46 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1889. 
mountain features to similar scenery in the higher 
mountain regions of Ceylon. The great difference is the 
paucity of streams here, such as tumble down our 
mountain sides in Ceylon. The eucalyptus, " wattle," 
thorny box, casuarina and cherry tree vegetation, 
was, of course, very different when seen close at 
hand, and even the tall tree-ferns which consti- 
tute " the Bower" and shade a long table placed 
for the convenience of picnic parties differed from 
ours, the divergence being entirely in favour of the 
lower but more gracefully curved branches and 
fronds of the Ceylon form. But I do not know 
that the balsams and riilus which form the chief 
undergrowth of our jungles must not yield the palm 
of beauty to the small flowering plants which carpet 
much of the dry forest floors here. For instance, 
there is the heath-like plant, with its lovely pink 
tubular blossoms, of which I enclose a specimen. 
There are no ericas in the flora of Tasmania, but 
this is an excellent substitute. It is known as 
" the red Epacris (Epacris impressa), and is finely 
figured in Mrs. Meredith's charming book " Tas- 
manian Friends and Foes : Feathered, Furred and 
Finned," the coloured pictures in which are pro- 
duced in Marcus Ward's best style. Still more 
beautiful than the heath-like plant is the "Austra- 
lian fuchsia," which, however, is no more a fuchsia 
than the other is a heather. The native fuchsia 
is, botanieally, Correa speciosa, and its drooping 
scarlet and gold flowers are truly lovely. Pretty 
also is " the native lilac," Tetratheca glandulosa, 
and the brown fruit of " the native pepper," Tas- 
mania aromatica. In walking to and from "the 
Bower" we picked up, amongst the white daisies 
which looked very home-like, quite a number of 
"mountain berries," closely resembling some I have 
seen in Oeylon. Mrs. Meredith has given faithful 
portraits of this " purple berry," Billafdieria longi- 
flora, and of the lovely " white cluster," Gualtheria 
hispida, with its rose-like leaves and delicate white 
petals with red centres. The stems resemble those 
of a moss rose. "The blue berry," Drymophila 
cyonacarpa, is very pretty, and so are the red, 
white and black "native chenries" which show their 
stones outside the fruit, the only fruit of any mark 
indigenous to Australia. The botanical name is 
Aristotelia peduncnlari*. The pictures of curious- 
shaped and richly-coloured fishes in Mrs. Meredith's 
book are as faithful as those of the flowers and 
berries and the butterflies and mantises, green and 
brown (the latter a stick insect), which the artist 
represented as resting on them. The queerest 
fishes are "the butterfly lobster," llacus pronii; 
" the pig-faced lady," Histiopterus recurvirostris ; 
and, strangest of all, the richly coloured but 
grotesquely absurd "superb dragon," Phyllopteris 
foliatus. Fish is fairly plentiful and good here, 
and at Bridgewater I saw a fine bag of mullet 
which a boy got in a few hours by the side of 
the causeway and bridge over which road and 
railway cross the Derwent. This river is as famous 
as ever for its enormous salmon trout, but the 
existence of the true salmon in its waters is still 
considered " doubtful." 
♦ 
WEIGHT OF TEA: HOT AND COLD 
LEAVES. 
A wellknown planter writes : — 
" On trying an experiment it was found there was 
a difference between the weight of hot tea leaves 
and cold of -'. per cent. As nearly every planter 
packs hi.) ti-ii hot after rcfirin«, it may account for 
the loss of weight which takes place in England, but 
why it is not discovered in Colombo puzzles me. 
Anyway thft matter is worth enquiring into." 
'I lu Planters' Association, through Mr. W. Martin 
Leake, on one occasion instituted careful inquiries 
in regard to the weight of parchment coffte per 
bushel, and settled that question finally. It 
would be well if similar experiments were made 
by the P. A. Committee to settle the above and 
ther points about tea. 
— — ♦ 
BAEK AND DRUG TRADE REPORT. 
London, May 9th. 
In our iast issue we reported the sale of some 
Annatto seeds, at Thursday's drug sales, at 2d per lb. 
The accuracy of this report is denied by a firm of 
Mincing Lane brokers, who claim that the seeds were 
bought in at 4d per lb, though they might have been 
had at 2d per lb. These brokers say that they had an 
order for annatto seeds from a large provincial customer 
and executed it at 2fJ per lb, to which price their client 
upon reading The Chemist and Daiic gist's report, de- 
murre 3. Now we have referred to our own catalogues of 
the auctions, and also to the printedlists of three different 
firms occupying different positions iu the room. They all 
say that the seeds were sold at 2d per lb. But the broker 
who offered the seed denies having sold them. The in- 
ference, therefore, is that if the seeds were not actually 
sold the lots were treated in such a way by the presi- 
ding broker as to lead different observers, all presu- 
mably alive to what was going on, into the belief that 
a sale was made. When we pointed this out, we 
were told that brokers often do their best to mislead 
the room and to keep their prices secret. Possibly this 
is so, but the question is whether that game is worth 
the candle, or whether such an action is calculated to 
injure those who have recourse to it most of all. 
Cinchona. — The public auctions on Tuesday were, 
as might have been expected, extremely heavy. They 
comprised of : — 
Packages Packages 
Ceylon bark ... 2,098 of which 1,091 were sold 
East Indian bark ... 1,623 „ 1,257 „ 
Java bark ... 170 „ 170 „ 
South American bark 55 „ 30 „ 
Total ... 3,946 „ 3,148 
East Indian barks, from the Wynaad and Mysore 
districts, were again largely represented, and the quality 
of these barks was generally good, several parcels 
bringing prices which pointed to a sulphate of quinine 
equivalent of 4 to 6 per cent, and for such parcels there 
was a good competition at full rates. The Oeylon barks, 
however, included a very large proportion of poor stuff. 
At the commencement of the auctions there appeared 
to be a very fair demand, but gradually this fell oft", 
and towards the close of the sales only very low 
figures could be obtained, and some brokers bought iu 
a rather larger proportion of their goods. The unit is 
generally placed slightly lower than at the preceding 
auctions, though fully as high as the average of the 
Amsterdam sales on May 2nd. 
The following are the approximate quantities pur- 
chased by the principal buyers: — 
Lb. 
Agents for the Auerbach works ... 200,267 
Agents for the American, French, &c, works 148,081 
Agents for the Brunswick works ... 136,581 
Agents fortheFrankfort o/M and Stuttgartworks 110,057 
Agents for the Mannheim & Amsterdam works 87,550 
Messrs. Howards & Sons ... ... 20,965 
Mr. Thomas Whiffen ... ... 4,300 
Sundry druggists... ... ... 62,8j7 
Total sold ... ... 770,648 
Bought in or withdrawn ... 188,944 
Total quantity catalogued ... 959,592 
It should be well understood that the mere weight 
of bark purchased ulfords no guide whatever to the 
quinino yield represented by it, firms who buy a small 
quantity of bark by weight frequently taking the richest 
lots, and vice versa-. An analysis of the catalogues gives 
the following prices for sound bark : — 
