Aran, i, 1885.] THE TROPIC**. AGBXCTTLTtJfclST. 



777 



stated that such an assertion was "all bosh." He (the 

 speaker) attended the meeting as a working man, ami 

 he believed that it lay with the planters themselves to 

 settle this question. Hi- thought that if they were to 

 look about they would find on their plantations some good, 

 industrious white men, say ploughmen, to whom they might 

 rent a certain number of acres of land at a nominal rental, 

 and, supplying them with the necessary implements, get 

 them to cultivate sugar for the mills. He believed such 

 a plan would succeed. He would very much like to see 

 more of his countrymen, who were almost starving in the 

 old country, come out to this new land and obtain a decent 

 livelihood. — Sydney Moil. 



BATOUM TEA. 



A few mouths ago, Mr. C. I!. Allen presented to the 

 Museum, along with several Turkish drugs, a specimen of 

 a ten, closely resembling in appearance Chinese tea, but 

 having a somewhat sweet and less astringent taste. With 

 the specimen was sent a dried specimen of the plant, in 

 fruit only. This was identified for me by Mr. J. G.Baker, 

 of Kew, as Vaccinium Arctostaphylos, L. 



The following information concerning it has been furn- 

 ished to me by Mr. Allen : — 



"The plant yielding the tea grows on the sides of streams 

 and of hedges, and on uncultivated ground, in T.azistan, 

 in Adjorn., Kroum and about Trebizond, but is not found 

 beyond the mountains of f lummo hame. It was never applied 

 to any useful purpose until the year 1S77, when an in- 

 dividual who had some knowledge of the mode of prepar- 

 ing tea collected the leaves and manufactured them 

 into tea. The article that he produced had a very 

 pronounced odour, analogous to that of China tea, but 

 it possessed also on acridity disliked by connoisseurs ; not- 

 withstanding this, however, he put up for sale as tea a 

 certain quantity, which was bought up by tea dealers and 

 seat into Persia, where it passed successfully as tea. 

 Seeing this the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Kroum 

 aud Laziitan soon followed the example set them, and a 

 year after the first sale as many as two thousand cases 

 of the Batoum or Lazistan tea were sold at Trebi- 

 zond, mixed with good Chinese tea, and sent to Persia. 

 "When this came to be known to the Turkish Government, 

 the director of the forest department imposed a tax of 

 twenty wer cent on this product, and notwithstanding the 

 representations of the then governor of Trebizond, the 

 impost was not removed, and as a consequence the collec- 

 tion was abandoned." Mr. Dickson, the gentleman who 

 forwarded the specimen to Mr. Allen, further remarks: — 

 "Tile leaves are gathered in July aud August, and as the 

 plant probably flowers in May. that accounts for my being 

 only able to send the specimen of the plant in fruit. I 

 believe this tea plant must grow all along the Taurus 

 range, for it is found at Batoum, Trebizond, Kararnoussal 

 and Broussa. The tea varies in quality, and when care- 

 fully prepared it is* very nice anil palatable, but when 

 carelessly prepared it affords a dirty disagreeable beverage." 

 The'production of this tea is noticed in the Blue books 

 for 1S79 (Commercial, No. 1!). 0.2331), p. 1023, where it 

 is remarked that the reduction of the forest dues would 

 ca ise this tea to compete strongly with teas imported from 

 Great Britain. A specimen of the same tea prepared at 

 Amassia was exhibited by Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer at 

 the meeting of the Linnean Society on November 6, under 

 the name of Trebizond tea, as well as several dried speci- 

 mens of the plant in flower, one of which has since been 

 presented to the Museum of this Society. It wood seem, 

 therefore, as if the tax had been removed and the tea 

 again manufactured. The leaf is much thinner than the 

 true tea leaf, and could, I think, be easily distinguished 

 by a botanist from the true tea leaf when soaked in water, 

 should the tea even come into u e in this country as an 

 adulterant of cheap teas, — Plianiiaceutical Journal. 

 - ■*■ 

 INDIAN TIMBER. 

 Public attention in England is being directed to the 

 value of India as a timber exporting country. .Tust before 

 the last mail left Mr. D. L. Simmonds, who has devoted 

 mush. attention to this important branch of industry, read 

 a paper before the Society of Arts on the " Past, Presort 



98 



and Future sources of the Timber Supplies of Great 

 Britain" : — 



In the course of his remarks Mr. Simmonds stated 

 that at present the exports of wood from this country 

 are comparatively small in amount, and would, indeed, 

 scarcely deserve mention, but for the large quantity of 

 teak, on an average of 55,000 tons, sent to the roiled 

 Kingdom from Burma and other coasts of India. It is 

 believed that no country in the world is such a large 

 importer of wood as England, but only a very small pro- 

 portion of her supplies arc obtaiued from British possessions. 

 Twenty-five years ago the United Kingdom received about 

 3,400,000 loads of foreign and clonial wood of every 

 description; in 1x83 upwards of 6,500,000 loads were im- 

 ported. Of this only 1,529,000 loads were supplied by India 

 and the Colonies. The total value of forest products 

 imported by. England last year was £31,548,919, but India's 

 share of this enormous sum was only about half a million 

 sterling. Mr. Simmonds, however, points out that until 

 recent years little attention was given by the Government 

 to the dui' preservation of the vast forests of India, and 

 he looks forward to a large iuciease of the exports from 

 this country when the woody tracts are more easily reached 

 by rivers anil roads. He points out that large shipments 

 of the toon wood of India (Gedrela todna) might be pro- 

 fitably made, if it can be delivered at Ohittagong or some 

 Burmese port, but exports from the forests of Northern 

 India are out of the question. There is, it seems, an un- 

 limited demand for sandalwood in Europe, but the Bombay 

 dealers apparently find it more profitable to ship it to 

 China, whence it goes to Europe in the shape of orna- 

 mental work of different kinds. Bombay blaekwood furniture 

 is not greatly prized in Bathetic households at home, an. I 

 expect among Anglo-Indians, there is, we believe, little 

 demand for it. According to Mr. Simmonds, Indian blaek- 

 wood generally (fialbergia Latifolia) is in slight request, 

 and what is imported' is all used for furniture. In the 

 discussion which follower! the reading of the paper several 

 gentlemen connected with Australia descanted on the ex- 

 cellence of the wood produced there, one of them goiug 

 so far as to say that jarrah is far superior to teak. This 

 is a question that may very well be left to the decision 

 of experts; but it is a pity that there was nobody present 

 to put in a good word for our Indian teak. Jarrah may 

 be as valuable as the Australians make out, but if it is 

 so greatly superior to teak, why is it ignored in England 

 as a shipbuilding wood ? In Western Australia almost every- 

 thing is made of jarrah, and the people of that colony 

 cannot understand why there should be such a great pre- 

 judice among the English shipbuilders and others against 

 a wood which, if not quite everlasting, is nevertheless 

 said to defy all known forms of decay, and is untouched 

 by white ants and all other insects. Last year some seven 

 hundred tons of jarrah were imported into India, but hitherto 

 apparently none whatever has gone to England, iu spite 

 of the efforts of the colonists to obtain a demand for it in 

 the old country. It will doubtless be a long time before teak 

 is superseded in the home market by its Australian rival, 

 but there should be a large trade for both. — Pioneer. [The 

 great point in favour of teak, we suppose, is its possession 

 of a fragrant oil which renders it impermeable to the 

 attacks of insects. It neither splits nor warps too. — En.] 



WHY DO OUK WOODS NOT PAY '. 



Because we are too late in beginning to thin them, and 

 continue the work beyond the period when it should 

 have stopped. It will be found on carefully examining 

 the growing trees in the forest that from one or other 

 of these two causes the value of the mature crop is 

 much less, sometimes immensrly so, than it otherwise 

 would or should have been. The delay in commencing 

 to thin is accounted for on various grounds, but the most. 

 common are first in* order to be able to derive profit 

 from the thinnings. This profit, though much talked of, 

 aud bulking largelj- in the minds of many proprietors, 

 is little more than a vision or mirage in the desert. 

 Having made several fair and impartial experiments <i 

 thinning iu different parts of the country, and when and 

 where the thinnings realised as high prices :is they are 



ever likely to do again there or anywhere else, iinil we 



never in any i;is C received as much for the first thinning; 



