 manuring with a view to giving the tree as much 

 time as possible for storage of food ; by late manuring 

 or oversupijly of nitrogen, the season of growth being 

 artificially prolonged. So much for the argument as 

 regards the influence of season. 



With respect to the " fatal fungus," the effect it 

 has as compared with "wind "in causing loss of leaf, 

 is different as regards the resulting crop, and the 

 explanation may lie in the following suggestion, viz., 

 that the disease feeds on the food contents of the 

 leaf, to supply which exhaustion the leaf draws upon 

 the branch, and, thereafter, falling-olf, leaves the branch 

 destitute of sufficient material for the formation of 

 crop, while the wind has rather the effect of driving 

 back the sap mto the branch and causing the desU'ed 

 local concentration, so that the green part of the 

 branch is still capable of performing the function of 

 the leaf after the latter has been lost, as far as the 

 requirements of the blossom are concerned. 



However far ■ W." is correct in saying that the fall- 

 ing-off of crops in the last decade is not commensurate 

 with the attacks of leaf-disease, it is e\ ident to most 

 planters that, the time of an attack is of most ma- 

 terial importance, and, if, as was the case this year 

 in Matale and other districts, an unusually severe 

 burst of leaf-disease lays the trees bare in January, 

 the result m short crop is inevitable, unless the fine 

 season is sufficiently prolonged to enable the trees 

 once more to clothe themselves with mature foliage. 



Given but a mild attack of leaf-disease and a dry 

 blossoming season in the early months of the coming 

 year, it needs but little of the gifts of prophecy 

 to predict a good crop for 1883-84 on the estates 

 which "W. " says are now looking so luxuriantly 

 healthy.— Yours faithfully, W. D. B. 



LANTANA PLANT. 



Dear Sir, — I have heard of another name (not a 

 lady's) connected with the historj' of this jilant in 

 Ceylon. Originally a native of Brazil, it is said to 

 have been brought here some forty* y^ars s go from 

 Mauritius by Sir Hudson Lowe, then commanding 

 the forces in Ceylon. We are inclin'^d to believe, 

 too that, in tbe case ol' this plant, the evil it occa- 

 sions is not wholly unmixed with a p'vire of good 

 effect. It IS believed by some capable of forming a 

 competent judt^ment that, by choking down all other 

 growths, by forming an impervious co. iring to the 

 soil, and by appropriating ami bringing up to the 

 surface deep-lymg mineral elements, which, on cutting 

 down and burning the plant, are restori I to the soil 



* ilore than i'llty. We have hoii'd the in(ro(iuctionof the 

 plaut attributed to Lady Browurigg who left CeyloQ &gme 

 sixtj >eai's a^jo at least. — Ed. 



as ashes, the lantana is calculated to improve the 

 fertilily of the soil and to restore it where ex- 

 hausted. 



In its native country, as also in Mauritius, and 

 where it has been grown in India as a garden ]>lant, 

 it has not shown any special tendency to spread, but 

 in Ceylon its career has been altogether different. 

 Brought here as an interesting .shrub forty [sixty] 

 year.-^ ago, planted as a garden flower tliirty years 

 ago,* it has since that time spread as an uncou- 

 troll.ible weed through a great part of the length 

 and bi-eadtlr of tiie island. Everywhere are to be 

 seen its thicli half-bushy, half-climbing growth, its 

 puugently ."mellin^ foliage, its bnght orange-red 

 flower. It lines the sides of roads, spreads over pat- 

 tana and chena around, rapidly covers aliaudoned 

 coffee ground where the altitude it not too great, 

 grows along ihe banks of paddyfields where its seeds 

 have been drifted by streams or couveyed by birds, 

 and is .al^o seen making successful war- with the 

 natural junsle, chokim; down the creepers and smaller 

 buslies, and even over-growiug and smothering the 

 jounj; forest trees, thus tending to effect a change in 

 the character of large tracts of vegetation, a change 

 of which it is scarcely possible at pr. sent to estim- 

 ate the ultimate result. A recent writer says : — 

 " Similar instances of the rapid spread, on beinj! 

 taken to a conuenial soil and climate, of plants which 

 iu their native homes are of an uuassumin;;, unaggressive 

 cliaraoter are not wanting. The degree to which English 

 livers have been choked up by the grovUli of an 

 American waterweed, the Anacharis alst naslrmn, 

 and Austrabiiu rivers by the familiar English water- 

 cress, is nn example in kind, while a more extensive 

 one 18 jifforded by the immense spread of th.' Scotch 

 thistle o" the plains of Australia and the Pampas of 

 South Ameiiea. Readers of Sir Francis Head will 

 not forget th» gigantic thistles through whicli he 

 passed in his memorable 'gallops across the Pampas, 

 and in Austiiilia, where the tiiistle wa* introduced a 

 few ya'-s ago by an over-pitriotic Scotehmnn, v.ho 

 loved tbe emblem of his country, not wir'ely but a 

 great deal too well, the thistle ha* takeu possession 

 of eiioiinous tracks of pastonil lands, and costs the 

 colonies many thousands of pounds annually to keep 

 it from covering the greater part of the country." 



TRAVELLER. 



SiTOAR IN Queensland. — Very bad news reaches us 

 from the I'hireiice River, where the frost has been 

 very destructive among the cane fielda. — Planter and 

 Farmer. 



Tea. — The latest reports from the agents of the 

 Calcutta Tea Syndicate in Australia and America give 

 a very favourable account of ibc prospects of the 

 Indian trade. A great demand has latterly sprung 

 up in New York for the finer tea'^, as well as for 

 the e immoner black kinds that have been chiefly 

 sold hitherto. In Melbourne the cry is for smaller 

 chests to suit the requirements of the store-keepers. 

 It is important that this should be appreciated by 

 the planters, and Oie tea made up iu smaller pack- 

 ages at the gardens, repacking at Calcutta injures 

 the quality, and the Australians themselves enter- 

 tain a pr-judice, no doubt well founded, against tea 

 that has been meddled with in the colonies. It ap- 

 pears that the demand at Melbourne last August ac- 

 tually outran the supply, and for some time there 

 was no Indian tea to be had at all, in consequence 

 of which several trader.^ gave up the Indian busi- 

 ness altogether. The fact only shows how much care 

 is required iu the management of a new market. — 

 Pionp_tii'. 



* For more than thirty years it has been a common 

 jungle plant. — Ed, 



