NOTES ON ECONOMIC PLANTS. 311 



with but scanty support and fruiting freely in the crevices of 

 stone walls, &c. 



Dahl [Cajanus indicus) grew and produced fruit freely. 

 Considering the large Indian population in the Straits, the 

 plant might be profitably cultivated. 



RlCE (Oxyra sativa). — The mode of cultivating rice is as 

 varied as the nations who cultivate it. The Malays are good 

 cultivators in their particular way ; they take only one crop a 

 year, and which has been ascribed to indolence, but enquiry 

 has led me to the conclusion that this is not the case. What 

 the Malay does is simply this, he grows a crop of rice during 

 one half of the year, and a crop of manure during the other 

 half. One he harvests, the other he digs into the ground to 

 enrich it for his principal crop, and thus obviates the neces- 

 sity of purchasing manure. 



BAMBOOS [Bambusa dendrocalmus, gigantochlia, die). — 

 The absence of serviceable Bamboos in Singapore must be 

 a sore point with Indian immigrants. Clumps of Bamboos are 

 common enough near villages, but are protected on account 

 of their being used as a vegetable in a vouncr state, and do 

 not belong to the species used in house building, &c. Atten- 

 tion has been turned to the introduction of more serviceable 

 kinds, and among those procured are the male Bamboo pos- 

 sessing an almost solid stem, the giant Bamboo, Sikkim 

 Bamboo, green and yellow Java Bamboo and several unnamed 

 kinds from Calcutta. 



SUGAR Cane. — The new varieties of Sugar Cane which 

 have been planted in the Province Wellesley Experimental 

 Nursery have attracted much attention. Planters have ex- 

 pressed a belief that some promising kinds have never been 

 tried in the Colony. The following descriptive summary of 

 some of them will, therefore, be of interest. The summary 

 is taken from results obtained by Mr. MORRIS in Jamaica: — 



" Hillu. — Of slender habit; 16 canes in a clump ; height 

 9 feet; length of joint 5 to 6 inches, circumference 3.7 inches ; 

 leaves heavy ; round stem, 4 feet long, 3 inches wide ; stand> 



