July i, 1884 ] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



even to Kinmond's. The ease with which even the largest 

 size move, and the perfection of the roll of each leaf, are 

 exce lent, and testify alike to the finish and stability of 

 Messrs. Marshall's workmanship as well as the ingenuity 

 of tiie inventor. Notwithstanding the warmth, it was not 

 particularly good withering weather, and the leaf took a 

 considerable time before it had attained that indescribable 

 silky softness which proclaims it ready to roll. The spa- 

 cious upper story of the factory was not nearly of suffi- 

 cient size to wither off all the daily leaf, particularly in 

 bad weather, so a large withering house had to be erected 

 near the store for this purpose, and was crammed with 

 leaf. I was amused at the ingeniousness of a little wooden 

 tramway on which a large box travelled up and down 

 between the trays of withering leaf in the floor above the 

 fact .try. Into this box the leaf when withered was placed and 

 run up to the end of the store to a hole above the hopper 

 of the large roller, into which its contents were emptied. 

 Si) complete was this piece of work that in order to allow 

 of the box travelling down the other row of trays a miniature 

 turn-table had been fixed at each corner of the room. 

 Ramaswamy must rather like the work in a tea factory. 

 He is not obliged to be out in the cold and rain, and 

 seldom gets half-named. The work is not heavy, and 

 when once he has mastered the intricacies of the work he 

 has to (perform, it is amere rule of thumb. The happy and 

 contented look of the coolies squatted across a double 

 reaper, sifting tea by hand, is not to be matched anywhere 

 that I have seen, and even those working the Siroccos 

 which must be the most unpleasant of all work in the 

 f -tory, seemed rather to enjoy the fearful heat than not, 

 though the perspiration was rolling off them in the most 

 alarming manner. The simplicity of these Siroccos, com- 

 p i.red to the old charcoal fires, is really most marked, and 

 t ie difficulty and danger of burning and over-firing is 

 I'duced to a minimum. One of the most nauseating duties 

 of a tea planter must be tasting his different makes, and 

 comparing them to those of other estates, who exchange 

 with, one another with this view. This business must be 

 bad enough for one who performs his work in London or 

 elsewhere, but, for a man boxed up in the hot and close at- 

 mosphere of a factory, with the smell and fumes of tea 

 constantly about him, it must be far from agreeable to 

 wash one's palate out with rasping liquor, which nearly 

 sets your teeth on edge even though one can gloat over the 

 ' fine price likely to be realized hereafter in Loudon. We 

 tasted, amongst others, some Indian tea, and it was curious 

 to note how much poorer in liquor it was to any of the 

 numerous samples of Ceylon infused, whilst it also lacked, 

 to some extent, the fine malty, and sugary bouquet which 

 so distinguishes our teas. 



HOT WATER FOR DESTROYING INSECTS. 



BY EBN'EST WALKER. 



Hot water at a temperature of about 120° I find the 

 most effective remedy I have ever tried for destroying 

 insects on plants in the greenhouse. The plants may be 

 either immersed in it, or the hot water may be applied 

 with a plant-syringe, which is the more convenieut of the 

 two modes of applying it. If applied with a plant-syringe 

 the water may be a few, say 10° hotter. While death 

 to insects the hot water seems not to injure the plants 

 i.i tin* least. I find one drenching of hot water with a 

 plant-syringe has been sufficient to rid plants of red spider, 

 where time after time cold water drenchings had been in 

 vain. 



At the last meeting of the Indiana Horticultural Society, 

 in December, an extensive amateur fruit grower of this 

 vicinity spoke of having used hot water — pouring a quart 

 about the root of each tree — for the borer, which of course 

 was done in early spring while the trees were yet dormant. 

 In this manner he went over his young peach orchard of 

 Several thousand trees; and while the trees had previously 

 Buffered badly from the border, he never saw signs of them 

 afterward. — Gardeners* Monthly, 



WHAT IS A GUM. 



I n connection with the oft-repeated stateme r 1 1 in 1 1 1 ■ ■ 

 newspapers, that s \-.-ral of the important gums produced 

 in Arabia and the Soudan, notahlv the gum-arabic ere 



greatly enhanced in price by the occurrence of the war, 

 the interesting question arises, What is a gum? But little 

 has been known regarding the formation of the remark- 

 able exudations from certain trees called " gums." Quite 

 recently it has been found, that by making an incision in 

 the limb of a peach, apricot, plum, cherry, or other trees 

 bearing stone fruits, and inserting a bit of the gum un- 

 der the edge of the wound, an immediate formation of 

 gum in copious quantity took place. These and other ex- 

 periments lead to the belief that gums result from diseased 

 action in trees, and that the disease can be set up by 

 inoculation, just as small-pox is started in the human 

 organization by similar means. Different diseases in dif- 

 ferent trees gives us dissimilar gums, as arabic, tragacanth 

 and probably many resins and gum-resins. A flesh-wound 

 on any part of the body forms an inlet for atmospheric 

 bacteria, which produce intlammation, suppuration, and 

 the outflow of pus : wounds on the trees allow of the 

 ingress of peculiar bacteria, which produce tree-fever and 

 the exudation of morbid matter called "gum." How 

 strikingly alike are vegetable and animal growths ! — 

 Popular Science News. 



INDIAN PHARMACOGNOSY. 



At a time when utilitarian ideas exercise so dominating 

 an influence as they do in the present day it may savour 

 somewhat of the Quixotic to appear to advocate the ex- 

 tension of technical studies to antiquarian researches re- 

 specting drugs, since these do not, superficially at least, 

 suggest yielding much of a quid pro quo in pocket or reput- 

 ation. Many pharmacists are already disposed — and with 

 good reason — to complain of the little value set by the 

 public on qualifications obtained at the cost of hard labour 

 and hard cash iu order to enable them to serve it more 

 efficiently. Certainly there is little in this direction to 

 encourage the pharmaceutical student to stray beyond those 

 bounds in the science of materia medica which enclose 

 what is absolutely requisite in order that he may be able 

 to pass his examinations and carry on his calliug credit- 

 ably. Yet there have always been a few- who have inter- 

 ested themselves in points turning upon the history as well 

 as the sources of drugs, and have been able to appreciate 

 a work like ' Pharmacographia,' or a series of articles like 

 the "Notes on Indian Drugs," from the pen of Dr. Dy- 

 mock, which were published in this Journal a year or two 

 since and were highly prized in many quarters, though 

 they did not escape a somewhat irrational protest at home. 

 It may interest some, therefore, to learn that the repub- 

 lication of the " Notes " by Dr. Dymock, systematically 

 arranged and in a collected form, has been the occasion 

 of the appearance of an appreciative article on Indian 

 Pharmacognosy in the Archiv der Pharmacia, in which 

 Professor Fluckiger, who has himself made such important 

 contributions to this class of literature, recalls some inter- 

 esting facts in the antiquities of Indian drugs. 



As late as the commencement of the sixteenth century 

 very little comparatively was known in Europe respecting 

 India. Although the importation of its products in the 

 middle ages depended mainly upon the enterprise of the 

 great commercial republics of Italy, even the most power- 

 ful of them had no direct and regular intercourse with 

 India, and only occasional travellers from one or another 

 of them reached the famous land. The notices of its drugs 

 in those times were therefore few and widely separated. 

 In the sixth century, Kormas, a Greek merchant and trav- 

 eller, saw the pepper plant growing in its South Indian 

 home and met there also sandalwood and cloves brought 

 from the more remote east. In the ninth century, Kur- 

 dadbah, postmaster and minister of police to the caliphs 

 of Mesopotamia, obtained certain information respecting 

 camphor, cubebs, galanga, and pepper. A century later 

 mention was again made of pepper by the Persian geo- 

 grapher Istachri, and in the twelfth century the first men- 

 tion was made of cardamoms as an Indian drug by Idbisi, 

 the Arabian geographer at the court of the Norman King 

 Roger, at Palermo. The earliest information respecting 

 Ceylon cinnamon dates from the thirteenth century. The 

 fourteenth century saw members of different relig ous 

 inters making their way into the peninsula, and from them 

 came notices of cinger, and more information upon cin- 

 nain >n and the important subject of pepper But in the 



