136 
grown and bought it for the last 30 gee = had never seen or — 
such a thing as a flower or fruit. N. Cantley, in * Notes 
Economic Plants,” says: * Plants raised zm seed are reported to n 
* well, but to have no scent, but retain it when produced from cuttings. 
«T have not been able to verify these statements, but it is well known 
* that plants do sometimes play - Ae of this kind—sandal-wood 
* frequently.” If this report was ned from native sources it 
probably only represents daoii way eeg cuneta that the plant hardly 
ever bears see 
Many similar sayings exist in regard to other occurrences which are 
either very rare or do not oceur at all. For instance, hidden treasure 
is said to be found beneath a flowering plant of lemon grass; and the 
of a certain bird (which does not build one) will render the finder 
of it invisible. 
CULTIVATION. 
The cultivation of patchouli is carried on almost exclusively by the 
Chinese in the Straits Settlements. They do not grow it on a large 
scale, Lei a man will plant a patch of perhaps half an aere, or an acre 
at a tim 
The land i is trenched and thrown up into long e either 4 = or 
e for h will 
18 inches wide. mer widt take two rows of plants, and 
the latter only one. "The plants are put 2 feet iat Ane the rows. 
The planting should be done in the wet season, an nd the cuttings, 
which are about a foot long, require careful shading with leaves until 
rooted, or they will get withered and die, m plant being a delicate 
one, and very susceptible to the heat of the s 
The first cutting of the crop is made € about six months after 
cet by which time the patchouli will have reached a height of 
feet, and two other euttings are d from the same plants at 
Pads of about six months. At the end of this time the old roots 
are dug up, the land re-trenched and ead and fresh cuttings 
planted. 
I could get no reliable information as to the yield per acre, nor the 
cost of cultivation, but it must be rather high, as the land has to be 
thrown up into beds, manured and carefully weeded, and the been 
shaded, and, in the event of dry weather setting in before they a 
rooted, they have to be watered until established. 
Both flat and hill lands are suitable to its cultivation, and it seems to 
flourish best under slight shade, but probably the pr oduetion of oil is 
less in that grown under shade than in that grown out in the sun, 
Meo the yield of leaf would be greate 
told by a Chinese merchant, a | dilit in patchouli, that it is 
often planted on new land between coffee, nutmegs, and other permanent 
crops, and that it pays all the expenses of clearing ‘and planting, leaving 
the permanent crop as clear profit. 
natural enemies pitchou] seems to have a fair share. One was 
described to me as a beetle, but as the young leaves which it is said to 
attack are dwarfed and deformed rather than eaten, I am inclined to 
think it is a bug. The older leaves are very much attacked by some 
insects, probably caterpillars and some of the grasshoppers. 
pem AND PRICES. 
EY plants are eut down near und when they have reached a 
sufficient si size, one silk only being to each bush. The patchouli is 
