214 



Garden and Forest. 



[June 27, 1888. 



is, however, -very clear evidence on tire subject. It is a com- 

 mon occun-ence in India to utilize the services of goats to 

 hasten the germination of the seeds of the common Acacia 

 aj-abica, known as the Babul. This tree belongs to the same 

 natural order as the Pithecolohiitin, and grows in the poorest 

 and driest soils of India. The Babul seeds y.'ill not germinate 

 readily in the hot weather, and it is the regular habit, in order 

 to save a season, for a person desirous of a crop of seedlings 

 to make a bargain with a herdsman or a neighbor ^^•ho pos- 

 sesses a flock of goats to quarter them for some days in a small 

 inclosure in which they are fed on Babul leaves and pods. 

 The droppings of the animals contain a certain nvuiiber of 

 seeds which are uninjured, and these now readily germinate, 

 and give rise to plants the same season. I am informed by 

 Dr. Watt that in India 'several other plants are treated in the 

 same way.' The seeds of the several species of cultivated 

 Guava are hard and do not easily germinate. These, how- 

 ever, are said to germinate more freely and readily when they 

 are picked up in night soil. 



" While on this suljject I would mention that when at St. 

 Helena in 1883 I expressed some surprise that no attempt was 

 made to utilize ' urban ' manure in the neighborhood of 

 Jamestown, when the land was so impoverished and yielded 

 such poor crops. I was met by the fact that if such manure 

 was largely used the land would become over-run with plants 

 of the Prickly Pear, Opuniia Ficus-indica, the fruit of which 

 is largely consumed by the inhabitants. There is little doubt 

 that the seeds of this plant, like those of the Guava, and I sus- 

 pect also species of Passiflora, which are swallowed whole, 

 are capable of germination after they have passed through the 

 human body. Another instance occurs to me where the use 

 of manure has been the means of distributing an undesirable 

 plant on cultivated lands. In many tropical countries a grass 

 known as Para, Mauritius, or Scotch Grass, and sometimes as 

 Water Grass {Paniciim barbinodc), has been introduced from 

 Brazil, and highly esteemed for its rapid growth and nourish- 

 ing properties. It grows well in moist situations on the banks 

 of streams, and even in soils so swampy as to be suitable for 

 nothing else. In such situations it spreads rapidly and yields 

 abundant food for cattle and horses. Nothing, however, could 

 be worse than this grass for cultivated areas, where the land is 

 required to be kept free from weeds, and where crops of 

 Sugar-cane, Coffee, Tea and Cacao are raised. It has been 

 found that where animals are fed on this grass the joints, even 

 after passing through the animals, have been known to grow. 

 Hence the manure, if freshly used, has been the means of es- 

 tablishing the plant over wide areas." 



Mr. Morris then cites the Cardoon and common Stork's- 

 bill iyErodiuvi cicu/ariu?n) as plants which have spread over 

 wide acres in South America through the instrumentality 

 of cattle. In the latter instance the seeds become at- 

 tached to the legs and bodies of the animals by means of 

 their bearded carpels, and in this way they are carried over 

 wide areas. 



He then continues : 



" In the Island of Jamaica we have a remarkable instance of 

 the naturalization and wide distribution of an introduced plant 

 in the case of the Indian Mango. In an official report, pub- 

 lished in 1885, I stated that to the Mango, possibly more than 

 any tree in the island, is due the reforesting of the denuded 

 areas in the lower hills; and as in consecpience of the changes 

 taking place in the climate members of the indigenous flora 

 are unable to maintain their ground, it is fortunate the island 

 possesses, in a vigorous and hardy exotic like the Mango, the 

 means of counteracting the baneful effects of deforestation. 

 It specially affects land thrown out of cultivation, and the sides 

 of roads and streams where its seeds are cast aside by man 

 and animals. It practically reclothes the hills and lower 

 slopes with forest, and it enables the land to recuperate its 

 powers under its abundant shade-giving foliage.* It is strange 

 that in Ceylon, which is so much'nearer the home of the spe- 

 cies, the Mango does not spread by self-sown seedlings. We 

 cannot say why such anomalies exist. They do exist, how- 

 ever, and offer problems which can only be solved by a closer 

 study of the conditions of plant life, and the interdepend- 

 ence of plants and animals acting and reacting one upon the 

 other. 



"The Orange tree was introduced to Jamaica more than a 

 hundred years ago. It is now found practically wild over the 

 settled parts of the island, and the fruit is exported to the value 

 of nearly ^50,000 per annum. Up to quite recently very few 



♦Annua! Report, Public Gardens and Plantations, Jamaica, for the Year 1884, 

 P-45. 



trees were planted. Nearly the whole were sown by the 

 agency of frugivorous birds, who carried the seeds from place 

 to place and dropped them in native gardens. Coffee planta- 

 tions. Sugar estates and Grass lands. In such localities the 

 Orange trees grew and flourished, and now a demand has 

 arisen for the fruit in the United States an important industry 

 has been established, the active agents in which have been 

 birds. The agency of birds in the distribution of the seeds of 

 plants is too large a subject to be discussed at length here. A 

 valuable contribution of facts in this direction has lately been 

 made by Dr. Guppy in his important work on the Solomon 

 Islands. As the most recent addition to our knowledge of 

 what takes place in oceanic islands at the present time, it de- 

 serves careful attention. It will suffice only to quote one or 

 two sentences : ' Whilst through the agency of the winds and 

 currents the waves have stocked the islet with its marginal 

 vegetation, the fruit pigeons have been unconsciously s^tock- 

 ing its interior with huge trees, that have sprung from the 

 fruits and seeds they have transported in their crops from the 

 neighboring coasts and islets. The soft and often fleshy fruits 

 on which the fruit pigeons subsist belong to numerous species 

 of trees. Some of them are as large even as a hen's egg, as 

 in the case of those of the species of Canariuin ("Ka-i"), which 

 have a pulpy exterior that is alone digested and retained by 

 the pigeon. Amongst other fruits and trees on which these 

 pigeons subsist, and which they must transport from one 

 locality to another, are those of a species of Elcpocarpus 

 ("toa")j a species of Laurel [Lifsea), a Nutmeg {RTyristica), an 

 Achras, one or more species of Arcca (Palm), and probably a 

 species (of another Palm) Kcntia.' " 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest ; 



Sir. — Referring to the notes on Ficiis aurca, published in 

 your issue of May 9th, it may be interesting to record the fact 

 that to my personal knowledge this tree is quite common on 

 most of the islands, and that it is occasionally found on the 

 mainland of the west coast of Florida, as far north as Tampa 

 Bay. A specimen, almost equal in size to the famous Key 

 West tree, stands on Sneade's Island, at the mouth of the Man- 

 atee River, and there is another on the opposite point (Shaw's 

 Point) almost as large, while specimens with an entire stem- 

 diameter of from two to four feet are not uncommon. It is 

 quite plentifully found on Terra Ceia Island in Tampa Bay, on 

 Anna Maria, Long, Sara Sota, and Casey's Keys, and I remember 

 having seen it often on the Charlotte Harbor.keys, the Chock- 

 aliska Islands, etc. 



Some of the Florida nurserymen have been propagating and 

 selling the plants for the past four years. A quicker and easier 

 method of propagation than from seed, is from cuttings. 

 During the rainy season of our Florida summer, every cutting 

 strikes readily without artificial heat, in one or two weeks. 

 An advantage of Ficus aiirea when used as a decorative plant, 

 is that it is not such a slow grower as Ficus elastica. 



The fact that this tree has not been reported before from the 

 west coast is an indication of the botanical exploration still 

 needed in Florida. The impression seems to prevail that 

 the west coast of Florida is uninteresting, and certainly its 

 plants are very imperfectly known. In Chapman's "Flora of 

 the Soiit/wrn Slates," for instance, three of our most con- 

 spicuous species of native Cactus are not mentioned : Ca-eus 

 -,'ariabilis, found all along the west coast from Punta Rassa 

 southward, in dense masses and almost impenetrable jungles, 

 the terror of the settler who tries to plant a tomato patch on 

 new ground; it is also found on the east coast, I cannot say 

 how far north. Another Cereus, thought by some to be C. 

 colubrinus, but which seems to me to be entirely different, 

 and which is found quite frequently along the coast from 

 Tampa Bay, as far, at least, as to Key Largo ; and Opiintia 

 Tuna, with which our whole coast and ranges of keys fairly 

 liristle ; Indian Key especially presents a chevau.x de /rise of 

 this plant which is appalling. 



Among our native species of epiphytal Orchids, Epiden- 

 drtim rigidum and E. bidentaUim have only been recently 

 known to botanists. Cyrlopodium punctatum has been found 

 at Caximbas and at Chockaliska on the west coast, as well as at 



Manatee, Fla., May 21st, 1888. F- " • KeaSOner. 



[These new stations for Florida plants are interest- 

 ing, especially as indicating how much field-work 

 must still be tione before the plants of the Florida 

 peninsula and their distribution are thoroughly known-. 

 Botanizing in southern Florida has always been and 



