590 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1886, 



The precious stones which are proiluced in the Bur- 

 mese territories nre chiefly th^i sapphire ami the ruby. 

 They are found about &) or 70 miles in ii north east 

 direction from the capital, over an area of about 100 

 square miles, by sinking pits in the gem bed-;. The 

 varieties of the sapphire found tht*re are the hluf or 

 oriental sapphire, the red or oriental ruby, the /utrp/f 

 or oriental amethyst, the v*''^''"' or orientil topaz, b ■- 

 sides different varieties of chrysoberyl and spinelle. 

 The Grown lays claim to the produce of these rivers ; 

 and all the stones that exceed the value of £10 are 

 sent to the treasury. No stranger is ever permitted to 

 approach the spots where these precious stones are 

 found. The yu or jade mines are situated in the 

 Mogoiing district, about 25 miles south-west of Meink- 

 hoom. During: certain seasons no fewer than 1000 

 men — Shans, Chinese, Panthays, and Kakhyens — are 

 engaged in the excavation of the stone, which is found 

 in the form of rounded boulders, sometimes of con- 

 siderable size. Each digger pays so much a inrmth for 

 the right of search, and all lie finds becomes his own. 

 Momien, in Yunnan, was formerly the chief seat of the 

 manufacture of the ja'le, and still produce-t a consider- 

 able quantity of small articles. 



Mr. Kellow and the proprietors of the blue lime- 

 stone at Wariapola will see, from all that we have 

 stated and quoted, that good spinel crystals are 

 valuable as gems. 



While on matters geological we may mention 

 that amongst rock speclmeus sent to the Exhib- 

 ition Committee, including quartz and clays of 

 variou.s colours decomposed from it in an upland 

 valley, with rock of igneous origin, associated with 

 those metamorphic formations, was a very tine 

 piece of jasper, found by Mr. A. Murray near 

 Bentota. This rock, if found in large masses, ought 

 to be of value. 



With the spinel- bearing limestone we sent to 

 Mr. Murray some pieces of quartz, the Hnding of 

 which in a peaty formation seems to have upset 

 the mental faculties of a correspondent who wrote : — 

 " I fancy the specimens sent are merely quartz, at 

 least heat and acid test, did not shew otherwise, liut 



how the did I hud it (the stone) in a regular fi-it 



'peat moss ' as black as pitch and the ciiaractcr of the 

 other stones, very few, were all different, common 

 schist (is that proper spelling?) aud other decaied 

 common stoue, all of which were few and this on 

 the whole swamp about 1 ton big — by itself ? 



" I *ve followed Sir^ Roderick Murchison aud Geikie ; 

 but I don't mind ever looking for this sort in a peat hole. ! 

 " Something new in my line for new year ! ! I 've not | 

 a micro, to examine the cavities to tell the facets or 

 I need not have troubled you, though I do scratch my 

 head how the kc. it came there aud 1 ton and more 

 too of a piece." j 



Mr. Murray writes :— 



" The fragment's referred to by your somewhat er- 

 ratic corresponiient are quartz of varying quality — the 

 cavities incrusted with perfect rhombohedral ' rock 

 crystals ' contained at one time some carbotiaceous 

 or other nucleus around which the crystals formed. 

 The position of the fragments is accounted for by the 

 simpal fact that they have been — a^es b u:k — iletached 

 by disintegration from the parent mass aud conveyed 

 probably by aqueous agency to the so-called ' peatmoss,' " 



BOTANICAL GARHENS IN NORTHERN 

 INDI.'i. 



The reports of the Government Botanical Gardens j 

 at Saharanpur and Mussoorio ai-e always interesting, j 

 containing, as they do, the results of a large number 

 of experimenti of gre'it pr-ictical iniportauee; ami the I 

 report for the year 1881-85 though it cmitaiiis fewer 

 records of su cessful experiments than some of its 

 pre^'ecessors, is n *t at all iitferior to them in int'rest. 

 Terhaps the ino-tt impotait work il me ar t-ieso 

 Oarlens is that on the ace iinati^ation and cu tiviiion 

 of fruit trees and vegetnbles. This is carried out on 

 a tolerably large scale, and with considerable suooess, 



new or more hardy varieties of useful fruit trees and 

 vegetaliles being constantly o btained and propagated, 

 so that plants aud seeds can be distributed to private 

 iudividuals throughout the province. During the year, 

 more than 42,00li plant? aud cuttings, and 19,()d0 lb. 

 of seeds were sold or given away, the greater part 

 being sold to the general public, who evidently ap- 

 preciate the oppornmity givr-n them of obtaining the 

 seeds of plants which have been so acclimatised, ihat 

 they can be counted upjn to produce good crops if 

 due care be taken with them. This is a point of 

 con.sideraMe impoitmee and one to which we think 

 sufficieut attention is not paid in Madras. Those who 

 attempt to raise flowers or vegetibles here during the 

 cold weather are alwiys more or less troubled by ihe 

 difficulty of getting good seed ; and even if they get 

 the best seed from England, they fin 1 that in some 

 they have very fair crop>, while in other jears almost 

 everything is a failure. Now the experiments made 

 at Sharanpiir show conclusively that many vegetables 

 improve greatly, both in yield" and in haidness, when 

 properly acclimatised. 



Turning to the results of some of last year's ex- 

 periments, we find that those in potatoes confimed 

 the results obtained in the previous jear that 

 the common country varieties give a greater yield 

 than can be obt.iined from imported .sorts. The 

 " .Scotch Obampion." however, coutinues to improve, 

 and seems likly to prove a valuaide addition as .its 

 [ quality is first-rate. The largest yield per acre was 

 I got from the kind known as •• Naiiii Tal," and amounted 

 to 17(i maunds. The "Scotch Champion" increased 

 from -14 maunds in 1883 to 60 maunds in 1S84, and 

 to 71 maunils lu 1885. -Seeds of water melons, sweet 

 melons, punipkius, veget.ible marrows (squashes) and 

 indian-corn were imported from America for trial, and 

 some of them proved superior to any that had pre- 

 viously been grown in the gardens. Of the water 

 melons the ''Ice cream" and "Gipsy water" were 

 small but of exquisite fl^ivour, aucl well deserve to 

 be introduced into this country. Of the melons only 

 three varieties ripened sound fruit, but those were 

 far superior to any of the country kinds. They are 

 known by the somewhat peculiar names of " Netted 

 nutmeg," " Netted citron " and " AVhite -Japan citron." 

 The only new vegetable introduced during the year 

 seems to ha\'e been the kumrali of New Zealand, a 

 kind of sweet potato. It produced a capital crop. 

 The tubers are smaller than those of the lut.lian variety, 

 but not so excessively sweet, and they come into 

 season at the beginning of the cold whether, when 

 other vegetables are scarce. Amongst the new plants 

 introduced into the gardens is one from Jamaica the 

 <j'tuania doitiiiigrii,tis^ A., which is known by the not 

 very eleg.mt name <d' the •' chaw-stick." on account 

 of its ** thill flexible stems being chewed as an agree- 

 able stomachic." Tooth-brushes are also made from 

 it by cutting pieces of a suitable length, aud frayiug 

 out the ends, while tooth-pow der is made from the 

 dried stems. I'^ebrifugal qualities are claimed for it, 

 and it is used for flavouring cooling beverages. Another 

 plant received from .Tamiica is the '* tree tomato, 

 {ci/phomanth'u hetni'ta). It is a uative of South Amer- 

 ica, where it gro\vs as a shrub some five or six feet 

 high. Plants are easily raised from seed, and come 

 into bearing in two years. The cultivation of the .salt 

 bush, on i\hich we reniarked last year, coutinues to 

 meet with lair success, but the seeds hitherto pro- 

 du'Stid have failed to germiu ite. Th-' genus A H/ilcv 

 to which this pl.mt be;ougs, is rep:e^ented in Siud 

 by auothei bushy species A. Stucksii; IViiihl ( biono) 

 which clo.sely resembles the Australian salt bush; ex- 

 periments are now being made to de'ermiue whether 

 or not this can be utdised in th; same way fu" pi tilt- 

 ing on sterile sdiue soils. The "sheep bush'' has 

 proved quite unable to stmd the damp heat of the 

 r.iiiiy season, but perhaps it m-ny be found able to 

 grovv ill s.»m- of the drier pirtsof the Puiij .b where 

 'be climate more c!o.sely resemoles that of its native 

 Africa. 



The report includes a very interesting acconnt of 

 experiments on spider silk. Attention was some time 



