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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884. 



purposes unless accompanied by specimens of leaves Jaud 

 fruit off the same tree. 



If it will be of any use to the members of the Planters' 

 Association I will send a quill of the typical forms of 

 the South American barks such as I have duplicates of. 

 You will then be able to see how far, as to bark, di- 

 vergence takes place from the type, and how far this is 

 beneficial or otherwise as affecting the yield of quinine. 



I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ledger at Mr. 

 Howard's house, and I especially enquired of him whether 

 the Ledger seeds were collected from one tree or more. 

 In reply he distinctly informed me that they were col- 

 lected from probably about 50 trees. It is obvious there- 

 fore that there cannot be only one form passing under 

 this name and either the plant incompletely described in 

 Mr. Howard's work must stand as C. calisaya variety 

 Ledgeriana [orj as Trimen more clearly defined, Cinchona 

 Ledgeriana. Of the latter specimens in fruit and bark off 

 the same tree would be very valuable for reference here. 



Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 

 17, Bloomsbury Square, W. 0. 



Museum Department.— Herbarium specimens received 

 from Ceylon : — 



Cinchona Ledgeriana. — St. Andrew's estate, T. N. 

 Christie, Esq. 



Cinchona officinalis. — Mayfield, Dimbula (leaves only). 

 Do Do Henfold, Dimbula, (leaves and fruit only). 



Cinchona succirubra A. and B. — Ormidale estate, J. G. 

 Mact'arlaue, Esq., (leaves and flowers only). 



Cinchona barks received from Ceylon. — Holbrook estate. 



C. succirubra 4,700 feet. — Original quill (5 years old). 

 Renewed quill (5 months). 



C. calisaya, 4,700 feet.— Original quill (7 years old), F. 

 Saunders, Esq. 



St. Andrew's estate. — C. officinalis quills (5 years old). 

 C. Ledgeriua 10'25 per cent sulphate of quinine quills 

 (t) years old tree). 



Ormidale estate. — C. succirubra (S years old) original 

 quill, C. J. Scott, Esq. 



Mayfield estate, 4,200 feet. — O. officinals (10 years old) 

 original. 



Henfold estate. — Original quills of O. officinalis. 



Wattegoda estate. — Hybrid cinchona, original quills, 

 renewed quills. 



Kotiyagala estate. — C. succirubra, original bark, shavings. 



NOTES ON THE AMSTERDAM EXHIBITION. 



I do not know who was the orignator of the idea of 

 exhibiting Indian tea at the International Exhibition, 

 held last year at Amsterdam, but the idea was a 

 happy one, and will lead to good results. These 

 may not be apparent at once, but will work up 

 gradually. Fur an exhibition of Indian tea on the 

 Continent, Amsterdam, the capital and commercial 

 centre of the greatest tea driukiug nation on the 

 Continent, was well chosen, and I am glad to say 

 our teas were well represented. 



On my second visit to Amsterdam, end of June, 

 1 found our tea-room well patronized every afternoon, 

 1 had takeu over with me several gentlemen inter- 

 ested in the article with the object of showing them 

 our tea. liy 4 o'clock every afternoon crowds of ladies 

 and gentlemen were generally waiting for the tea to 

 be handed round, and in and out they streamed for 

 an hour or an hour and-a-half. In mixing amongst 

 them and conversing with them, I found, however, 

 soon to my horror, that most people who came to drink 

 their cup of tea, had not the remotest idea what tea 

 they were drinking, the tea was pronounced good aud 

 was evidently liked, as very frequently a second 

 cup was asked for. A few knew also what they 

 were drinking, but the great majority were 

 und.r the impression that they were drinking 

 China tta ! Our acute neighbours, the Chinese, 

 had taken advantage of this and had put up 

 facing the entrance to the Indian Court, half-a- 

 d< zen attractive tea chests aud large black boards 

 announcing in gilt letters and pigeon English 



that first class "peoples tea," oongo, souchong and 

 pekoe, could be had " dirt cheap." And as the people 

 left our tea-room, I regret to say, many a pound of 

 China tea was purchased from our Chinese friends on 

 the strength and quality of our tea ! This could not 

 h« allowed to go on, and on my recommendation 

 effective measures were at once taken to impress upon 

 the frequenters of our afternoon tea, that they were 

 regaled with Indian — British India tea. Soon after 

 this the ofhee became constantly beleagured by intend- 

 ing purchasers ; permission was asked for aud arrange- 

 ments made to sell the stock, some 40 or 50 chests, 

 done up in attractive packets, at fl. 1-25 per pound. 

 Some months later I found a brisk trade established 

 at our oifices, and by the end of October every pound 

 was sold. The tea drinking went on in the meantime 

 most satisfactorily, and as soon as the hour struck, 

 tea was handed round by our two Madrassees. These 

 two men yvere by no means the least attraction, they 

 looked very grand, dressed up with big turbans, and 

 dark uniforms, edged with red and gold. It was 

 an imposing sight to see the grand eloquent style 

 in which they handed round tea. With the assist- 

 ants of the stalls (brjth male aud female) Tom 

 and John, were on the most friendly, not to 

 say affectionate terms, it was '■ dear Tom," and 

 " dear John," right and left, and many a cup 

 of tea was dispensed and indulged in after the Exhib- 

 ition had closed for the day. I imagine Tom and John 

 had rather a good time of it, though Tom complained 

 to me that the climate did not agree with him. 

 Perhaps it didn't, for Amsterdam, the Venice of the 

 North, is intersected by a system of canals which, very 

 much like Venice, at certain states of the tide, do not 

 exactly smell like, — well say Eau-de-Cologne. The last 

 I saw of gorgeous Tom was in November when he was 

 preparing to return into compaiative obscurity at 

 Madras, a prospect he did not look quite joyfully 

 forward to. He was distributing to his "friends" 

 imposing looking cabinet-size photographs of himself as 

 souvenirs, "cost nothing, sir," he said, "picture man 

 sell me as Eastern prince." 



Our exhibition of Tea samplei, nearly all in large 

 white glass bottles, was a very attractive one, well set 

 up, and drew a great deal of attention aud admiration, 

 not only from the general public, but what is more to 

 the purpose, from importers, dealers, brokers and 

 retailers. The splendid samples of Flowery Pekoe were 

 especially much admired, aud I have been over and 

 over again asked if we had none of that kind for sale. 

 Had there been any available I could have got as much 

 as 4 to 5 florins, the half kilo for small quantities, but 

 of course there was not only nothing of that kind of tea 

 available, but I had to explain that such tea was never 

 made for sale, and that our saleable teas consisted of 

 Oiange Pekoes, Pekoes, Pekoe Souchongs and Broken 

 Teas. Orange Pekoes are not much approved of, the 

 general opinion is that they are too pronounced in flavor 

 (medicinal they called it) and not soft enough. I 

 am not aware whether it would be' possible in ma- 

 nufacturing tea to substitute white tips for orange 

 tips without any extra cost, what I mean is that the 

 tips in the finer pekoee instead of being of an orange 

 or ytllow color, should be white, but if this can be 

 done, a ready sale could be fouud for these teas, to a 

 certain extent on the Continent at good prices. Our 

 broken teas are not saleable on the Continent, as the 

 consumers are very particular in having no broken or 

 dust in what they huy. All the low kinds of Kaisow 

 and Monings are sifted by the dealers before they can 

 be put into retail sale, the siftings, it is true, are 

 sold, but at very low rates. Good pekoe souchongs 

 and middling to fine pekoes, are the teas most likely 

 to find a ready sale, but they ought to be clean in 

 taste. Well made Assam and Cachar teas and soft 

 flavory Darjeelings and Kangras are much admired. 



