SoS 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1886, 



out the empire. The diffusion of iiit'ormation, the 

 interchange of plants has been most beneficial, but 

 it has eutailcd on the directorate at Kew a vast 

 amount of correspondence on all matters connected 

 jiot only with scientific botany but with practical or 

 economic botany, and with methjds of cultivation. 

 In this way Kew has taken a large sliare in the 

 collection and dispersal of the Cinchonas in India 

 and elsewhere, which is of untold and ever-increasing 

 vaUie. A similar statement may be made with refer- 

 ence to Tea, to Gutta-percha, and Caoutchouc yielding 

 trees, and to very many more useful plants distrib- 

 uted mainly through the agency of Kew. This is, 

 indeed, a vast work, but one of which but few of 

 the hundreds of thousands of annual visitors to 

 Kew know anything. While all these labours have 

 been carried out uniutermittingly, Sir Joseph has 

 found time to undertake and carry through an 

 amount of purely scientific work which if he had 

 done nothing else would have of itself been con- 

 sidered remarkable. We have not space to do more 

 than mention his many classical papers, on system- 

 atic Botany and Botanical Geography, his Floras of 

 the antarctic regions, of New Zealand, of Tasmania, 

 and his co-operation with the late Mr. Bentham 

 in the elaboration of the Qrncia F/imtartim. When 

 one calls to mind the amount of detail and drudgery 

 which must have been encountered to bring such works 

 to a conclusion' it becomes a matter of astonishment 

 how in the midst of the official duties of adminis- 

 tration so much can| have been achie\'ed. But this is 

 not all. While all this was in progress Sir Joseph, 

 abaniloning the traditions of his early education, warmly 

 adopted the now generally accepted Darwinian views 

 of evolution, took his share in the government of 

 the Linnean, the Geographical, the Geological, the 

 Royal, and of other Societies. For a few years he 

 filled the chair of Newton at the Royal Society ; he 

 has presided over the British Association, and taken 

 much active interest in the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, over the Scientific Committee of which he 

 has presided for some years. 



It is no matter for wonder that Sir Joseph should, 

 after twenty years' such labour, varied by travell in 

 AVestern America, and in Syria, and in the far less 

 accessible Jlorocco, desire to be relieved from the 

 strain and rcspoTisibility of official duties, but his 

 reasons are characteristic. The Flora of British India 

 has occupied several years to bring it to its present 

 state, with the assistance of several collaborators; 

 at least a third remains to be accomplished. Apart 

 from his pre-eminent capabilities as a botanist. Sir 

 Joseph has a knowledge of local and .special matters 

 relating to Indian botany that no one else possesses, 

 or is likely to posses. To obtain leisure to complete 

 the Flora of 'Jndia is, then, one of the main 

 reasons which .have induced Sir Joseph to tender 

 his resignation. It is some satisfaction to know that 

 the completion of this work will necessitate his 

 frequent presence at Kew (though in an unofficial 

 capacity). There, in the noble herbarium orginally 

 formed b}' his father, so largely extended by himself, 

 and in which so much of his own life and work has 

 been spent, Sir Joseph will, it is to be hoped, find 

 leisure to complete those works which heretofore 

 must have been sadly hampered by administrative 

 duties. — Gardeners^ Chronicle. 



Ikdueuubeu in Nicaragua. — Reports from Nicaragua 

 on (he rubber trade coutnuie to refer to the falling 

 off in the supply. The rubber trees, it is stated, 

 aleng the banks of the river San Juan and the neighbour- 

 hood of Greytuwn have been almost entirely destroyed 

 by the short-sighted ])oUcy of the rubber cutters, and 

 the entire want of efficient police supervision. The 

 men who formerly worked in thcae forests, who bought 

 their provisions and sold their indiarubber in trreytown, 

 are now dispersed along the Mosquito coast. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, 



, EEE-CULTUEE IN INDIA. 



[ I have read with interest the articles under the 

 I above title that have appeared from time to time 

 in the British Bee Journnl, especially those of Mr. 

 J. 0. Douglas in the number for Dec. 1st. Did 

 time permit, I would gladly detail a number of my 

 observations and experience in connexion with the 

 bees, bee-hunting, and bee-keeping in India while 

 on a journey there during the winter of 18S0-81 

 after new races of bees, more especially the great 

 Apis doi-suta. However, though the greater number 

 of these observations have not been printed, on 

 account of my ill-health as well as lack of leisure 

 to put theiu in shape for pubUcation, I cannot for- 

 bear a word or two regarding a few of the points 

 and allusions made in Mr. Douglas' article. 



Mr. Douglas speaks of the unicomb bees, A. 

 dorsata and A . Jiorea, and the multicomb bee, A. 

 Jndica. It is very probable that each swarm of 

 Apis form only build one comb, as all that I saw 

 had but a single comb, and I was repeatedly told 

 that they did not build more. Moreover, as these 

 tiny bees do not frequent the forests as much as 

 they do the more open cmmtry where shrubs and 

 bushes form the greater part of the vegetation, it 

 is reasonable to suppose that they choose the latter, 

 so as to find near the ground suitable twigs upon 

 which to build ; and, in fact, all that I found were 

 in such locations. The pasturage of the ope.n 

 country may very likely suit them better, yet as 

 there are always some large trees among the bushes, 

 they might choose elevated places if they wished. 

 As, however, the single comb is generally attached 

 to a small branch or twig, there is room for but 

 one. This at the top is built around the twig so 

 as to envelope it, the cells being deep for storing 

 honey, the thickness of the comb at the top often 

 reaching two or three inches. Below, where the 

 brood is reared, the comb is, however, but three- 

 eighths of an inch thick. The tiny he-xagonal wax- 

 cells, of which there are eighty-one on each side of 

 a square inch of surface (160 on both sides), are 

 very beautiful. Of course it is easy to imagine that 

 a swarm constructing a single comb not much larger 

 than a man's hand can never be made very avail- 

 able, even if it can be kept in hives. I succeeded 

 in taking one hive of these bees from Ceylon to 

 Cyprus, and they behaved much better than hives 

 of the two larger species. An accident resulting in 

 the death of the queen at a time when no brood 

 was present iu the hive was, of com-se, the virtual 

 extinction of the stock. 



Most of the A. dorsata stocks which I saw con- 

 sisted of but one huge comb attached to a large 

 branch, or to sonu; overhanging ledge of rocks. 

 But this giant honey-bee (it surely deserves the 

 name ' hoaey-bee,' although it is not cultivated) 

 doos sometimes build several combs side by side, 

 for when in Ceylon I transferred iuto a mammoth 

 moveable frame-hive a stock which had built three 

 parallel combs in a. cavity of the rocks. I found 

 these bees in the Kurunegala district at a place 

 known to the natives as Barabera-galla fA. dorsata 

 rock). It was a wild forest region, some miles from 

 any habitation, rarely visited, so that I had much 

 difficulty in transporting my hives and implements 

 to the place, and getting up to the top of the rock, 

 which, perched on the side of a mountain, towered 

 up nearly a hundred feet from the lower side, as 

 near as 1 could iudge. The walls on all sides were 

 either perpendicular or ovcrhauging ; and I w^s at 

 first at much loss to know how we were to get up 

 to the dozen or more huge stocks of A. dorsata, 

 whose combs depended from two to four feet l.om 

 one of the oxerhanj^ing ledges near the sumrnit. 

 But the natives, of whom there were a dozen iJiesont, 

 led me by a crevice just large enough to adnut a 

 man's body into tile interior of the rock, and, by 

 building a ladiler of jiples and rattans, we reached a 

 .■^loping ledge some forty fet-t up; i hence v.i[.ding 

 around we came near the summit, and at last found 

 a dark passage leading rijjht up through the centre 



