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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1885. 



our coirespondenta suggests that the eggs are laid in the 

 Oocoa iu the West Indies or South America, aud that they 

 hatch out and damage the Cocoa here iu hot dry weather 

 like last summer. He also asks whether the moths lay 

 their eggs aud the young ones are hatched in this country, 

 or whether the eggs are only laid in the green Cocoa 

 bean i' He further notices that as soon as cold weather 

 commences the moths jind hu v;e seem to be killed, doubt- 

 ing, hovever, whether the tggs and chrysalids are also 

 killed. In answer to these inquiries, we believe that in 

 warehouses where the Cocoa beans are stored, and which 

 are infe.-ted by these moths, the propagation of the insects 

 is continuous — very similar, in fact, to that of some of 

 our small domestic moths, such as Tinea sarcitella, and 

 the little corn moth, Tinea granella, It may be quf.stioned 

 whether repeated fumigations with sulphur would not be 

 injurious ti> the Cocoa beans; it woulrl certainly, however, 

 kill the insects. Benzine, or, better still, naphthaline, 

 would also be equally efficacious in destroying the insects. 

 The subject of tlieso Oocoa de-troying moths was brought 

 under the notice of the Entomological Society by Mr. 

 "W. F. Kirby, on November 5 last, when I\Ir. RIcLachlan 

 iujgested heat as the only remedy for getting rid of 

 these posts, but Messrs. AVeir and Kitch pointed out the 

 impracticability of it.s application in large bonded and 

 other warehouses. In the case before the Society the 

 stock affected exceeded 20,000 bags. A case was also 

 reported in which a stock of ship's biscuits was attacked, 

 and when the biscuits were removed the moths came out 

 in thou'ai ds. 



A memoir on another injurious species of this genus, 

 Epheetia Kuhniella. Zeller, from North America, which 

 has become naturalized in the Rhine district (vhere it 

 is known as the meal-moth), forms the subject of sev- 

 eral communications in the Entomologische Xachrichten of 

 1884 and the present year. — I. O. AV. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Messrs. T. Chuisty k Co. have recently forwarded 

 a specimen of the flower of the " alveloB," the plant which 

 has lately been introduced as a remedy for cancer and 

 allied diseases. The plant was cultivated in a greenhouse 

 at ;<ydenham, and produced only a few flowers, most of 

 which, however, dropped oft before arriving at maturity. 

 The stem of the plant is fleshy, smooth, and cylindrical, 

 about one-third of an inch in diameter ; the leaves are smooth, 

 pale green, lanceolate oblong with a cnlate base, sessile 

 and alternate. The flowers are small and green, and the 

 involucre has four wedjre-shaped lobes. The flowers have 

 been submitted to Boissier, one of the best Eu- 

 ropean authorities on the genus Eiipkorhia, and so 

 far as can be gathered from the imperfect state of the 

 flowers, he has decided that it belongs to the genus 

 Evphorbia, and to a species not described in Martius's 

 ' Flora Brasiliensis,' but almost certaitdy belonging to 

 tlie section Dichiliiini and nearly allied to E. aiwmala, Salzm. 

 (/','. iiisulana, Vellosol.— P/iarm«ceH?!.-ai Journal. 



The E.MiciRATioN fuom Mapbas.— The number of emi- 

 grants registered in 1883-4 was the smallest recorded 

 lUtriiig the par.t in years. Xtore thau the whole of tlie 

 deerei « : is iici oiiulc<i for by th» fall in the number of 

 emigH.iits \'< t'eylon «nd liritl.-^h Kurinn, 'Ibe decrease 

 in iiiiigrHtioli !o" (V'vlon was due to the Ifsncned de- 

 hn:nd for labour iu that Isldnd oWing t" thd Itrt'CurioUB 

 tlont.itioii of tlio cotfce-planting industry. Ihe fall iu 

 IhP lluhibeC of ettlicrahts to Hritish liurmtt is perhaps 

 explainable bv the tact that etnlgratlon to that provlncp 

 has been mtide free, and it is possible that Mot all the 

 emignmts are I'eglstered. Other causes of decrease are 

 the favourab'e chHraCtet of the season and the great 

 demand for labor in several districts of the Presidency. 

 About si.K-sevenths of the total luimber of emigrants 

 annually go to Ceylon and British liiirma, which emi- 

 gration' is now practically unrestricted, Kegulated emi- 

 gratic n to the Mauritiu«,' Straits, Natal, Martinique aud 

 Uuadaloupe showed only (),Co9 emigrants. There were 

 no great vaiiation!' in the figures. There were 57,5-17 

 em'grauts, showing a decrease of 5-29 or 83 per cent. 

 The number of emigrants who returned slightly exceeded 

 the number who left India ; 794 per cent of emigrants 

 retu'iied to Jfadnra and Tinnevelly, and most of the 

 j5Di«i'"ler t" (iiinjam au(i yizngapstam.— /''oMffrj' Gsf.ftU, 



TorATO FuNous. — In the Ganleners' Chronicle (Dec. 4, p. 

 757 ). Jlr. A. Stephen Wilson figures the sclerotia of the 

 potato fungus, riiytophthorit iit/t!tta,ts, which are encrusted 

 with a coating of oxalate of Ume. Some doubt had previously 

 been thrown on the character of these bodies by other obser- 

 vers, owing apparently to their not having been carefully 

 separated from the tissue in which they were embedded 

 previous to examination, anil to the fact that they were 

 found in living tissue, in which alone, however, according to 

 Mr. Wilson, they are capable of germinating. Mr. Wilson's 

 observations have been confirmed by Mr. AVorthington 

 Smith, who had previously observed a myxomycetic fungus 

 coated in the same way with oxalate of lime. These observ- 

 ations suggest the necessity in microscopical investigations of 

 using solvents to remove mineral matter when examining 

 vegetable structures. — Pharinacentical Journal. 



Lemox Monsthosity. — A correspondent has forwarded 

 a singul.ir monstrosity of the lemon fruit in which a small 

 lemon is formed inside a large one, aud just below the 

 stigmatic end, nothing in the external appearance of the 

 lemon intlicating the presence of a smaller one inside. 

 The smaller one has also a perfect rind. Dr. M. T. Masters, 

 to whom the specimen has been submitted, states that 

 although this mode of growth is of frequent occurrence 

 in oranges, he has not before seen it in a lemon. In his 

 opinion it is formed by the thalamus, having produced one 

 wborl of carpels, again starting into growth and producing 

 a second whorl. In his 'Teratology,' p. 131, is a descrip- 

 tion of a similar growth arising from the multiplication 

 of carpellary whorls which subsequently become separated 

 by the growth of the axis. In this case, however, the inners 

 lemon has a rind, which is regarded by Dr. Masters as 

 a development from the axis independent of the carpel . 

 and ultimately covering them over. — rharm<iceiitica,lJournal 



The Cultivation of Tea in Italy.— The French 

 Consul at Naples gives an interesting accoimt, in his 

 last report, of the attempts which have been made to 

 acclimatize the tea plant in Italy. The first is said to 

 have been made by the English during their occupation 

 of Sicily at the beginning of the century, when the 

 plant reached a height of 6 ft. in the open air. There 

 is no proof, however, that any crop was obtained, and 

 further attempt seems to have been made until 1871, 

 when some seeds were sown at Caltanisetta, which is in 

 much the same latitude as Jamascioro (iu Japan), from 

 which place they were brought. The seeds never sprouted, 

 and a fresh trial made in 1875 with another variety, 

 the thca sint'nsig, also proved a failure. The Government, 

 however, which had taken up the question, was not 

 discouraged, and, after weighing the various opinions 

 which it had elicited, made several fresh plantations of 

 thea sinensis in the zone comprized between Florence, 

 Naples, and Sicily. These plantations also came to 

 nothing, but Signor d' Amico, a landed proprietor in the 

 province of tiessina, was able to exhibit, at the Agricultural 

 Show held at Messina in 1SS2, more than a hundred 

 plants of the thea sinensis, three years old, which had 

 been grown iu the open. Professor Beccari, too, who 

 has been to India for the purpose of investigating the 

 growth of tea, is of opinion that there is no reason why 

 it should not succeed in Italj- if the plants and the 

 seed are brought from a climate similar to that of 

 till! Penin.Mi'.a, for the fact of its growing in the open 

 air along the Kiviera, upon the .ihores of Lago Maggiorei 

 aid at Florence prove* that it is to a certain extent a 

 hiirdy plant, If it has not beeu nmre generally grown 

 ill Italy hitherto, this is, Piofes.sor Beccan thinks, because 

 tl.e mode of cultivation has been all wrong, Ths Italians 

 have thought that the plant wanted shade, whereBs in 

 Ilid'a and China it is grown in Very open ground and 

 upon a soil which contains a large proportion of sand 

 and oxide of iron. He recommends, therefore, that it 

 should be planted in land not too dry, and in a soil 

 pre.serviiig enough moisture to aliment the plants, such 

 as the ivH-g.'owing fields of the Kiviera, the Uarcm- 

 mn, and Southern Itnly, and that the plants should he 

 brought from the coldest provinces of Japan. The Italian 

 Mniislei of Agriculture has determine 1 to actupon Profefsor 

 Beccari 's i eport, iiiid has already ^eut a large crder to Japan, 

 besides buying a nuniberof plants from a lauded proprietor at 

 raliai.za in the proviLCu of Novara, who has met with a lair 

 amoiuituf .success in his txf miwntn.— Qverlaiid 3M!, 



