Makch, 1909.] 



280a 



Miscellaneous* 



still tliey had remained unchanged. But 

 the British administration, whatever its 

 faults, had set an inevitable mark upon 

 this land, and whatever the future 

 might hold, that mark would never be 

 wiped out because it had one great wea- 

 pon, one great dissolveut which would 

 revolutionize the life of the village as it 

 had revolutionized the life of the town; 

 it would create a different villager as it 

 had created a different townsman. Once 

 thev had a system of widespread edu- 

 cation throughout this land, then, 

 whatever the future might hold, they 

 must be sure that the land and its 

 inhabitants would never be the same 

 again. 



Proceeding to deal with the question 

 of famines, the lecturer said that the out- 

 standing fact which had to be realised 

 now was that mainly by railways and 

 partly by irrigation for the first time 

 the problem of famine had been turned 

 into a soluble one The problem of 

 famine had now been transformed into a 

 problem of acute unemployment. They 

 could never prevent drought as they 

 couli now prevent unemployment, but 

 they were now in a position when they 

 were looking forward to the time when 

 deaths from famine consequent upon 

 drought would be as rare as were deaths 

 from unemployment in England. — Times 

 of India Mail Edition January lfitb, 1909. 



Correspondence. 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mocha, Maskeliya, 19th February, 1909. 



Sir, — I was glad to see you approve of 

 Mr. Boucher's suggestion to include 

 articles on birds in the T.A. They play 

 their part in agriculture, and sometimes 

 a very important part. I would suggest 

 your taking the commonest birds first, 

 one at a time, giving us what Legge says 

 about them, and then perhaps some of 

 your readers might add some up-to-date 

 information about them. 



A contributor to the -'Times of 

 Ceylon," the " Man in the White Hat," 

 could, I am sure, give many interesting 

 notes. 



R. MACLURE. 

 [We hope to be able to carry out some- 

 thing of the kind.— Ed.] 



gOME OTHER ORNAMENTAL TREES. 



Kandy, 14th January, 1909. 

 Sir, — Referring to Mr. Macmillan's 

 letter of 20th October last, in the T.A. for 

 December, I did not mean to imply that 

 the Parkia Boxburghii was introduced 

 into the Island by the late Col. Byrde, 

 but that he first planted that in Kandy. 

 I do not quite see how, therefore, the 

 statement that "the trees at Kandy 

 were introduced by the late Col, Byrde " 

 is misleading, It does not imply that 

 they were not obtained from the Pera- 

 den'iya Gardens. Similarly as regards 

 the other trees, with the exception of 

 the small-leaved or " Marsh" Mahogany, 

 which appears to have been introduced 

 by Mr. Dyke, through the instrument- 

 ality of the Botanic Gardens. The 

 macrophylla came from Henaratgoda. 



J. P. LEWIS. 



BARK-SPLITTING OP RUBBER 

 TREES. 



Tavov, Burmah, 10th, July. 1907. 



SIR, — There is one other thing I 

 fear I must trouble you about which I 

 am worried with rather, that is, the 

 bursting of the bark of some of my 

 rubber trees. What happens is, one day 

 you notice a crack 2 to 7 inches long in 

 the bark of a tree, this opens out and 

 the bark expands, standing away in 

 each side, well separated from the tree. 

 In the course of time fresh bark is 

 formed from the cambium, the old stuff 

 dies off, and the wound gets entirely 

 covered over — having underneath, how- 

 ever, I fear, a more or less extensive piece 

 of dead tissue. A rather bad scar is left, 

 but otherwise the tree seems alright. Is 

 this a kind of canker or a simple burst- 

 ing of the bark owing to excessive sap 

 pressure ? (an unlikely event I should 

 think, however). I shall be extremely 

 obliged for an opinion as to treatment 

 and cause of this. It is entirely my 

 3-year old trees which have suffered, and, 

 as the vigour of the tree seems in no 

 way impaired, I have been naturally 

 very loth to cut them down. The 

 attacked trees are practically in a group 

 on a hillside with a better aspect. 



J. G. F. MARSHALL. 



[I have never seen anything answering 

 to this description in Ceylon, and there- 

 fore cannot hazard any reason. It is, of 

 course, impossible that the tree should 

 burst owing to pressure of the sap. I 

 may take this opportunity of pointing 

 out that it is quite impossible todiagno se 

 diseases at a distance of a thousand 

 miles ; even if specimens are forwarded, 

 they accumulate a host of fungi i u 



