August, 1912.] 



139 



Payments.— (Continued,) Amount. Total. 



Rs. c. Rs. c. 



Brought Forward ... 38,811-36 



Seed Supply : — 



Excess purchases over sales — 12 68 

 Purchases. Sales. 



Rs. c. Rs. c. 



Vegetable seeds 166 18 166 85 



Paddy ... 66'77 3 '50 



Cotton ... 43-72 5 -30 



Pila ... — 189-65 



Grafted plants 1,744-63 1,468-81 



Congayam grass 7 '49 — 



Soy beans ... 307 24 753 79 



Groundnuts... 39 '75 5 00 



Tobacco ... — 5 00 



Sundries ... 147-93 20-60 



Forward ... 38,824-04 



Payments.— (Continued.) 



Brought forward 

 T„ purpurea ... 144 - 72 

 Coconut ... — 

 Chilli ... 42-26 



Expenditure in 

 distribution 51*59 



Amount. 

 Ks. c. 



68-10 

 63-00 



Total. 

 Rs, c. 



38,824-04 



2,762-28 2,749-60 



(Excess purchases, Rs. 12-68.) 

 Balances in hand : — 



At Bank of Madras 37,871-04 

 Stock of stamps 59 24 



37,930-28 



Total ... 76,754 32 



We certify that we have prepared this account of Receipts and Payments from the books of the 

 Society, and that to the best of our belief it is correct. 



FORD, RHODES, & CHURCH, 

 Colombo, April 20, 1912. Accountants. 



THE GIANT ORCHID. 



One of the most interesting plants at 

 Peradeniya is the Giant Orchid which 

 is now in flower. It is to be found just 

 outside the Orchid House, on a raised 

 mound, This species (Grammatophyllum 

 speciosum) is a native of Malaya, and 

 was introduced into Ceylon before 1880. 

 It is normally an epiphyte, i.e., it grows 

 on the trunks of trees, but it is able to 

 grow equally well when planted in the 

 ground. The Peradeniya specimen was 

 treated as an epiphyte until 1896, when 

 it was removed to a specially prepared 

 mound, with the result that it flowered 

 for the first time in 1898. The flowers 

 are greenish yellow, spotted with red- 

 dish brown, and may attain a breadth 

 of six inches ; prie hundred or more 

 flowers are grouped in a long spike on a 

 stalk four to six feet high. The Pera- 

 deniya specimen has borne more than 

 twenty such flowering stalks at the 

 same time, but at present it is not so 

 luxuriant. A photograph of this inter- 

 esting species was published in the 

 Tropical Agriculturist for September, 

 1905, 



THE WORLD'S BEST KNOWN 

 FRUIT. 



The Banana. 



This is the designation which Mr. 

 O. W- Barrett, in writing to the Philip- 

 pine Agricultural Journal, gives to 

 the banana, which he tells us has 

 travelled further and helped to feed 

 more human beings than any other fruit. 



The origin of the words " banana" and 

 "plantain " are obscure. They are really 

 interchangeable, though some would 

 confine banana to the dessert fruit and 

 plantain to the cooking variety. 



There are said to be 250 or more kinds 

 of bananas and plantains. It is probable 

 that all these were evolved from the 

 numerous wild species found in Africa 

 and Southern Asia. 



AS A ROOT CROP AND BASIS FOR LIQUORS 



Dr. O. P, Cooke, an American autho- 

 rity, believes that the banana was ori- 

 ginally grown as a root crop till the 

 value of the fruits, rendered seedless and 

 of better quality by cultivation, was 

 discovered. 



Among banana preparations which' 

 are little known are a wine> champagne^ 



