333 



Notices of Books* 



[April 



five cuttings may be obtained in the season. With watering, an early 

 cutting can be got, if required. I have some which will yield affair 

 cutting in about fourteen days. In the cold weather it scarcely grows 

 at all, but from March to October it will yield a constant succession of 

 crops, and is a most valuable addition to our green food. In planting, 

 I have found that joints four or five inches long, and about as far apart, 

 set out like canes, generally took root in a week, and r even in the driest 

 weather, a single watering was sufficient to save them all. Close 

 planting answers best,, as one weeding is then generally enough ; if 

 distant, the coarse grasses generally ehoak it, unless great attention is 

 paid. I have had as much as forty tons of green food from a single 

 beegah, ascertained by weighing the cuttings of a square yard at a time. 

 It is evident that such a crop must exhaust the land, and for that rea* 

 son I think it fails if continued beyond the second year." 



Joomla rice — Victoria wheal — American sumach. — This paper or rather 

 series of papers is made up, 1st, of extracts of correspondence between 

 Br. Wallich and Mr. Robert Stuart, Resident of N-epal, on the culti- 

 vation of mountain rice, and the probability of its successful introduc- 

 tion into Europe ; with a report of experiments, made in the Chelsea 

 Botanic Garden, to determine the practicability of its culture in 

 England, by Mr. Anderson the curator, which failed perhaps from bad 

 management. 2d, an extract from the Plymouth Journal for August 

 1833, on the Victoria wheat, recommending its introduction into Eng- 

 land, on the two-fold grounds of its being exceedingly prolific, and very 

 rapid in its progress to maturity. Whether it would retain these 

 properties in England seems very doubtful. Some that was introduc- 

 ed into Mysore required upwards of 100 days to mature its crop ; in 

 its native country from 70 to 75 days is the time specified. This great 

 difference may depend on the climate of Mysore, being colder than that 

 of Victoria. Would it retain its original properties if sown in the 

 warmer climate of the Carnatic? The subject seems to merit a care- 

 ful trial, and from sowings in several successive months, commencing 

 with the rains in July. We recommend it to the attention of the 

 Agricultural Society. 3d, another extract from the same Journal on 

 American sumach (Casalpinea coredria). This substance promises 

 to prove such a valuable contribution to the arts, and, probably, at no 

 distant period, to the commerce of this country, that we are tempted to 

 transfer the paper entire to our pages ;* the more so as the plant is of 

 tropical origin, and has already been successfully introduced into the 

 Calcutta Botanic garden, as appears from the following notice in the 

 proceedings of the Society. " The Doctor informs the Society that he 



* See Selections p. 348.— Ed. 



