Edible Products. 



TDecembbr, 190& 



One of the most remarkable plants in 

 the vegetable kingdom is that shown 

 in the photograph given in frontispiece, 

 viz., Anthurium pandurifolium. This 

 specimen, thanks to the courtesy of 

 the officials of Kew, has been photo- 

 graphed in the tropical Avoid House 

 of that well-known institution. It is 

 probably the only specimen in Europe, 

 and, according to Mr. Watson, the 

 Curator, has been growing for many 

 years in the Kew collection without a 

 name. Only comparatively recently it 

 has flowered, and thus enabled Kew to 

 determine it. The plant is a native of 

 Costa Rica. At Kew it is grown in a 

 large shallow, hanging pot, which is 

 filled with a loose mixture of sphagnum, 

 old bark, pieces of broken pots and 

 fibrous loam, and thrives to perfection. 

 This suggests at once that the plant is 

 of an epiphytal character, and in its 

 native habitat would be found in the 

 forks of forest trees, in hot, moist and 

 shaded situations. It may be imagined 

 what a striking object the plant forms 

 when it is stated that the leaves measure 

 up to about nine feet in length, the 

 blade, which is like a huge broad band, 

 being about seven feet long, and the 

 stalk from one and a half to two feet. 



AN IMPORTANT TROPICAL 

 CEREAL. 



Maize or Indian Corn (Zea Mays). 



The people of this country with char- 

 acteristic indifference to any article pro- 

 duced locally, do not appear to appre- 

 ciate_the great dietary importance of 

 maize or Indiau corn, the well-known and 

 important cereal so largely grown in 

 other parts of the world. A native of 

 America, the Indians having been found 

 engaged in its cultivation at the period 

 when the New World was discovered by 

 Columbus, maize is now widely distri- 

 buted over the world — in the United 

 States where it is extensively and syste- 

 matically | grown ; in South America; 

 Africa; Australia; India and Ceylon; 

 Burmah and the Straits ; and in parts 

 of Europe along the Mediterranean. 

 Maize grows in a temperate as well as 

 tropical climate ; throughout the hills, 

 at 7,000 feet elevation or more, and in 

 the valleys. It is very hardy and 

 requires little rain, and is rapidly 

 matured. In sixty days from sowing 

 the cobs are fit to cut. A small sweet 

 variety grown in Demerara, called carica, 

 ripens its grain in less , than two months 

 from the time of sowing. Any way, from 

 two to three crops can be taken in a 

 season, which cannot be said of rice or 

 any other cultivated grain. Maize is 



used as an article of food to a very 

 limited extent in Ceylon. The cobs are 

 boiled and eaten in the villages, and the 

 grain roasted and sold in the public 

 thoroughfares much in the same way 

 that roasted chestnuts are hawked 

 about at home ; while corn starch, 

 " arrowroot (which is maize flour), and 

 corn flour," extensively used for light 

 puddings, blanc-mange, custards, etc, 

 and as diet " for infants and invalids" 

 are imported in considerable quantities. 

 As an article of food maize is by no 

 means appreciated in this country as it 

 should be. Maize, which probably ranks 

 next to rice as the grain which affords 

 nutriment to the largest number of 

 human beings has 



MANY QUALITIES TO RECOMMEND 



it for culture where the climate is 

 sufficiently warm to ripen the grain 

 properly, growing as it does freely in 

 very different kinds of soil, as well as 

 under dissimilar states of moisture and 

 dryness. In this country maize is grown 

 in all the Provinces but in a most un- 

 decided fashion. The villager distri- 

 bute e a handful of the grain over his 

 chena among other crops, andthe market 

 gardener raises a few plants among his 

 vegetables and chillies. This is what is 

 done all over the Island, with the excep- 

 tion, however, of Uva where, in recent 

 years, considerable advance has been 

 made in the cultivation of village pro- 

 ducts. This is the only Province in 

 which maize is regularly cultivated as a 

 crop by itself, as a staple article of food. 

 But the corn is ground and converted 

 into the inevitable jumper, like that of 

 kurakkan, in which form it is consumed 

 by the villager. There is no reason, how- 

 ever, why maize should not be largely 

 and systematically cultivated all over 

 the Island as an article of food, and it 

 can be grown by thousands of village 

 cultivators and country farmers who 

 have no idea of its food value. People 

 have only to become acquainted with 

 such food as green corn and the various 

 kinds of bread, pudding and cakes into 

 which maize meal can be made to appre- 

 ciate their usefulness. Maize has proved 

 itself amply sufficient for the susten- 

 ance of human life 



UNDER EVERY CLIMATIC CONDITION. 



It ripens at a time when most other 

 grains have been harvested, and there- 

 fore furnishes employment when there 

 would naturally be little else to do. 

 But what gives to maize its great im- 

 portance is the actual amount of nutri- 

 tive matter which it contains, in which 

 i-espect it is said to be second only to 

 wheat. Dr. Wiley, chemistof the United 

 State3 Department of Agriculture, is an 



