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It has also been stated that all soils contain the required mineral 

 constituents necessary for the growth of trees, and, further, that 

 even the meteorological matter contains a sufficient supply. 



357. Elsewhere, I have spoken of the Ficus elastica in Upper 

 Burma, growing in carbonate of lime, but I must explain myself 

 for fear of being misunderstood. The tree was not found in pure 

 carbonate of lime, but in a calcareous form ; i. e., one in which the 

 proportions of liine, clay, humus, and sand gave to it a peculiar 

 physical character ; and may be described according to Schiib- 

 ler's (taken from Fischbach) classification of soils tabulated below, 

 as, clayey calcareous, loamy calcareous, sandy calcareous, and loamy 

 sandy calcareous. 



358. The following will be found a useful and simple rule for 

 determining the quantity of lime in a soil : — Take a hundred 

 grains of the soil (which has been previously heated to redness, to 

 destroy the vegetable matter) and diffuse it through about half a 

 pint of distilled water ; add about one ounce of hydrochloric acid, 

 and allow the mixture to stand for a few hours, observing to stir it 

 from time to time. Bubbles of carbonic acid are given off. After 

 the action has ceased, pour off the clear liquid, dry, and then heat 

 the residue to a redness, and weigh it : the loss is nearly the 

 weight of lime and carbonate of lime in the soil. 



359. The method of planting has been the following : — Bides 

 in the forest thirty feet wide and a hundred feet apart were de- 

 forested, and the plants established at thirty feet by a hundred and 

 thirty. When the rains set in, however, it was found in places 

 that the trees commenced to close in over-head, and that the young 

 Ficus suffered from excess of shade or drip, or both combined. 

 The plants thus affected were either removed to more open places, 

 or the evil remedied by lopping the crowns of the trees when prac- 

 ticable. It must not, however, be gathered from this that I advo- 



