352 



[November, 912. 



remarkable example ot this curious growth is exhibited in No. IV. Museum 

 at Kew, presented by Lord Iveagh. It is a section of elm trunk that was 

 so hollow as to be merely a shell a few inches thick. On one side of the 

 trunk was a longitudinal slit. The tree appears to have a good growth 

 and to have made vigorous efforts to close up the opening, but having no 

 surface on which to deposit the new wood and bark and thus bridge over 

 the gap between the two lips, it eventually formed by its continual growth 

 on the inner side two remarkable spirals suggesting a pair of scrolls.— (Kew 

 Bulletin.) 



TRANSPLANTING EARLY RICE. 



The following is a descriptive account by Mr. C. M. Conner, which 

 appears in the Philippine Agricultural Review for October, 1912:— 



In transplanting early rice the people near Oalauan, Laguna Province, 

 save from twenty to tweuty-fivre days by sowing the seed rice on banana 

 leaves in the following manner : the seed-bed is prepared in the usual 

 way by puddling the ground tboroughly ; then laying the banana leaves 

 over the surface and sinking them until just enough mud runs in upon 

 the leaves to cover the seed which is to be planted, The seed of some early 

 variety is soaked for thirty-six hours in water in order to hasten the 

 sprouting. The seed is then spread over the banana leaves about 1 centi- 

 meter deep. In twelve or fifteen days, the young plants are about 8 or 

 10 centimeters high and have formed a thick mat over the banana leaves. 

 As the young plants cannot take deep root on account of the banana 

 leaves, the plants may be easily separated without breaking the tender 

 roots. Rice may be transplanted in this way at twelve or fifteen days of 

 age, whereas if planted in the regular ways the plants must be thirty or 

 forty days old or the tender roots will be broken off in pulling the plants 

 from the seedbed and many of the plants will not survive when trans- 

 planted to the field, resulting in an imperfect stand. 



SHEA BUTTER. 



The following is from a note by Mr. O. W. Barrett in the Philippine 

 Agricultural Review for October, 1912 :— 



This commodity of the West Coast of Africa has been for many years 

 a rather important item and though it does not at present enter largely 

 into foreign commerce it is expected with the rapid improvement in 

 transportation to find its way into European markets. This vegetable 

 tallow is prepared from the seeds of a large tree, Butyrospermum parkii. 

 This tree and the cousin species Pentadesma butyracea are represented 

 in India by the famous Mahwa, Bassia latifolia, which produces vast 

 quantities of dried flowers used in the making of alcoholic liquors, the 

 oily seeds yielding a greenish lard-like butter. The Shea butter of West 

 Africa is used in cooking, as an illuminating oil and as a sort ot unguent 

 panacea. The exports in Nigeria have from 1906 to 1909 increased from 

 2,000 to 9,000 tons and besides this amount 150 tons of the pure butter were 

 exported in 1910. 



The Shea tree, it should be remembered, does not exist in the area 

 occupied by the West African Oil Palm— the great rival in that continent 

 of the coconut- 



