6io 



*fHE Tropical agriculturist*. 



[March i, 1886 



" The direct benefit of a complete collection of the 

 flora and fauna of the district, in which the Provincial 

 Museum is situated, is obvious and cannot be exag- 

 gerated. The pursuit of collecting and studying natural 

 history objects gives to the persons who are inclined 

 to devote their leisure hours to it. a beneficial training 

 for whatever their real calling in life may be ; they 

 acquire a sense of order and method; they develop 

 their gift of observation ; they are stimulated to healthy 

 exercise. Nothing encourages them in this pursuit 

 more than a well-named and easily accessible collection 

 in their own native town upon which they can fall 

 back as a pattern and an aid for their own. This local 

 collection ought to bo always arranged and named 

 according to the plan and nomenclature adopted in 

 some monograph of the fauna and flora of the country ; 

 and I consider its formation in every Provincial Museum 

 to be of higher importance than a collection of foreign 

 objects." 



No such small room as that which Mr. Lawson 

 proposed would meet the circumstances of the cases as 

 thus defined. 



NOTK8 ON 30MK OF THE MOKE INTERESTINO PLANTS 



WHICH HAVE BEEN INTItODUCED OF GROWN IN 



THE OADDENS liITRINO THE YEAR. 



1. Eri/thro.ri/Ioii. Coca. — Two big bushes of this plant 

 exist at Barliyar where they grow freely, but fruit 

 sparingly. About 60 young plants h.nve been raised 

 from seed and a large number of cuttings were put 

 down during the winter, but these have not done 

 well. It may be taken as certain that Jin/throj^j/fofi 

 eoca will thrive well in many parts of Southern India, 

 and that it may be easily propagated from seed, but 

 that it will be profit;ible for the European planter to 

 grow it upon a large scale is a matter upon which 

 I entertain much doubt. Vast tracts of country in 

 South America are cultivated with this i)lant, and an 

 almost unlimited quantity of leaves may be obtained 

 from that country for the purpose of manufacturing 

 the valuable alkaloid Cocainr. Last winter this alkal- 

 oid is said to have fetched 2g. 6it. per grain. At 

 this price, could it have been maintained, its cultiv- 

 ation would have been productive of enormous profits, 

 but the price has since declined to 7'f. per grain, 

 and it is very unlikely that even this sum will be 

 realired much longer. In this opinion Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer concurs, and he moreover wrote a short time 

 ago to caution me against being too sanguine that 

 the cultivation of Ooca would be a commercial success, 

 or advising me at any rate to discount very largely 

 the reports which had been spread abroad about it. 



Mr. Hooper has analysed three samples of the 

 leaves taken from the bushes at Barliyar. In his first 

 attempt to isolate tho alkaloid in a crystalline state 

 he was unsuccessful ; in hi.s second attempt he suc- 

 ceeiled in obtaining the alkaloid as crystalline, but 

 with an admixture of some acrid principle which 

 rendered it useless as an ana.-sthetic; his third attempt 

 ended in complete success, and the alkaloid manufact- 

 ured by him has been used and approved of by Dr. 

 Brockman in hia surgical ophthalmic operations. 

 Surgeon-General Doctor Furnell reports that the simple 

 chewing of the leaves is productive of relief in cases 

 of spasmodic bronchial coughs, anil suggests that 

 Cocnifie should enter into the composition of cough 

 lozenges. Mr. Hooper's analyses show that the leaves 

 of the bushes grown at Barliyar are very rich in the 

 alkaloid, as he extracted from them .V per cent. 



2. F.rtf1hro.r>j^on inot^oj/tfiutnt. — The leaves of this 

 plant are saiil to have been largely eaten during the 

 famine by the natives of several districts where it 

 grew wild in abundance, and it was thought probable 

 that the leaves of this plant micht be found to con- 

 tain an alkaloid with properties similar to that which 

 in obtained from tho Fri/thronilon Cum ; and Ur. 

 Cornish just before he left India wrote to ask me to 

 havu the subject investigated. As the plant does not 

 grow upon these Hills, I applied to Mr. Gamble for 

 his assistance, and ho has .sent me several small 

 consignments of the leaves, which had been collected 

 and dried by Mr. Higgins, Deputy Conservator of 

 Foreits in the Ouddap&h District. These consignments | 



I handed over to Jlr. Hooper, who, after his analyses 

 of them, reports that they contain no anesthetic 

 property at all analogous to that which is found in 

 Eri/tliTuxt/lvn Coca ; but that they do contain a bitter 

 and a tonic principle which may have mitigated the 

 pangs of starvation. 



3. Taraxacum nfj^cinctle. — Sir .Joseph D. Hooker in 

 the Flora of British India observes that — " It is re- 

 markable that this common Himalayan plant should 

 not be found in the Khasia or Nilgiri mountains even 

 as a garden escape." This reproach to these Hills is 

 now removed, and the aggressive dandelion maybe found 

 advancing in all directions about Ootacamund. It bids 

 fair to cover our lawns with its yellow blossoms as 

 in England, Tvhile in the deeply tilled soil of the 

 cinchona estates such an abundance of it with roots 

 18 inches long could be collected as would supply the 

 wants of all the Medical Departments in India. 



4. Medicinal lihnharh. — There are a few plants of 

 this herb in the gardens at Ootacamund and in Sim's 

 Park at Coonoor, hut they have not thriven as well 

 as could be wished. I shall try this plant under 

 varying conditions during the next year in the hope 

 of obtaining better results. 



5. Hi/osci/amus. — This valuable medicinal plaut, which 

 can be grown very well upon these Hill.s, has not 

 been riased in anj' (juantities on account of all de- 

 mand for it having ceasctl. 



6. Encali/ptii?. Glohvfus and other Species. — During the 

 year 20 lb. of the oil of the leaves of the Eiicul;/ptn.i 

 i/lohilns were sent to the Madras Medical Depart- 

 ment. The last consignment was sold at the rate of 

 R.3-3-0 — .5 shillings per pound being the wholesale 

 English quotation. 



The proces.ses required for the manufacture of the 

 oil are very simple and inexpensive, and I think it 

 is a pity that those who have large plantations of 

 "these trees should not endeavour to utilize them for 

 this purpose as well as for fuel. The way to extract 

 the oil is as follows: — 



The young shoots, having perfectly matureil but 

 not old leaves, are passed through an ordinary chaff- 

 cutter and cut into chips not exceeding one inch in 

 length ; the smaller the chips the more readily is 

 the oil extracted from them. These chips are then 

 macerated in water over night and put the 

 next morning into a still, which is kept boiling, 

 till the greater part of the fluid has past over as 

 vapor. This is then shaken up with a little common 

 salt to cause the complete separation of the oil from 

 the water; the oil is then decanted from the water 

 and passed through a sheet of filtering paper, when 

 it is ready for sale. 



Instead of passing the leaves through a chaff- 

 cutter, it would be better to pass them through 

 some crushiug machine, as the object is to smash 

 up the hard cells, which surround the cavities into 

 which the oil is passed by the secreting cells. I 

 do not know of such a machine, hut I should think 

 that some modification of the old-fashioned mangle 

 would prove effective. 



Eiica/i//iti's nlilii/iia, E. siihiaphloia, E. piperita, and 

 other sweet-smelling %'arieties, all of which are said 

 to yield valuable oils, grow freely on these Hills; 

 they are much more beautiful in their general aspect, and 

 their timber is greatly superior to that of the K. iiiuhnhis. 



7. Bl'iis (/!al'ra.—ihis is a febrifuge yielding plant, 

 the seeds of which were sent from Kcw. The seeds 

 have germinated. 



8. Ipicaciianlia. — I regret to have to report that I 

 lost a considerable number of Ipecacuanha plants during 

 the last year. This was owing to my having forced 

 the stock too rapidly during the winter. The number 

 of plants, however, is being agaiu increased as fast 

 as possible and s]iecial care will be taken to prevent 

 the recurrence of last year's catastrojihe. I have 

 been much disappointed with the growth these plants 

 have made at Barliyar during the past year, That 

 the Ipecacuanha will eventually pro\e a success I 

 entertain no doubt, but I have to confess that I 

 have still a good deal to learn about the best ways 

 of cultivating it. 



