FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 2 



now has the pleasure to transmit you a copy of 

 the 'Report oCthe Senate Committee' on the same 

 subject. Besides the usual number of 1114 copies 

 ofeach Report, 5000 extra copies were ordered to 

 be printed; and the subscriber, at his own expense, 

 has purchased 100 super-extra copies of each, 

 (roin which are taken those presented to you. 

 The subscriber is firmly convinced, that if con- 

 gress were to pass a general law to (rrant all 

 southern Florida on thie terms of the bill for one 

 township alone, not a single settler would accept 

 a single section on condition of the successful in- 

 troduction and cultivation of new and valuable 

 staples of agriculture, adapted to the most sandy, 

 swampy, and steril, or hitherto unproductive and 

 worthless soils. Although it has been reaffirmed 

 by all persons experimentally acquainted with 

 southern Florida, that it is uninhabitable by the 

 white man, and hence not worth even the medi- 

 cines of the soldiers necessary to conquer it; yet 

 the mere fact ol the petition of the subscriber for a 

 conditional grant to experiment tlie correctness of 

 his theory, that the benignity and fertility of the 

 climate vvill counterbalance the malignity and ste- 

 rility of the soil — the mere lact of asking for the 

 •power of location in this reputedly uninhabitable 

 region, is supposed by suspicious indolence and by 

 jealous ignorance, to indicate that 1 must have 

 discovered some mine of treasure in a six miles 

 equare of country never seen by the subscriber. 

 The subscriber believes firmly in the truth of all 

 the official reports of the sickliness and sterility, 

 and absolute v/orthlessness of the soils of southern 

 Florida; yet in the 'Reports of the Committee on 

 Agriculture' of both houses ot congress, you will see 

 developed the leading facts on which rest his hopes 

 of success for new staples of the tropics within 

 tropical Florida. At all events, the subscriber 

 has not yet encountered any intelligent agricultu- 

 rist who does not agree that the inierests of the 

 government and of the nation would be promoted, 

 by ceding all the worthless public lands, on the 

 terms embraced in the bill for a single township, 

 or the forfeiture to government, within eight years, 

 of every section which should not be successfully 

 occupied and cultivated with new and valuable 

 staples. 



It is presumed that every disinterested states- 

 man would at least go so far as to admit, that the 

 government should cede, at the least, one-half of 

 all its unproductive lands, on similar conditions, 

 since every other government in the world cedes 

 all its most productive soils to actual cultivators. 

 The subscriber confidently entertains the hope, 

 that if you give due attention to the documents 

 aforesaid, you vvill give a corresponding support 

 to the enterprise, as he wishes only that kind and 

 degree of aid, which investigators of the subject 

 may consider due to its merits. He has no fear 

 of open hostility from any personage, either in or 

 out of congress, who shall have previously taken 

 the trouble to make himself acquainted with the 

 length, depth, breadth, and bearing of the topic. 

 His only apprehension is from congressional de- 

 lay — delay — delay already extended to six years 

 since the first bill was as unanimously reported as 

 the last have been. By noticing the proceedings 

 of the agricultural societies of New Orleans and'of 

 Charleston, and the resolutions of the legislature, 

 you will be able to decide whether your influence 

 could be beneficially exerted in a similar way, or 



whether it may be more profitably directed to in- 

 dividual members of congress, with the sole view 

 of having the bill taken up the present session and 

 passed into a law, or en. .rely rejected, on its merits 

 or demerits, whichever may seem to predominate, 

 after a fair, fiill and free u.scussion. 



H. Perrinb. 



[Document annexed to Dr. Perrine's Petition.] 

 NEW ZEALAND FLAX LILLY. 



CurtPs Botanical Magazine, Dec. \st, 1832. 

 Phormium tenax. Thumb. Diss. Nov. Gen. p. 

 94. First Gen. n. 24. Prndr. p. 325. Cook. 

 Voy. V. 2, p. 96, cum. Ic. Tlioain in j]nn. du 

 Mas. V. 2, p. 228, et 474, t. 19. St. Fond. v. 

 19, p. 401, t. 20. Redoubt. Liliac, t. 448-449. 

 Jit. Hort. R'ew. ed. 2, v. 2, p. 284. Schult. 

 Syst. Veget. v. 6, p. 621. Spreng. Syst. Veget. 

 V. 2, p. 76. 



Description. — Hoot fleshy, forming a some- 

 what tuberiform root-stock, creeping beneath the 

 surface of the soil, and sending up many tufts of 

 luxuriantly growing leaves from four to eight feet 

 long, and from two to four inches in diameter. 

 They are distichous, vertical, coriaceous, deep 

 green, somewhat glaucous beneath, finely striated, 

 ensiform, the margin and nerve, especially at the 

 backs, are reddish orange ; at the base the inner 

 edge has a deep furrovv, which sheathes the leaf 

 immediately within it, and upon various parts of 

 the surllice a gummy substance flakes off in white 

 spots or scales. 



From the centre of these tufis of leaves arises a 

 scape, "12 feet high, with 13 branches, of which 

 the lower ones contain about 20 flowers, and the 

 upper ones a less number in gra ' lal diminution as 

 they ascend to the top." These flowers are pan- 

 icled and secund, ascending or pointing upwards; 

 the peduncles and pedicils rounded, glabrous, often 

 tinged with purple, and sheathed with scales or 

 bracteae margined with red. 



The lovver flowers of the branches seem to be 

 very generally abortive and deciduous, breaking 

 off' at an apparent joint ; the upper ones bear al- 

 most ripened capsules, while many of the former 

 are still in full flowers, and these capsules are ob- 

 long, tuquetious, brown and wrinkled, attenuated 

 slightly at the base, and surrounded by the with- 

 ered stamens and floral coverings, acuminated at 

 the extremity, and terminated by the persistent 

 but withered style, somewhat fleshy, three celled, 

 each cell bearing numerous, compressed, imbre- 

 caled and erect seeds, inserted upon the inner an- 

 gle of each cell. 



In Cook's 1st voyage, Sir Joseph Banks disco- 

 vered this highly usefLil plant. Speaking of the 

 productions of New Zealand, he says : " But 

 among all the trees, shrubs and plants of this 

 country, there is not one that produces fruit, unless 

 a berry, which has neither sweetness nor flavor,, 

 and which none but the boys took pains to gather,, 

 should be honored with thut appellation. There 

 is, however, a plant that serves the inhabitants in- 

 stead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are 

 put to the same purposes in other countries. Of 

 this plant there are two sorts: the leaves of both 

 resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller 

 and other clusters are more numerous ; in one kind 

 they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. 



