366 SPICES 



CHAP, 



manures of an animal origin is very much more rapid, 

 and produces an excess of ammonia. Horse -dung 

 cannot be safely used for manuring plants in the tropics 

 till it has been rotted for several years, and even then 

 well mixed with the soil in small quantities. 



Both the long capsicum, C. frutescens, and the 

 bird's-eye chili, C. minimum, will grow well in light 

 open soils as described above, but the bird's-eye chili has 

 an undoubted predilection for limestone rocks. In the 

 Malay peninsula it has thoroughly established itself on 

 the limestone cliffs and talus, wherever the natives have 

 brought the fruits ; it spreads all over these places often 

 in great abundance, the seeds being dispersed by birds. 



In the Kew Bulletin (1892, p. 88; 1898, p. 171), Sir 

 John Kirk, writing on the agricultural resources of 

 Zanzibar, says : " The small red peppers or chilies are 

 largely grown in the more dry and rocky part of the 

 island, where the upheaved coral presents a honey- 

 combed surface that favours the accumulation of rich 

 soil in crevices." 



It has also established itself on the coral rocks of 

 Christmas Island. 



The plants are usually grown as annuals and re- 

 planted each year, but they can be grown continuously 

 for two or three years, as a Ceylon planter in Central 

 Africa wrote to the Tropical Agriculturist : 



I have 100 odd acres planted between the lines of coffee as 

 a catch crop. They are now three years old, and lots are 

 beginning to die off after continuous cropping for two years. 

 After the first crop I cut them down and dug them in as 

 manure to the coffee. They grew up again quickly, and I have 

 now nearly finished a second crop. I intend to uproot them 

 and dig them altogether in the course of a few months more, as 

 the coffee has now closed in upon them, and they have served 

 me well, having more than paid for the coffee clearing. I could 

 not pick half the crop for want of labour, but I should say that 

 each tree gave me more than 1 Ib. of dry chilies, and the price 

 I got was from 37s. 6d. to 56s. 6d. per cwt. 



The variety I planted was the common kind, the bird's-eye 

 chili used by the Ceylon coolie. This kind of good quality, 



