6 



last syrup. In fact 6d. per lb. would more than cover cost of production apart from labour, and the 

 labour is certainly not greater than that bestowed on most English preserves sold at from 4d. to 6d. 

 per lb. The usual statement as to the cost of the manufacture of ginger is as follows : — 



It takes 3 lbs. of lump sugar at 9d. per lb. to make one lb. of ginger. 



Ginger has to be so much pared away that Is. worth makes only a few lbs. 



The labour is very great and the profit very small. 



All these are, I maintain, false statements and have stood in the way of anything like a laro-e and 

 remunerative trade in Jamaica preserves being established. Fortnum and Mason give it as their opinion 

 that the bar to such a trade is that Jamaica preserve cannot be sold in London in Is. glass jars, the 

 British public will buy a small jar of any foreign delicacy at Is. when they would refuse a larger one 

 at Is. 6d. This seems to me a hint worth taking. We ought to popularize our beautiful and delicious 

 preserves by selling them at a small profit which experience has proved again and again results in a 

 much larger gain in the long run. For instance, can any Jamaican assert that guava jelly costs more 

 to make than the best strawberry jam which is sold in highly ornamental glass jars at 6d. per lb. any 

 where in England. The guavas grow wild here and can be had in profusion for the picking. Jamaican 

 vacuum pan sugar makes the jelly in perfection and can be bought by the barrel at about l\ per lb., if 

 I am not mistaken, and having made both strawberry jam and guava jelly myself, I can confidently 

 assert that the latter is not half the trouble of the former. My sole object in writing this is that I 

 believe Jamaica is throwing away a large and lucrative trade which might be hers if she would remem- 

 ber her own wise saw " Greedy choke puppy." 



Ginger. — Pour boiling water on your ginger and let it steep for a day and a night, then peel and 

 pare away all discoloured and hard parts. Boil a syrup of 1 lb. lump sugar to 6 pints water (this is for 

 12 lbs. ginger.) Put your ginger into a stone jar and pour the thin boiling syrup on it, let this stand 

 for a week or ten days, then draw off the syrup and throw another exactly the same as the last again 

 boiling over your ginger, let this stand for another week, then throw off the second syrup and drain 

 the ginger well on a hair sieve, return it to the jar and pour over it the final syrup made as follows : — 

 12 lbs. loaf sugar to 12 pints boiling water. Stir till the sugar is dissolved for fear it should settle 

 and burn, then boil till it is as thick as good honey, and drops slowly from a silver spoon ; now pour 

 boiling water over the ginger and let it stand till cold when you can put it into the bottles or jars in 

 which it is to remain. Put in the pieces of ginger first as close as they will pack, then fill right up to 

 the cork to leave no room for air. The corks should be new and good, not old ones that have been 

 pierced by cork screws. 



PHASMIDiE OR STICK INSECTS. 



On October 2nd, I received from Mr. W. Fawcett a few specimens of a species of stick insect ; 

 and on October 15, Mr. Robert Sidgwick sent me many of the same All these were collected at 

 Chestervale, where they occurred abundantly on a hedge of Tecoma capensis, Lindl. These insects are 

 dark brown, with rudimentary wing-cases, but well-developed wings. With the first lot came a single 

 individual of the female of Haplopus jamaicensis (Drury) Westw., which is much larger, being over 

 five inches long, yellowish in colour, and with the wings quite rudimentary Without careful exami- 

 nation, it seemed likely that the many smaller specimens referred to were the male of the Haplopus, 

 as that is winged, and only about the same size as the largest of them. But on coming to look 

 more carefully at these insects, it became evident that they could not be male Haplopus, from their 

 much stouter thorax, unarmed femora, and various other characters. They also varied in size among 

 themselves, and although all winged, could easily be divided into two lots, one of individuals about two- 

 and-a-half inches long, the other of little ones, little more than an inch and a half long. On dissecting 

 one of the larger ones, I found numerous eggs, thus proving that it was the female, and the little sort 

 the mal e, of a single species, quite different from any Haplopus. 



Turning now to the known genera of Phasmidw, we find our species belongs to the genua 

 Necroscia, species N. cyllarus, Westw. To recapitulate the characters noticed ; Necroscia* has both sexes 

 winged, and the thighs smooth ; Haplopus has the male fully winged, but the female with only rudi- 

 ments of those organs, and the thighs are slightly spiny ; while finally some other genera, as Dia- 

 pheromera, have both sexes wingless. 



The stick-insects cannot well be mistaken for any others : their stick-like shape and long slender 

 legs distinguish them at a glance. The Mantidai, represented by the Praying Mantis, are allied to 

 them and very similar in shape, but at once known by the curious form of the first pair of legs. 



Stick-insects are not as a rule very destructive, but occasionally they occur in immense numbers, 

 and do damage by defoliating the trees or bushes on which they feed. In the United States, Diaphe- 

 romera femorata, Say, has proved harmful in this way ; and now we have the case of the Jamaica 

 Necroscia. 



As to remedies, the insect may be destroyed at various stages of its growth. Dr. C. V. Riley 

 says : — " While the insects are young, they may be destroyed by sprinkling the underbrush in the 

 timber with Paris- green water, whenever the timber is inclosed so that domestic animals can be kept 

 away from the poisoned vegetation." Paris-green may be applied in the proportion of one pound to 

 100 gallons of water, for the most tender plants ; ranging to one pound to 50 gallons, for those that 

 are leBS liable to be injured. There are various well-known machines for spraying the liquid on the 

 plant : Dr. C. V. Riley remarks : " A thoroughly atomised weak mixture will, under favourable con- 

 ditions, prove as efficient as the stronger ones ; but in wet, showery weather weak applications are 

 more liable to be washed off." 



* I am indebted to Prof. L. Bruner and Dr. C. V. Riley for the identification of our species as N. cyllarus : I had 

 laced it aB a Phasma, (sens, lat.) It should be mentioned, however, that Mr. W. F. Kirby of the British Musemm, to 

 -whom I also sent specimens, regards it aB a possibly new species allied to the Cuban Anophelepis Poeyi of Saussure. 



