17 



Proceed ings Agri-Horticultural Society of Madras. 



,, Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. 



Indian Gardening. 

 Tropical Agriculturist. 



Indigo. — In my last Report I gave some information about 

 the plant which has been known in Java and East Indies as 

 " Natal Indigo," and stated that I believed the plant to be 

 Indigofera grata, E.M. At the request of Dr. Prain, Director 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, I obtained specimens 

 of the plant in flower and fruit and forwarded them to him, 

 and he when in England took considerable trouble to identify 

 the plant, and an extract from his letter will be fonnd in the 

 Report of the work in the Colonial Herbarium, from which it 

 will be seen that the plant sent by me is the correct one, the 

 only difference being that it is I. arreota. Hochst and not 

 I. grata*, E.M., the true I arrecta does not appear in the Flora 

 Capensis, the one there described nnder that name is quite 

 another plant and will have to find another name. We have in 

 the Gardens specimens of the native plant and also of the plant 

 reared from seeds gathered in India or Java and the two are 

 quite identical. As considerable doubt exists as to whether or 

 not the natural indigo will be able to compete successfully with 

 the artificially made pigment, I take the liberty of copying an 

 article on the subject which appears in the Agricultural 

 Bulletin of the Straits and Federated Malay States as 

 follows : — 



Indigo. — A Consular Report on the trade of Marseilles and 

 Lyons for 1900 states : — German artificial indigo is killing Indian 

 natural indigo on the French market. The only possible 

 remedy to the situation, full of peril to Indian planters, is the 

 one already recommended in every other industry imperilled by 

 Germany and the United States ; combination and reform in 

 methods. The question is very important to India, and I 

 therefore venture to deal with the subject at some length. 



Decreased Imports at Marseilles. — Indigo imports have steadily 

 decreased in the last few years. Ten years ago the Marseilles 

 market received 1,400 to 1,500 cases annually, whereas in 1899 

 direct imports did not exceed 600 cases. The import rose 

 slightly during 1900. Of the 600 cases imported in 1899, 130 

 came from Java, 50 from Bengal, the remaining 420 from the 

 coast of Coi'omandel. The causes of this decrease were as 

 follows : — European buyers no longer care to compete against 



