552 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1883. 



and the Straits Pines enjoy the reputation of being so 

 wholesome that they may be eaten to almost any extent 

 with impunity. 



There is a remarkable absence of fruits corresponding 

 to our Gooseberries, Currants, Strawberries, &c., in India. 

 There are wild Strawberries and Kaspberries indeed on 

 the hills, but nothing resembling them on the plains. 

 The fruits of India, like the flowers, seem to grow on 

 large trees, and many of the commoner kinds although 

 eaten by the natives are positively nauseous. In the jun- 

 gles one sometimes comes upon trees loaded with fruit 

 which looks good to eat, but which it is prudent to avoid. 

 There is the Jaml)ulam with its Damson-like but dis- 

 agreeable fruit ; the Nux vomica, which seems to bear 

 Oranges; the Blowa, and many others. In the Malayan 

 forests, however, Maugosteeu trees are very abundant, and 

 it is a common thing to see the wild monkeys throwing 

 this exquisiue fruit down from the tree tops just like so 

 many schoolboys up an apple tree. Once, when shooting 

 on the Mvlayan Teninsula, my Malay '* shikaree" gave 

 me a peculiar and delicious fruit of which I do not know 

 the botanical uanii', and which I have never seen at any 

 other time. It resembled a piece of honeycomb, but the 

 cells were much larger. Each cell contained a sub-acid 

 globe of a flavour resembling the Grape. Talking of Grapes, 

 the vines and the wines of Hindostan were once famous. 

 Tavernier, Hamilton, and other travellers of ancient times 

 speak of the red Indian wine on which the Emperor 

 Akbar used to get royally drunk. But wine is never seen 

 now, at If; st wine of local manufacture. The Indian wine 

 seems to liave shared the fate of the Persian wine of 

 Shiraz, which in the early days of our occupation of India 

 was thought so good that it was drunk at the tables of 

 the English merchants at Calcutta, though wine is still 

 made in Afghanistan, and the Emperor B.aber thought 

 there was no better. His memoirs contain many inter- 

 esting allusions to it. But thero is a prospect of India 

 producing wine before long. The Maharajah of Cashmere 

 has imported champagne and Burgundy Vines, as also 

 French Vine dressers, and his experiment is said to give 

 promise uf success. Eemembering the ravages made by 

 the Phylloxera in the vineyards of France, the Jl.-iharajah 

 ought to realise immense profits should his champagne 

 equal that of Epernay. Grapes will grow well in many 

 parts of India, even in the hottest places, but they are 

 mostly white — of the Sweetw.ater kind. Purple Grapes, 

 dwarfed in the Japanese fashion and grown in pots are 

 to be seen in some places, and are exceedingly quaint 

 and pretty, the huge bunches of purple fruit appearing 

 so very much out of proportion with the stunted Vine 

 that bears them. 



Something may be said here of Indian gardeners or 

 " mallees " as they are called. Their cheapness is perhaps 

 their greatest recommendation. Eemembering that an or- 

 dinary gardener's wage in England is something like .£1 

 a week, it is refreshing at first to have to pay a " mallee " 

 only 10s. a month, but then the difl'crencc ! The latter 

 is a most unteachable person, and he is full of crotchets 

 and crudities. Worse than all, be is as a rule a humbug 

 and a thief. If there is any choice fruit or vegetables 

 about he will sell it iu the bazar, and say the squirrels 

 or bandycoots ate it. One thing only he excels in, and 

 that is the making of bouquets. Natives generally have 

 a wonderful taste in arranging flowers — or shall I say, 

 colours? — and their bouquets are masterpieces of floral art. 

 Every native " mallee " has a gartleu within a gardeu — a 

 garden of his own. In this he cultivates at the least 

 possible trouble Chillies, Cucumbers, Vegetable IMarrow, 

 Egg-plant, and such-like curry stuff for himself and family. 

 His melancholy song or wail as he ch-aws the garden 

 water by buckets from the garden hoirrie or well is familiar 

 to all Anglo-Indians, and can be recalled, however far from 

 India they may be. by the slightest efltort of J the memory. 



But, gorgeous as arq the Indian flowers in their flaring 

 scarlet, crimson, and yellow colours, there are no flowers 

 in India after all to be compared for simple loveliness 

 with the wild flowers of the English spring. The pink 

 and white Hawthorn, the Violets and Daffodils of our 

 hedgerows, are worth them all put together when the 

 lark is singing in the sky, and Nature's beauties bring the 

 recollections of our happy childhood vividly before us. 

 Nor is there anything in India to surpass a Pear or a 



Cherry tree in full blossom. The " Gold Mohur " and the 

 Bougainvillea may be more dazzling, but they are certainly 

 not so lovely or so sweet. And let this fact act as con- 

 solation to those stay-at-home people who are discontented 

 with their own modest English gardens because they im- 

 agine tropical plants are so much finer than anything they 

 can grow there. It would be unfair indeed to say that 

 Indian gardens have not a beauty of their own, but it is 

 what the French call the lieaiite dit diah/e— gaudy, mere- 

 tricious, fantastic. One can love English flowers, however 

 humble they may be ; but admiration at the best is all 

 one can give to an Indian garden.— F. E. ^V .—Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



GOVEENMENT CINCHONA PLANTATIONS IN INDIA. 



Twentieth Annual Report of the Goivrnment Cinchona 

 Plantation in British Sikkim. By Surgeon-Major George 

 King, M.B., F.L.S., Superintendent of the Rot/al Botanic Garden, 

 Calcutta, and of Cinchona Cultivation in bengal. 



As regards the Cinchona plantation, the year 1881-82 

 is chiefly remarkable for the progress which has been 

 made during its course in the propagation and planting 

 out of the Cinchona barks, which .are known as par e.vcellence 

 quinine yielders. The chief of these, named in honour of 

 the unfortunate collector who first introduced it to cultiv- 

 ation in Asia, is Cinchona Ledyeriana. This variety has 

 until lately been included in the melange of forms to which 

 the specific name Calisai/a has been given. Mr. Moens, the 

 distinguished Director of Cinchona Cultivation to the Dutch 

 Government, has, however, recently made out what appears 

 to be a very good claim for Ledgeriuna to rank as a distinct 

 species. It is, however, more convenient to continue for 

 the present to enter iu the returns appended to this report 

 Ledgeriana as a variety of Calisaya, and this has accord- 

 ingly been done. O! Cinchona Zedquiana there have been 

 planted out during the year 154,000 plants. These are 

 now all strong and healthy, and if they continue to grow 

 as they at present promise to do, a crop of quinine bark 

 of very high quality should be yielded in a few years. 

 Next in importance to Ledgeriana as a yielder of quinine, 

 and of a robuster constitution, is the Cinchona rfhich has 

 hitherto been referred to in my annual reports as our 

 I' hybrid." A few plants of this appeared spontaneously 

 in the old plantation at Rungbee many years ago among 

 some seedlings raised from seed received from Dr. Thwaites, 

 of the Ceylon Botanical Garden. They were soon recognised 

 by the late Dr. Anderson, Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Gammie 

 as different from the ojpcinalis and strccirulira trees by which 

 they were surroundecT They also differ a good deal from 

 each other, but as they all partake to some extent of the 

 characters of both red and crown barks, they were put 

 down as natural hybrids. Mr. "Wood made an analysis of 

 the barks of these in 1874, which showed them to be rich 

 in quinine. Their propagation was therefore at once 

 vigorously set about, and has been continued ever since. 

 It was found that these varieties do not come true to seed, 

 and this confirmed the opinion as to their hybrid origin. 

 Propagation by cuttings was therefore resorted to, and it 

 is by this means that the whole of the younger plants 

 now in the plantation have been obtained. Colonel Bed- 

 dome, Inspector-General of the Madras Forests, and ex 

 officio Superintendent of the Madras Government Cinchona 

 plantations on the Nilgiris, visited Sikkim during the year, 

 and he pronounced all our "hybrids" to belong to the 

 species which, according to Mr. Cross, is called Puta de 

 Gttlinazo by the bark-collectors of Ohimborazo. This opinion 

 is not adopted by the authorities at Kew, nor by Dr. 

 Trimen, Director of Cinchona Cultivation in Ceylon. Ob- 

 servation of the growing plants shows that there are six 

 distinct forms amongst these hybrids. .Samples of bark 

 of four of these forms have been analysed by Mr. AVood, 

 late Quinologist to the plantation, and the results show 

 that the ,four differ greatly (as will be seen from thefollow- 

 ing table) in the proportion of alkaloids which they yield : — 

 Analyses of four sanijiles of hybrid hark from Mungpoo. 



No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. 

 Crystallised sulphate of 



quinine 287 



„ „ of cinchonidine 2-94 



„ „ of quiuiiliue traces. 



Cinchonine (alkaloids) 0-72 



