THE '^-k.^-.. 



03RDEM5' BULLETIN, 



5TRAIT5 5ETrLEnENr5. 



Vol. II. Issued April 12th, 1920. No. 7. 



The Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis,) in the East. 



The tlioughts of planters and capitalists have been turning for 

 some time to Elaeis guineensis, the West African Oil-palm, as a 

 new source of supply for oil, which as we see from the Market 

 Eeports is more and more in demand, at prices, which, high as they 

 ^ire, are not unlikely to soar much higher in future. An increased 

 demand for seeds of Elaeis is an indication that the idea of esta- 

 blishing plantations of the palm is taking concrete shape in the 

 minds of many, and this has induced the present writer, as far as 

 his limited means of information allows him to visualise it, to 

 work out for himself the problem of the future of Elaeis as a 

 planting proposition on systematic lines. 



With a view to establisliing a nursery in the Economic Gar- 

 <lens, a look-oait was kept for a bunch of fruit which had shown 

 signs of approaching ripeness for some time. The tree, which bore 

 it, is a well-grown palm measuring no more than 7 feet to the 

 lowest row of branches, and with a girth, at one foot from the 

 ground of 9 feet 10 inches, and 7 feet 2" at five feet from the 

 ground. These measurements include the protuberances due to 

 .stumps of decayed or cut leaves. No records are to be found of 

 the date of its plantation, hut a foreman-gardener who has been 

 working for seven years in the gardens, remembers it as a seedling 

 when he first came. This is the first head of fruit which the tree 

 lias yet produced and this fact allows us to compute its age as 

 somewhere between S and 9 years, for the habit of Elaeis guineensis 

 is at first, to bring forth male flowers only, the female flowers ap- 

 pearing a long time afterwards. Owing to the neglected state in 

 which it had grown, all covered, as is the wont of Elaeis guineensis 

 in similar conditions, with a heavy vegetation of ferns and other 

 •epiphytic plants, we may well allow a couple of year's delay in the 

 ijppearance of the male flowers which one expects on a ]dantation, 

 io come out in the fourth year, and also subsequently, in the 

 appearance of the female flowers. 



N^eglect notwithsta.nding, the tree has, as already said, grown 

 into a fine and vigorous specimen of its kind, with a profusion of 

 leaves from 16 to 18 feet long, and an abundance of dead and 



