November i, i88i.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



451 



I 



A Peehensile Tree. — Darwin tells of flowers which seize 

 upon flies and small pieces of raw meat-which having secured 

 with a gauze-like net-work they proceed to eat. Lieutenant 

 Houghton, who recently visited New Guinea and the islands 

 in the Pacific, tells of a tree which has the power of picking 

 up articles from the ground. It is a species of Ficus,- 

 cIosL'ly allied tothe banyan; and, like jt, throws out from 

 its branches long flexible tendrils, which twine themselves 

 round any article within their reach. By-and-by the branches 

 conract, but still firmly grip the object round which they 

 have twined themselves, and suspend them in mid are. — 

 A. B. in Land and Water. 



On a Character of the Sweet Potato. — In the Archives 

 des Sciences fhi/siques et Natitrelles M. Alpb. de OandoUe 

 calls attention 'to the nature of the roots of the Sweet 

 Potato, Batatas edulis. He says, what has not been suffici- 

 ently noticed is that root-tubercles are exceptional in 

 the Convolvulace^, and that the Sweet Potato is perhaps 

 the only member of the family ha^dng them. Unlike the 

 enlarged underground part of the Potato or of the Jerusalem 

 Artichoke, the enlarged part of the Sweet Potato is strictly 

 a root formation, that is, it has no buds or eyes. Potato 

 tubers are underground resting-stems or branches, which 

 in due .season produce aerial stems, roots, and tubers. 

 M. de OandoUe regards the stocks of Jalap, Scammony, 

 and other members of the Oonvolviilacese as stem-formations. 

 — Gardeners^ Chronicle. 



Coffee and Tea in Russia.— Jlost of your readers are 

 doubtless aware tliat the bulk of your Ceylon peaberry 

 exported from this country goes to Eussia, and tliat in 

 fact the Russians take very little Ceylon coffee besides, but 

 it may be news to some of them that this Ceylon peaberry 

 is invariably sold in Russia under the name of Mocha. An 

 old Ceylon resident was telling me yesterday that when re- 

 cently at JIoscow he pointed out in a warehouse there two 

 barrelsof pe.aberry with the mark of bis own firm's mill upon 

 them, but his cicerone, a Russian merchant, insisted never- 

 theless that it was Mocha coffee ! He had always sold it as 

 such and that was proof positive to him. It is, I suppose, 

 only the old idea, once prevalent here, cropping up iu an 

 out-of-the-way place, that all coffee must needs come from 

 the green hills of Yemen, because it is the Arabian variety, 

 for there is certainly no sort of resemblance in Oeylon 

 peaberry to the genuine Mocha. My informant was rather 

 surprised to find that coffee was so little drunk in Russia. 

 Tea is consumed everywhere and by all classes, but coffee 

 only in the large towns and not much there. — Cor. C. Times. 



T^ Fever Trbe. — The Eucalyptus globulus, which is 

 being introduced in California, has many qualities which 

 recommend it to Eastern sylviculturists. It comes originally 

 from Australia, where the tests of various soils and varying 

 seasons have amply demonstrated the good qualities of 

 the tree, and its rapid growth even under adverse surround- 

 ings. Trials of late years in Southern Europe have further 

 verified these claims, and there is no reason why the tree 

 will not flourish in every section of the United States. 

 It is hardier than the chesnut, and, like the latter, it 

 will grow in the rockiest soils. It is more independent 

 of rain food than any tree known in this country, wet 

 and dry seasons alike failing to affect its growth. Its 

 wood is hard, somewhat of the nature of yellow pine, but 

 firmer and stronger, and fit for use in ship timbers, while 

 in Australia cabinet-makers, wheelwrights, and carpenters 

 use it throughout their trades. The bark yields a febrifuge 

 second only in efficiency to quinine, but. superior in all 

 medical qualities to cinchona.* This quaUty alone must 

 make the tree invaluable, and its culture here, to an appreci- 

 able extent, would settle for ever the vexed question of 

 quinine dvities. The rapidity of its growth is its most 

 wonderful feature. It grows four times as fast as the 

 American pine, and for all ordinary purposes is fit to 

 cut in five or six years. For the Eastern and Middle 

 States, where the lack of forest protection is not in- 

 frequuently felt, no tree has been offered the culturist 

 that can present so many primary points of vantage as 

 the Australasian immigrant, and its general introduction 

 and culture should only be a matter of but little time. 

 It may be added, the tree yields fragrance, but produces 

 no fruit or nut. Its beauty of form and luxuriant ever- 

 green foliage are additional qualities that must recommend 

 it in country or city. — Frank Leslie^s Illustrated. 



* ? Oiuchuoidine, — Ed. 



Age of Trees. — A scientist interested in the study of 

 cosmography, says the North- If'estern Lumberman, adduces 

 the point that the great trees of CaUfomia, with from 

 1,350 to 2,550 annual rings of vegetable growth, reveal 

 the fact that these mouarchs of the vegetablfe world were 

 saplings when Nebuchadnezzar was born. Forests have 

 likewise been estimated to have been 4,000 years old, and 

 to have grown from seed propagated by older parent 

 trees, and these, iu turn, from grand-parents, whose crum- 

 bled dust forms a rich vegetable mould to nourish their' 

 younger progeny. How many such generations occurred 

 no one can telJ. — Journal of Forestry. 



Influence of Coal on Flowers. — A correspondent of 

 the lievue Jlorticole states that he bought a very fine 

 rosebush, full of buds, and, after anxiously awaiting 

 their maturing, was greatly disappointed to find the 

 flowers small, and of a dull, faded color. At the sug- 

 gestion of a friend he then tried the experiment of 

 filling in the top of the pot, around the bush, to the 

 depth of half on inch, with finely pulverised hard coal. 

 In a few days he was astonished at seeing the roses 

 assume a hue as brillant and lively as he could desire. 

 He tried the samo experiment upon a pot of petunias 

 and soon all the pale-colored ones became of a bright red 

 or lilac, and the white ones were variegated with beautiful 

 red stripes. Some of the lilac petunias became a fine dark 

 blue. Other flowers experienced similar alterations ; those 

 of a yellow color alone remained insensible to the influence 

 of the coal. — Queenslander. 



How Plants Feed. — It is now recognised that a plant 

 does not draw its food from a nutritive solution fully 

 prepared, but prepares it itself by direct and intimate 

 contact of its cells (which have always a slightly acid 

 reaction) with the earth particles, in which nutritive ele- 

 ments have been fixed by way of physical absorption or 

 chemical precipitation. The analytical chemist has to use 

 strong mineral acids to redissolve these fixed matters, and 

 there is the inconvenience that the acids also dissolve 

 elements in combination by which a plant could not > 

 directly benefit. Hence imperfect imformation as to the 

 degree of fertility of soils. M. Petermann is now seek- 

 ing to develop a new method of analysis — viz. by dialysis 

 of arable soil. In a preliminary paper to the Belgian 

 Academy he finds that (Ij arable soil yields to distilled 

 water, from which it is separated by a vegetal membrane, 

 the following nutritive substances ; lime, magnesia, oxide 

 of iron, potash, soda, chlorine, sulphuric acid, silicic acid, ' 

 phosphoric acid, and nitric acid. (2) Arable soil contains 

 organic matters which pass easily by diffusion through a 

 vegetal membrane. — Public Opinion. 



A NOVEL and interesting experiment for felling trees by 

 electricity instead of with the axe, was recently attempted 

 in the compound of the Strangers' Home, Bombay. The 

 patentees of the process are Mr. H. S. Parkinson and 

 Mr. "W. H. Mar-tin, both of Bombay, and the experiment 

 was superintended by Dr. Lyons. The plain is simple. 

 The two ends of the copper wires of a galvanic battery 

 are connected vi\t\\ platinum, wire, which, of course, instantly 

 becomes red hot, and while in that state, it is gently 

 see-sawed across the trunk of the tree to he felled. 

 When arrangements were made for the experiment, it was 

 never for a moment doubted that the enterprising merchants 

 of Bombay were possessed of all the made thicknesses 

 of 2)latinu)ii wire, but it turned out that the thickness 

 of the thickest that could be got, was only that of crochet 

 cotton. It was at once seen that a wire of such thickness 

 would be consumed before the tree was half severed from 

 its trunk. However, the attempt was made. The burning 

 wire performed its task very well so long as it lasted, 

 but as anticipated, the wire continually broke, and at length 

 there was no wire left. There can be little doubt that 

 with a stronger battery — the one used was only a twelve- 

 chambered one — and a thicker wii-e, the experiment would 

 have been entirely successful. As it was, the tree was 

 sawn one-fifth through. It i.s calculated that under proper 

 conditions, a tree, which at present takes two hours to 

 fell, will come to the ground by this process, in fifteen 

 minutes. It is almost needless to add that there is no 

 waste of wood, no sawdust. The process is one worth the 

 attention of all Governments engaged in forests clearing; 

 and we hope to hear of its being tried on a large scale, 

 — Indian Ayriculturist. 



