240 



Annals of Horticulture. 



India-rubber tree of India (Ficus e las tied), the Araucarian pine, 

 the date palm of Africa, and quite a number of the beautiful 

 epiphytes of Paraguay clinging to trees upon the grounds, or 

 to the sides of the buildings. There, too, he has the sandal- 

 wood of India, the Yerba-mate (a native of Paraguay), the 

 sterculia nut and many herbaceous plants of equal interest. 



As emigration increases in this country and men of means and 

 taste multiply, it may be hoped that such estates as this will 

 become common, and that there will be more progress in horti- 

 culture, practical and ornamental. At present, as may be seen 

 from this sketch, all these things are in their infancy. The 

 cultivation of the soil, as a general thing, is crude and irregu- 

 lar. The methods are poor, the tools are poor, and no stand- 

 ards of taste and skill are set before the people. It looks now 

 as though emigration and colonization from abroad were to be 

 the main avenues through which the resources of the country 

 are to be developed and the tastes of the native population 

 stimulated and refined. 



2. Trees and Fruits on the "Palm Hills" of India* 



BY REV. S. B. FAIRBANK. 



The Palani mountain tops share in the south-west monsoon, 

 which lasts from June to October, and which is the means of 

 watering the western part of India. But they are at the east- 

 ern part of the Animalai mountains (the mountains of Cochin 

 and Travancore) and get more rain from the north-east mon- 

 soon, which lasts from October to December inclusive, and so 

 this is called the rainy season. This year no rain fell here in 

 January and February, but it began in March and has fallen 

 plentifully in every month since. In some years not less than 

 three inches of rain has fallen in every month of the year. 



The soil is disintegrated gneiss and vegetable deposit. 

 There is so much sand in it that it does not form mud, even 

 when thoroughly saturated. But in most places, by digging a 

 few feet, we find a yellow clayey soil which makes excellent 

 mortar, and the houses are built of stone with this clay for 

 mortar. There is no lime in the soil, and that, when required, 



*The " Palm Hills," or Palani mountains, are located in the south-western part of India 

 in the Madras Presidency. Mr. Fairbank, an American missionary, has lived for over forty 

 years in the neighborhood of the Palanis, mostly at Ahmednagar. in the Deccan. — L. H. B. 



