236 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
Caju. — The oil expressed from the Cashew nut 
is far superior in purity, color and sweetness of 
taste to the best Olive oil. The seed is procurable in 
large quantities in the Negombo and other districts, 
where it grows wild in the jungle and is widely 
cultivated as well- No oil has ever been made in 
the island, the kernels being considered a great 
delicacy by the people. 
Serthia Indica. — Semmanatby. — This oil is pro- 
cured by the destructive distillation of the Semma- 
nathy or Aghib, the wood of which gives out a 
pleasant but faint perfume, and is sometimes taken 
for sandalwood. The odour is due, to the presence 
of the oil, which is said to have antiseptic qualities, 
and is doubtless worth a close examination. The 
tree which never grows to a large size, is found 
abundantly in the country lying between Chilaw and 
Calpentyn, and on the Eastern coast in the 
Batticaloa jungles. 
TANNING SUBSTANCES. 
Ceylon is peculiarly rich in materials suitable 
to the use of the tanner, and if |the native leather 
dressers knew how to prepare skins properly, the 
export of tanned hides might make a good figure in 
the Customs returns. The barbarous custom of 
branding cattle renders the skins so treated of no 
value for the home market, but buffalo hides and deer 
skins are to be had in abundance, together with a 
certain proportion of clean hides, so that there is 
no want of raw material. The process of tanning 
is not very recondite, and a little attention paid to 
the improvement of native methods would be of 
great benefit to those concerned. 
The barks of the Rhizophora Mangle (Kadol), Cas- 
sia Auriculata (Poonasarie), and Anarcardium Oc- 
cidentale (Caju), are solely employed for tanning 
in Ceylon. The first-named contains the greatest 
proportion of tannin, but it would not find favor 
in England on account of the red color which it 
imparts to the hides. This objection, however, ought 
not to apply to any great extent, as there is a vast 
quantity of leather manufactured for purposes 
where the mere color otitis of no moment what 
ever. The Kadol or Mangrove grows in abundance 
on the banks of the creeks and swampy grounds in 
various parts of the island. 
The Cassia Auriculata furnishes a light-colored 
tanning material, which if exported in quantity 
would command a ready sale. The same may be 
said of the Anarcardium, which however has a much 
smaller percentage of tannin, a disadvantage 
which is neutralised to a certain extent by the 
abundance of the tree, which covers a large extent 
of ground in the Southern and Western Provinces, 
In all oases where barks are collected for export, 
they should be boiied down to extracts, care being 
taken not to employ vessels made of iron in the 
operation. Tne new substance which I have been 
able to discover in the claps of astringents as being 
of use to the tanner, are the Memecylon Tinctorium 
(Cassa leaf), the barks of Aareya Arborea (Kahata), 
Terminalia Alata (Kumbuk), and the Cathartocarpus 
Fistula (Siniconda). The first-named article tans 
skin rapidly, producing a light yellow color, with 
considerable bloom upon it. The Aareya Arborea 
which forms jungles in many parts of the Central 
Province and elsewhere contains more tannin even 
than Cathartocarpus which yields above half its 
weight of astringent matter. When converted into 
an f-xtract, it falls into powder, which is not the 
case with the Terminalia, wbicb forms a solid 
coherent substance and will doubtless find favor in 
the tanyards. It abounds on the banks of streams in 
the North-Western Province, and attains the 
greatest size of all the timber trees in the island. The 
wholo of tho articles mentioned in this paragraph 
are of much importance in a commercial point of 
view, and are to be had in any quantity. 
The Acacia Catechu is of course well known as 
affording the famous Pegu "Cutch," but its existence 
in Ceylon was wholly unsuspected until November 
last, when I found it in a jungle at the southern 
end of Patchilapallai in the Jaffna district. I could 
never discover that it extended bevond a patch of 
four or five miles in extent, and Mr. Dyke, whose 
acquaintance with the Flora of his district may be 
considered almost perfect, had never met with it 
elsewhere. The presumption, however, is that a 
diligent search would be more successful, and in 
that case the inhabitants of the northern portions 
of the Peninsula would find it to their interest to 
prepare the Cutch for local consumption, bringing 
as it does a high price in the bazaars. There is no 
skill required in the way of manufacture. The tree 
must be cut down and converted into chips, which 
are boiled for many hours in earthern vessels. A 
second boiling of the wood follows, and the two 
waters are then mixed and boiled down to an extract, 
which is poured into moulds and left to dry slowly. 
Cutch, which is often mistaken for Gambier or 
Terra Japonica, is always worth about 30 per cent 
more in the home market, and contains in its purest 
state 53 per cent of tan. 
The Embryopteris Glutinifera, Timbiri of the 
Singhalese, has never been employed to convert skin 
into leather, but it is universally employed to tan 
fishermen's nets, and the gum which exudes from 
it contains no less than 70 per cent of tannin, the 
largest proportion known to exist in any vegetable 
substance. It contains an oil, a gum and a brown 
dye, and growing as the tree does in inexhaustible 
profusion, the extract made from it would be a 
source of abundant profit. 
To ascertain the existence of tannic acid in any 
vegetable material, the best mode to adopt is to take 
a piece of thin skin, and having carefully cleaned 
and weighed it, to steep it in an infusion of the 
article under experiment and apply a gentle heat'. 
Perhaps in the course of a few hours the tannin 
will have penetrated through all the pores of the 
skin and converted it into leather, when it is only 
necessary to dry it, and on weighing it a second time, 
the increase of specific gravity will be the measure 
of the amount of tannin absorbed. A quicker 
method than the above is within reach of those who 
have chemicals at hand : — Make an infusion of the 
supposed tanning material and add a few grains of 
sulphate of quinine. Pour a few drops of sulphuric 
acid, when the tannin will fall to the bottom in the 
form of a grey precipitate. To get a knowledge of 
the comparative amount of tannin, evaporate the 
solution of the material to dryness and weigh the 
grey precipitate against that formed by an equal 
quantity of Cutch, " the Cashcuttie " of the bazaars. 
If it nearly approachps the outturn of the latter, it may 
be relied upon as worth further notice and investigation. 
FIBRES. 
Almost every known kind of fibre flourishes in the 
island, the Urtica Nivea or Rheea perhaps excepted. 
The soil and climate are peculiarly fitted for their 
growth, so that if the experiments for utilising those 
valuable substances can ever succeed, Ceylon 
affords the best chance of achieving such a result. 
With an increase of population it might be made to 
produce cotton largely of an excellent quality. 
Cotton has always been raised in the island to a 
certain extent, but at one time it formed the chief 
staple of the Jaffna Peninsula which is well suited for 
its growth, as there are several months in the year 
during which no rain falls, and the work of picking 
can be carried on without loss or difficulty. It is 
