JULY 1 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 1909. 19 



25858 to 25860— Continued. 

 25858 and 25859— Continued, 

 the Isthmus twice. The yellow clay still impresses my memory with its sticki- 

 ness and with its similarity to the yellow clays of Mount Canlaon (Negros), where 

 I think perhaps I have seen the most riotous growth of Palasan — our best rat- 

 tan. As I remember it, the rainfall on the Isthmus is probably about 2,400 to 

 2,500 mm. (94 to 98 inches). If it is less than 2,000 mm. (about 79 inches), I 

 think rattans would not do much, although at Perak the precipitation is less 

 and they raise some good, long-jointed canes. 



"For environment the rattans want jungle and plenty of it. My remem- 

 brance of the zone is that the hills were unbroken jungle. Calamus must have 

 a thick mass of medium-sized vegetation to scramble over. 



"There is a single feature of Calamus culture which differentiates it posi- 

 tively from every other sylvan product with which I am acquainted. It is 

 (if there be any such thing) an exception to the law of selection. All are fit 

 to survive under conditions where all other species except those fortuitously 

 well placed would succumb. No amount of crowding or shading seems to 

 choke off a young rattan. Its progress is tedious under adverse conditions, 

 but it struggles up till it gets light and then nothing but the bolo or cutlass 

 can hold it back. In planting practice, this gives it a supreme advantage over 

 most plants. Further, it eliminates the bugbear and expense of jungle clear- 

 ing, a matter which is to be heavily reckoned. I am not prepared to give a 

 thesis on rattan culture, but close observation of its behavior in our smooth 

 bamboo (cana boho), which makes a thicket impervious to any animal except 

 a wild pig and which is voracious enough to choke out every other kind of 

 vegetable life except Calamus, inspires me with exceptional credulity to 

 believe it can be grown more nearly as a purely spontaneous crop than any 

 economic product known, not excepting common timber trees. 



"I am not advocating complete neglect; removal of a fallen limb or a rank 

 herbaceous weed, or an occasional slash with a bolo, would probably accelerate 

 growth, but it is not an essential factor to success. The best commercial rat- 

 tans, both Calamus and Damonorpas, are spiny as hedgehogs and immune 

 from the raids of even deer. Best of all, they are renascent from the butt, 

 and the same land and same planting may be cut over in six or seven years for 

 a second time. There are two very serious drawbacks to a very general adop- 

 tion of rattan planting for profit. One, their shy fruiting habits and conse- 

 quent scarcity of seed; the other, slow development. 



"The fruits are eaten by birds, and seeds can only be obtained where they 

 are concealed from the birds. All the species, I fancy, are, as seeds, of fugitive 

 vitality. This is not only my own limited experience, but is evidently that 

 of European seedsmen — those who are specialists in palm seeds, and who rarely 

 offer them for sale. As most of the species until they reach the sprawling age 

 are remarkably ornamental, far more so than most palms, I can only explain 

 their absence from catalogues of tropical ornamentals upon these grounds. 



"I can give you no idea of the time required to yield a crop. I only know 

 that the crop is slow, very slow. The renewal crop is rapid. I have seen canes 

 on cut-over lands which had been stripped four years before. I think in five 

 or six years at most, and on poor lands, a second crop can be depended upon. 

 A seedling crop, perhaps, in 10 years." {Lyon.) 

 25860. Livistona whitfordii Beccari. 



"This is far more compact, bushy, and ornamental than Livistona rotundi- 

 folia.'''' (Lyon.) 



Distribution. — A native of the province of Tayabas in the island of Luzon. 

 176 



