December 26, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



527 



well distributed through the year. Should the present high 

 price of ColTee be maintained it is not unlikely that the culti- 

 vation of Liberian Coffee will prove sufficiently remunerative 

 to warrant further attention being paid to it. 



Tea cake is prepared from a species of Camellia {^Camellia 

 Sasanqita), which "is e.\tensively grown in southChina for the 

 production of seeds, which produ(.:e a valuable oil, known as 

 Tea Oil. The preparation is very simple. The seeds are 

 collected in October or November, dried and taken to the 

 mill, where they are crushed in a circular mortar or trough by 

 a pestle driven through it by water power. The seeds after 

 being crushed are steamed, and then the mass is placed in a 

 powerful press, which expresses the oil. The refuse, after the 

 extraction of the oil, is the article known as Ch'd tsia ping. It 

 is produced in cakes weighing, v,'hen dry, about three ounces 

 and three and a half pounds respectively. The quality of the 

 two kinds of cake is the same. I am not aware that anything 

 besides the seeds of Camellia Sasanqua enters into the com- 

 position of these cakes. CIi a Isia ping is used by the Chinese 

 as a hair wash and as soap for cleansing lioth the person and 

 the clothes. It is also used for eradicating earth-worms from 

 grass lawns. For this purpose the cake is crushed and boiled. 

 The decoction is then diluted and poin'ed on the grass, when 

 the worms come to the surface of the groinid. As a rule, the 

 small worms die, but the larger ones after a time recover. 

 After being picked up from the grass the worms are often 

 given to fowls antl ducks, which devour them readily, and ap- 

 parently thrive on them, experiencing no inconvenience from 

 the effects of the Ch'd tsia ping \v\\\\ which the worms were 

 killed." 



There are articles on the Demerara Pink Root {Spigelia 

 anl/u'lmia), a plant possessing powerful drastic properties, 

 which renders it exceedingly dangerous for animals to graze 

 upon the ground where this plant grows. On the food grains 

 of India, with an analysis of the fruit of Croix gigan lea. On the 

 Yoruba Indigo (Lonc/ioea?-pi/s cyanescens). On the Trinidad 

 Ipecacuanha [Cephaelis toinentosa), from which it appears that 

 "the demand for the official Ipecacuanha is steadily increasing, 

 while the supply of the drug is either stationary or gradually 

 becoming scarcer. Inquiry is, therefore, naturally directed 

 to plants that may possess similar properties, in the hope that 

 they may serve to supplement or replace the drug hitherto 

 excusively in use." 



There are also articles on the Treatment of Vines in 

 France; on Huskless Barley; and a report upon a series of trials 

 of the methods of preparing Ramie fibre, recently undertaken 

 in Paris under the auspices of the French Government. 



We cannot find space for more extended quotations for this 

 issue of the Bulletin, which is certainly one of the most 

 useful of the various publications prepared in the Royal 

 Gardens. 



The last numlfcr of Hooker's . Icones, which appeared in 

 October, completes the eighth volume of the third series, or 

 Volume XVIII. of the entire work. 



Among the plants figured in this issue, which are interesting 

 from other points of view than that of pure science, is the 

 curious Musa prohoscidea, t. 1777; a Banana from the hills 

 of Ukami,in tropical Africa, about 100 miles inland to the west 

 of the Island of Zanzibar, the long axis of the inflorescence 

 hanging down, as shown from a photograph, to about one- 

 third the height of the stems above the ground. Parnassia 

 Faberi, t. 1778, is a minute, but very attractive, species, from 

 Mount Omei, in central China, where it was discovered bv the 

 Reverend K. Faber at an elevation of 4,500 feet. Ile.x inacro- 

 carpa, t. 1787, is a stout shrub or tree which sometimes attains a 

 height of fifty feet, with large, deciduous leaves and black 

 fruits. It is one of Dr. Henry's interesting discoveries in the 

 Ichang gorge of the Nanto'o Mountains, and was sent also 

 from the Kwangtang Province by C. Ford. It maybe expected 

 to be valuable in cultivation. And this is true, also, of Lindera 

 fragrans, t. 1788, another discovery of Dr. Henry's, who 

 remarks, in regard to this elegant plant, that " the leaves are 

 pounded in milk in the glens, and the powder mixed witli 

 that got from the roots of Biota, . . . in a similar way; it is 

 used for making Joss-sticks — sticks of incense used in 

 religious worship." The flowers are fragrant. 



Primula Faberi, t. 1789, is an addition to the series of Chi- 

 nese Primroses which are among tlie most important of the 

 Abbe Delavay's recent discoveries in south-eastern China. It 

 is distinguished by the conspicuous involucre, in which the 

 calyxes of the stout-pediceled flowers are almost hidden. 

 Lonchocarpus eyanescens, t. 1 791, a native of the Yoruba 

 country, a region north of Abbeokuta, is the plant which pro- 

 duces the so-called "Yomba Indigo," which is prepared 'by 



pounding the young leaves to a black, pasty conduion, and 

 then made up into balls tor market. The dye is a fine deep 

 blue in color and very permanent. 



Cadrania triloba, t. \'j<^i, is a member of the family to which 

 the Mulberry belongs. It is the "Silkworm Tree," and is 

 known in China, where it is ([uite widely distributed, as the 

 " Tsa " tree. Dr. Henry reports "that it is common about 

 Ichang, where it is considered to be as good for silkworms as 

 the Alulberry, but it is not used so long as Mulberry leaves 

 can be got, because the tree is thorny and it is troublesome to 

 pick ofi' the leaves. It is hence given chiefly to adult silk- 

 worms, and, as Mulberry leaves soon become finished, it is 

 much used." The tree attains a height of twenty feet. The 

 leafy shoots, more especially those from near the base of the 

 plant, are often armed with strong, stout, axillary spines. 



Acliras Bahamensis, t. 1795, a native of the Bahamas, and No. 

 3837 of Baron Eggers' recent Bahama collection. Mr. Baker 

 finds it " very distinct from the well-known Aihrxis Sapota, 

 not only in the leaf, but also in the structure of the flower, 

 having the segments of the corolla twelve in number instead 

 of six, so that unless it be made a new genus, the character 

 of Achras will have to be materially enlarged." We venture 

 to suggest that this plant is the Mimiisops Sieberi of A. De 

 Candolle, a common tree of semi-tropical Floritla and of the 

 West Indies — a view which is supported by the plate itself, 

 which very well shows the si.x-parted corolla, with the two ap- 

 pendages at the base of each division, and the short, triangu- 

 lar and nearly entire staminodia alternate with the lobes of 

 the corolla, which characterize Mimusop. The figure in 

 Catesby's " Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Ba- 

 hama Islands," to which Mr. Baker calls attention, displays 

 the fruit accurately enough, and there is another figure, 

 although a less satisfactory one, in Nuttall's Sylva (iii., 28, A 

 90), in which the fruit of some other plant seems to have been 

 substituted for that of the Mimusops, which is depressed- 

 globular, about one inch in diameter, dark russet brown 

 when ripe, and barely edible. 



Sir Joseph Hooker figures and describes, in this part of the 

 hones, a number of Indian Orchids, principally belonging to 

 the genus Oberonia, a fact which leads us to hope that his ex- 

 amination of Indian plants for the " Botany of India " is near- 

 ing completion, and that the final parts of this work, one of 

 the most important of the great floras to which the studies of 

 manv vears of his life have been devoted and which no hand 

 but his can so well take up, may soon be expected. 



Notes. 



The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies, which was reviewed in this 

 journal last week, is published in this country by Messrs. 

 Longmans, Green & Co. 



The thirty-first annual meeting of the Missouri State Horti- 

 cultural Society, held on December 5th at Nevada, was excep- 

 tionally interesting. More than one thousand plates of fruit 

 were on exhibition, beside an abundance of choice vegetables 

 and flowers. 



In the Popular Science Monthly for December will be found 

 a translation in full of the Marquis de Saporta's interesting 

 article on "The Origin of Forest Groupings," to which we 

 called attention some" months ago, when it was published in 

 the Revue des Deu.x Mondes. 



Mr. Weiger, of the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide, writes to 

 The Garden (London) describing one of the finest existing 

 specimens of " Fortune's Rose." It stands near the fountain 

 in the garden, was planted twenty-six years ago, and has 

 received no special care, although copiously watered in the 

 dry season. It is a veritable tree, being about twelve feet in 

 height and the same in diameter, while at a foot above the 

 ground, where it breaks into several branches, the stem 

 measures a yard in circumference. 



Dr. Hildebrand, who recently published in Wildeman's Aii- 

 nalen der Physik und Chemic the results of his investigations 

 into the action of moisture upon different kinds of wood, says 

 that more care than is now taken should be exercised in 

 choosing wood for measuring-rules. Mahogany and oak are 

 frequently used for this purpose, but are entirely unfit for it; 

 maple, fir, beech and linden woods being far |,ireferable. 

 With no wood, however, can absolute stability, and therefore 

 accuracy, be depended upon, even though polish, oil or 

 lacquer' be applied to its surface. Air, saturated with steam, 

 will penetrate all but the very best lacquer, and even ivory 

 does not entirely resist its action. 



