June i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



893 



until December, to thaw in March. Each summer the. 

 thermometer attains, and sometimes exceeds, 40° 0. (104 

 Fahr.) in the shade, while the severest cold of winter 

 varies between — S u 0. (,17 J Fahr.) and— 12° C. (10° F.), 

 descending exceptionally to— 20" O. (—4° Fahr.); but m 

 Mongolia a cold of — 3(J" C. (22° below zero Fahr. ) is not rare. 

 This peculiarity which Northern China shows of beiug 

 subject to regular alternations of hot summers and rigorous 

 winters makes it impossible for a perenuial or ligneous 

 plaut from a eold country to live there, although species 

 of tropical annuals prosper there, and are cultivated far 

 north. For the same reason Bamboos are not found in a 

 wild state higher than the Hoang-ho, although they abound 

 in all the mountains of the South beyond Tsiug-ling. On 

 the other hand, Kice, Sesamum, Cotton, Sweet Potato, and 

 a number of the Oucurbitaceaj, are cultivated with, success 

 as far as the confines of Mantchouria. Again, although 

 China has many species of wild Vines, the two or three 

 varieties which are cultivated in the neighbourhood of 

 Fekin (introduced, no doubt) only live there because the 

 people are careful in winter to cover them entirely with earth. 

 It appears that several centuries ago the Chinese destroyed 

 all the forests, perhaps to satisfy their agricultural and 

 industrial requirements — perhaps, as I believe, to destroy 

 the haunts of the great and formidable animals (tiger 

 and leopard) near which man could not live in security, 

 especially if he kept but few cattle, as is the case here. 

 It is among the reputedly inaccessible mountains that 

 remnants of the ancient forests are found, aud generally 

 the country is without spontaneous shrubby vegetation, 

 even on the hills. As to the plains, almost every part is so 

 devoted to agriculture, that the indigenous plants have almost 

 completely disappeared: especially so, as the Chinese have 

 no meadows, and as they are careful in winter to hoe up all 

 the wild plants with their roots to supply their kitchen tires ! 

 The vegetation of the northern rtgion is poor and little 

 varied, especially on the Mongolian plateaux, where the 

 meagre plots of grasses, widely scattered, alternate with 

 immense plots formed by Artemisias, Iris, Glycyrrhiza, 

 studded here and there with bushes of Caragana, Ephedra, 

 Clematis, and Roses. Inside the Great Wall the ligneous 

 wild vegetation which has best resisted the vandalism of 

 the Chinese, and which gives to the flora of tho country 

 its peculiar appearance, belong to the generas Zizyphus, 

 Vitex, Lycium, Lespedeza, Rhamnus, Clematis, Euonymus, 

 Oelasti us*. Ailantus, Morus, Ulmus, Plauera, Salix, Topulus, 

 Riot*, Juniperus, and Pinus. Besides, ou the mountains, 

 there are the Quercus, Carpinus, Betula, Tilia, Juglans, 

 Corylus, Corylopsis, Xanthoceras, Koelreuteria, Larix, Abies, 

 Vitis, Lonicera, Fraxinus, Syringa, Ligustrum, Philadelphus, 

 many Spiraeas and Koses, Crataegus, Sorbus, Sanibucus, &c. 

 There is no Hedera (Ivy) in the north, but Coruus and 

 Aralia are found there. 



The trees which are commonly planted to shade the 

 habitations are the Willow, Poplar, and Ailantus— often 

 the Sophora and Cedrela, and as a luxury the Salisburia", 

 but these last are imported species, like the Kaki, which 

 is cultivated on a large scale on the hills. However, it 

 is only in the mountains of Pekin that I have seen in 

 a wild state the black fruited Diospyros, while it is only 

 in the South that I have found the D. Kaki with little 

 yellow fruits growing spontaneously. As to the beautiful 

 Finns Bungeana, which ornaments the courts of the temple 

 of Pekin, 1 have not been able to discover where it exists 

 in a spontaneous state. Of the three or four Poplars of 

 China the most remarkable is that which I have pointed 

 out before under the native name of Ta-yang. To its 

 height and elegant appearance it joins the advantage of 

 furnishing one of the most esteemed woods of the country. 

 The Chinese cultivate fruit trees but little, and that badly; 

 however, they possess nearly all those genera that we 

 have in the West. On this subject note that we find in 

 the Chinese mountains, growing in their primitive and 

 spontaneous state, the Chestnut, Walnut, Apricot, Peach, 

 and Cherry, but not the true Plum. Can this old land 

 of the extreme East be the principal, or even the only 

 cradle of these useful plants now spread through all the 

 countries of temperate climate? 



The little taste of the Chinese for fruits offers an 

 explanation why they have neglected to domesticate the 

 Strawborries, as also numerous species of Gooseberries and 

 Raspberries, the existence of which I have proved in all 



their large western mountains. In the region of the. 

 Tsing-ling the productions of the North mix with those 

 of the South. There, Paulownia, Catalpa, Sterculia, Cedrela, 

 Melia, Rhododendrons, &., begin to grow spontaneously; 

 but the greater part of the flora is Northern rather than 

 Southern, and it seems to me to contain a good proportion 

 of species peculiar to the country. 



The southern provinces, situate to the south of the 

 Yaugtse, have a sub-tropical climate, rain is frequent there 

 all the year, less, however, in winter than in summer. 

 The vegetation, also, is much more abundant than in the 

 North, without beiug at all varied. By Kiangsi the 

 country is verdant and the hills are covered with large 

 herbs, with a number of bushes interspersed, and with some 

 trees or shrubs peculiar to the South : Vitex, Paehyrhizus 

 trilobus, Smilax, Liquidambar, Fortunia, Cunuiughainia, the 

 small Oastanea chineusis, Rhus semialata, Ohannerops 

 Fortunei,&c. It seems that the flora of this region contrasts 

 greatly with that of Japau. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



RHEEA FIBRE CULTURE IN SOUTH INDIA 



To the Editor, " The Field." 

 SiE, — It may interest the readers of your paper to learn 

 that a considerable impetus has taken place with regard 

 to the above since I wrote the article which appeared in 

 The I'ield of Feb. 17 of last year, and at the present time 

 great attention is being devoted to fibre culture both in 

 the Xilgiri and Wynaad districts, to which my article 

 specially referred. In all possibility, provided favourable 

 reports still come to hand, several private ventures will 

 shortly be launched with a view to making fibre culture 

 one of the future paying industries of South India, the 

 extent of land available for cultivation in these districts 

 being practically unlimited, and the country favoured with 

 a constant and abundant labour supply, the cheapness of 

 which is unequalled in any other part of the world. Hither- 

 to the principal, if only obstacle in the way of success, 

 has been the want of a machine calculated to decorticate 

 the fibre successfully, and with the least possible waste; 

 and yet at the same time so simply constructed as to 

 be easily understood and readily manipulated by native 

 labourers, and various machines have been projected from 

 time to time, some even being of such an elaborate 

 character as to render the use of chemicals necessary in 

 order to dispose of superfluous matter, and to finish off 

 the fibre by giving it a bleached appearance. It is almost 

 needless for me to observe that, apart from these machines 

 proving useless in practice, even with skilled European 

 labour, anything of an intricate or puzzling nature proves 

 worse than useless in the hands of a Hindoo agricultural 

 labourer ; therefore, the simpler the construction of the 

 machine, the move likely to be its permanent value. 

 Such a machine came under my notice about twelve 

 months ago ; its success I predicted from the first, and 

 in consequence did not hesitate to recommend it to 

 several gentlemen interested in rheea culture, especially 

 after examining its work, including the specimens ex- 

 hibited at the greater Textile Fabrics Exhibition held at 

 the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, in August and Sep- 

 tember last. The machine I refer to is known as the 

 Death & Ellwood's, aud is the property of the General 

 FibreCompany, Limited, 1-11, Fenchurch-street, E.C. It was, 

 unfortunately, too late to be shown at the Calcutta Intern- 

 ational Exhibition ; but recently, at a competition held at the 

 same place under the auspices of Government, this machine 

 proved its superiority over all others, and has received the full 

 Government reward of R2.000. This reward, I may mention, 

 has been offered from a time dating many years back, the 

 Indian Government being fully cognisant of the value of a 

 machine for fibre-cleaning ; ind still later intelligence has 

 arrived that this machine has been awarded the gold in. dal 

 at an exhibition held in Mauritius. 



It is clear from the above that a revolution in fibre 

 matters will sooner or later take place; by this I mean 

 that many of the inferior products now in the market, 

 aud at present imported for waut of better, containing 

 as they do from 15 to 40 per cent of useless matter 

 will be completely ousted by those which are almost 

 perfectly free of foreign substances; and there remain^ 

 little, if any, doubt that India will, in the imme haV 

 future, largely supply the principal markets of the world 



