5 



Sample. 



Species and Character. 



Value per lb. 



No. 3 



Bhoken Orange Pekoe ... ... 



Dry leaf is good colour, and with a few tips ; but is rather open 



ragged and too uneven. 

 The liquor is dark, full, and of good flavour. 

 The infused leaf is bright and regular. 



£0 18 



General 



The above Teas are chiefly valuable in the London Market on ac- 

 count of their liquors, the manipulation of the dry leaf boing 

 faulty. We prefer the samples marked Nos. 2 and 3, the leaf 

 being better in colour ; and liquors of finer quality and flavour. 

 No. 1 is too soft in liquor and resembles China Tea, Nos. 2 and 

 3 being more uke Ceylon lea. 



All the samples have a peculiar smell, and taste of some substance 

 quite foreign to Tea ; for this defect we have made due allow- 

 ance in our Report. 



The leaf of No. 1 is quite limp instead of being crisp, the sample 

 has probably been damaged in transit. 





(Sgd.) Gow. Wilson and Stanton. 



D. Morris, Esq.. Royal Gardens, Kew. 



Mr. Morris writes : " We want now some good samples of Jamaica Tea sent over in chests, and 

 grown and manufactured by private planters. This would be a decided step in advance." 



Cinchona Bark. — One lot of Bark has been dried in the Machine at Cinchona with very fair re- 

 sults. It was evident at the time that the temperature was too high, and that the bark would conse- 

 quently suffer bv dissipation of a portion of the alkaloids. It was however submitted to the Island 

 Chemist, together with a sample of the same bark dried on a barbecue. He reports that from the 

 barbecue dried bark, he extracted 3.55 per cent of alkaloids, whilst from the machine dried he obtained 

 3.38 per cent, and that the latter was harder and more difficult to grind This experiment is quite- 

 sufficient to show that the Machine would be useful to Cinchona Planters in drying their bark in 

 plantations high up on the mountains, and distant from any barbecues. 



Corn. — (Maize) Although there has been no opportunity here of drying Corn in the Machine, it 

 is certain that either by kiln-drying or by the use of this Machine, sufficient corn could be grown and 

 dried in the island for all our needs without having to import any. 



Pimento — The preliminary drying might well be done in the Machine, and it would probable 

 much improve its appearance. It would be generally advantageous if those who have tried the Machine 

 with the curing of Cacao or in any other way would communicate with the Director, Cinchona, Gordon 

 Town P. 0. 



SACCHARINE. 



The following information is taken from the Kew Bulletin for January, 1888. (It may be men- 

 tioned that the Kew Bulletin can be obtained through any Bookseller, or direct from the Publishers, 

 Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, London, E.C. Price twopence per 

 copy, exclusive of postage.) 



"In the inaugural address of Sir Henry E. Roscoe, M P., FR.S., to the British Association at Manches- 

 ter on the 27th August, 1886, he drew attention to the chemical principles upon which organic synthesis have 

 been effected. He stated that as soon as the chemical structure of some organic substance has been ascertained 

 or, in other words, as soon as chemists have carefully analysed and determined the exact constituents of a 

 given organic substance, and the mode in which they are arranged within its molecule, there is open to them 

 by a synthetic process or a building up of such constituents on a definite plan, to produce artificially a sub- 

 stance which hitherto may have only been known as naturally occurring in plants or animals. As instances 

 he cited the well known synthesis of the coloring matter of madder by Graebe and Liebermann, and of indigo 

 by Baeyer. Such artificial substances have been rendered possible by an intimate acquaintance with the 

 successive steps by which these substances can be chemically broken up or decomposed. Hence, in a theore- 

 tical sense, a Chemist should be able to produce artificially almost any substance for which, at present, we are 

 entirely dependent upon certain plants. By a purely synthetic process, Chemists may ultimately be able to 

 produce artificial quinine, artificial theine, artificial theobromine, and artificial caffeine. If most artificial sub- 

 stances possessed all the therapeutic or elementary properties of the natural product, and they could be pro- 

 duced in such quantities and at such prices as would compete successfully with them, there is no doubt the 

 growers of cinchona, tea, cacao and coffee, would have some reason to be alarmed for the welfare of their par- 

 ticular industries. But while we may admit that theoretically it will, in most cases, be possible to produce 

 artificial substances having the same chemical constitution as the natural products, it is very doubtful whether 

 the Chemist will, in many cases, find it a remunerative enterprise to compete with the Planter. The list of 

 naturally occurring substances which have been already displaced by these artificially produced by Chemists 

 is not a large one. But from time to time we are made acquainted with some new substances which have 

 been discovered by chemical research, possessing properties singularly similar to those which have been 

 hitherto obtained only from certain plants. Of those as mentioned by Sir Henry Roscoe " the most remarka- 

 ble instance is the production of an artificial sweetening agent, termed saccharine, 250 times sweeter than 

 sugar, prepared by a complicated series of re-actions from coal tar." Tho discoverer of saccharine is Dr. 

 Constantine Fahlberg. 



When the announcement of this discovery was first made, followed soon after by the Appearance of sac- 

 charine as an article of commerce, there naturally arose a well-grounded anxiety among sugar-planters to learn 

 how far this new substance was likely to constitute a competitor with cane-sugar. It is admitted that sac- 



