December t, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



465 



A BOTANICAL VISITOR ON VEGETATION AND 

 AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 



Maduas.— Availing myself of two months' leave in Nov- 

 ember and December, 1883, 1 visited South India, which I 

 had not seen before. Madras I found hot and uninteresting, 

 but I was repaid by a sight of the Crotons in the com- 

 pound of the Holy Emanuel Church. They are a marvel 

 of beauty, and of all forms, sizes, and colours of leaf. 

 The compound glowed with colour. Some fine specimens 

 were upwards of G feet high. The best I thought was 

 the 0. pictus. I never suspected what a charming beauty 

 this was till I saw it here. These Crotons alone were 

 worth coming to Madras to see. There were still Bner 

 specimens o( some kinds in the horticultural garden. Crotons 

 are great favourites in .Madras, and justly so. A fine bush 

 of them is a great feast for the eye. They are much 

 used for decorating verandahs and porticos, and they appear 

 to like the sea air. 



All the trees I saw in this capital appeared as of yesterday. 

 In vain did I search for some fine old trees either on the 

 roadsides, or in compounds, or anywhere; while, on the 

 other hand, the whole place looked so ancient. I saw no 

 Inn avenues. In such a climate there should have been 

 no difficulty in growing trees with fine foliage ; they would 

 add grandeur to the future Madras to which the people 

 are aspiring. Many of the trees on the roads are ugly 

 specimens of the Thespesia populnea, which would have 

 been better suited to Dante's Inferno, as illustrated by 

 Dore. 



In the Feople's Park, the only interesting things I saw 

 were two cubs. They assured me that these were hybrids 

 between a wolf and a " pariah " dog. The parents I saw 

 also. The father was an ordinary Indian wolf, and the 

 mother, a black pariah, with a white neck aud white feet. 

 The cubs were wolf-like, of a fawn colour, and one of them 

 had a white foot. I tried to ascertain whether such a 

 fact had been recorded, but could not find that anybody 

 took any iuterest in such matters. 



The Masula boatmen interested me much. I thought 

 them among the finest specimens of men I had seen any- 

 where. Although not so heavy as navvies, their muscular 

 development is superb. The muscles of their legs, thighs, 

 trunk, arms, shoulders and neck, are all equally well developed . 

 One does not see such fiue specimens, except among 

 acrobats. They are middle-sized men, and are pictures of 

 health and strength. There is a curious and erroneous 

 notion, which unfortunately has found its way into scientific 

 books, that people in the tropics live upon Rice and 

 vegetables. No greater delusion. These Masula boatmen 

 eat plenty of mutton or beef, according to religion, plenty 

 of fish, rice and vegetables, and drink a good deal of toddy, 

 or "arrack," brought from Colombo. Their only covering 

 is a small loin-cloth; they are exposed to the rain and 

 the sea, and work hard. Whatever cargoes come to and 

 go from Madras are landed and shipped by them. Among 

 them are Mohamedans, Hindoos, and Roman Catholics, 

 an 1 they all appear to pull well together in one boat. 

 I left Madras with the feeling that I should not like to 

 have been the designer of its fountains! 



Bangalore. — I looked in at Bangalore, as I had often 

 heard that this is the station of South India. It is a 

 fine place certainly, with a fine climate. I was told 

 punkahs are not generally used there, excepting on hot 

 days at meals. There are many regiments stationed at 

 Bangalore. The Oubbon Park is an extensive place, with 

 a fiue large, building over-looking from an upper terrace 

 The building is of a brick-red colour, and in it are the 

 ( tovemment offices. In the Park I saw a number of Mango 

 trees > the grafted Mango grows well), and many of Pongamia 

 glabra. I saw a few Araucarias, and many ugly-shap< d 

 Casuarinas; in fact, I hardly think I saw one well-shaped 

 Casuarina, These were queer trees. Some grow as straight 

 a. an arrow, others fork, and many grow crooked and all 

 ways. While yet in the nurseryit is not difficult to recognise 

 which are likely to grow straight. Those that do, often 

 m die fine trees, and the others are not worth having. 

 The Ppinsettias were in flower, and very fine, equal to 

 those of the Mediterranean. 1 saw a few trees here ' 

 an: worthy of notice. They are the Schinus molle, or 

 Pepper tree. In the Mediterranean this tree grows well, 

 but. cannot be grown even so far north as Rome, on account 

 of the frost. I tried it largely in Luckuow. The damp, 

 59 



hot weather of the rainy season killed it. In the Cubbon 

 Park there were four trees as large as those on the Mediter- 

 ranean, but, perhaps for want of a rich soil, not so fully 

 clothed with foliage. It is a very graci ful tree, and why 

 they do not grow more of it in Bangalore I do not know. 

 Its growing well there, indicates, I think, that the climate 

 during the winter is like that of the Mediterranean, and 

 that in summer it is free from the hothouse dampness 

 of the tropics. I sawagroupof the Spathodea campanulata 

 (this is the name on the ticket). This is a tall tree, with 



unusually dark green foliage, interspersed with ma oi 



scailet bell-shaped flowers, turned upwards. At a short 

 distance they look like bunches of scarlet Pelargoniums'. 

 The tree is a perfect marvel of the vegetable world, and 

 matched only, I think, by the Poinciana regia. Its common 

 name is "flame of the forest.'' An avenue of Spathodea?, 

 full grown, and in full bloom, would be a subject on which 

 to write a poem? The charm of this tree is that it flowers 

 in winter. Will no one try to immortalise himself by 

 planting such au avenue in Bangalore? It is a cm ems 

 thing that close to the red brick building masses of Poinscttias 

 have been planted. Masses of Oupressus sempervirens, which 

 in Bangalore grows superbly, would have been tar more 

 appropriate. The soil appears generally good; no artificial 

 irrigation is used, excepting when the trees are growing, 

 and the grass is everywhere fiue in this park. The fallen 

 leaves are carefully swept away. This is well, if they are 

 rotted, and afterwards returned to the roots of the trees. 

 This is not done, and most of the trees bear evidence of 

 a want of leaf-mould. When will people learn that the 

 best manure for a tree is its own decayed leaves? 



On the way to the Lai Bagh at Bangalore there are 

 various native nurserymen. I went into B. Nagappah & Co.'s 

 nursery and was much pleased to find there an extensive 

 collection of well grown decorative plants, and all very 

 moderate in price. This firm appears to carry on a thriving 

 business, not only in Bangalore, but also with various parts 

 of South aud Central India and Ceylon. They publish a 

 catalogue of plants and seeds; somebody should, however, 

 help them to put down the right botanical names. For 

 Schinus Molle, they have Chinese mulli. They have also 

 a Spleiidunus variegata, which probably would prove new 

 to botanists I Most of the names are well hit off. 



The Lai Bagh is a charming garden, with terraces and 

 parterres. Here a pretty use is made of the Biguonia 

 gracilis, it covers a sloping trellis, which forms the 

 verandah of a pic-nic shed. Its elegant slender branches 

 hang very prettily from the eaves — the perfection of grace- 

 fulness. Near the band-stand are two perfect specimens 

 of Spathodea. The white and purple Meyenia .ire splendid 

 here, and very floriferous. These, however, and the Hameha 

 patens are tortured into shapes of huge balloons and buttons. 

 I remember seeing at some station on the East Indian 

 Railway the tops of a "Mehndi" hedge (Lawsonia inei mis) 

 clipped into figures of elephants, temples, does and donkeys. 

 This is excusable in a native gardener, but to carry on 

 such a system in the Lai Bagh, Bangalore, where huge 

 iron embossed botanical tickets are used, is not only out 

 of place, but, I think, unpardonable. There are some fine 

 specimens of Oupressus sempervirens as straight as an arrow, 

 and between 40 and 50 feet high, and beautifully clothed 

 with foliage from top to bottom. Then- are, however, too 

 few of them, and they are stuck about singly, like solitary 

 unmeaning pillars. Some thousands of them, grouped in 

 striking masses, would be very effective. 



The Tamarind tree grows well, but is nowhere used I 

 avenues. Those who have boeu to Fyzabad, in Oudh, know 

 what a famous tree the Tamarind is. Curiously enough, 

 in Bangalore, I saw only one plant of the Bougainvillea 

 glabra. They have the spectabilis. which flowers only once 

 a year; nowhere have I seen anything like the "fireworks" 

 of Bouganvillea glabra which there are in Lueknow. The 

 Grevillea robusta makes a pretty road tree. The Lai Bagh 

 is a great, place for promenades on band evenings. One 

 evening tin: European cavalry band was playing under a 

 pretty kiosk-like place. The Bangalore society were promen- 

 ading about the terraces and parterres. I was snugly 

 seated on a high bit of ground under a Spathodea. Foi 

 a few moments I allowed myself to dream that I was in 

 Versailles! Here they use the beau'iful large single red 

 B jus rosa sinensis for hedges, aud they clip them! I 

 saw a fine untouched bush of this same Hibiscus in the 



