270 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
Consumption oe Quinine in the States.— 
The United States should be the future saving of 
cinchona, as of tea, planters ! We read in the Chemist 
and Drug gist oi Aug. 24th:— " The imports of foreign- 
made quinine into the United States between 
January let and August 3rd have been 1,877,014 oz. 
against 997,200 oz. during the corresponding period 
of 1888. In St. Louis and other districts liable to 
malarial fever quinine is said to be in better demand 
this year than in any previous season." 
The Manufacture of Quinine in India.— 
It has often been questioned— says the Madras Mail— 
whether a factory for the manufacture of quinine 
could be profitably started in India, and up to the 
introduction of the process now in use at Nadu- 
vatam the answer has been in the negative. Now, 
however, tangible results have been achieved, as 
the 101b. jars of sulphate of quinine, equal in 
purity to Howard's, which may be seen at the 
factory should convince the most sceptical. The 
next question is, can the drug be produced in pay- 
ins quantities ; or is it— like most of the gold in 
Wynaad,— undeniably there, but too expensive to pro- 
duce ? ***We are still confronted with the anomaly 
of stringent orders against private plantations being 
held by Civil Servants, whilst the collective head of 
those Civil Servants owns large estates,— which, had 
they been disposed of when they should have been, 
would have realised a very large sum, but which 
are now probably reduced in value 75 per cent by 
the fall in the price of quinine. It is the duty of 
Government to foster an industry, but not to com- 
pete with it, and prices are so low now that even 
the possibility of competition is sufficient to deter 
private enterprise. There would be no fear, were 
a guarantee of non-competition given by Govern- 
ment that the price of quinine would be unduly 
raised as the imported article would always pre- 
serve 'a fair balance, and, if one factory made a 
good profit, others would soon start up to share 
and to compete with it. 
Destruction of Coconut Beetles at the 
Straits —On page 271 we reprint from the 
Straits ' Times an article on the draft bill for 
the destruction of coconut beetles in the Straits 
Settlements. Our contemporary entirely approves 
of this bill, but in a footnote to the extract we point 
out some serious objections to the measure, and ex- 
press a doubt as to its receiving the sanction of the 
home Government. We also give the remarks of 
the Pinang Gazette and the Straits Independent on 
the proposed bill, and it will be seen that, while the 
former considers legislation on the subject necessary 
but that the bill needs modifying, the latter paper 
condemns the measure in toto. The editor says:— 
It is very much to be regretted that prior to 
framing Bills of the nature of the one which forms 
the subject of our remarks, steps are not taken to 
ascertain the views and opinions entertained "by plan- 
ters and other practical men competent to express an 
opinion on the subject at issue. . 
He also refers to Ceylon evidently in the following:— 
We believe that in all countries where there are 
coconut trees these beetles do attack the trees to a 
greater or less extent. There is a British colony, not 
far' away where there are some of the largest coco- 
nut estates in the world; they are owned by Euro- 
pi ina unwell as natives, and wo know also that they 
are likewise troubled by these beetles. But we have 
heard of any of them having applied to the 
Government forspecial legiwation to f ree them from 
, ,,. pesl in fact, we think that if a 'Bill on the lines 
proposed' here went attempted _ to be introduced in 
that colony the natives would rise in open rebellion, 
because ttoey would sooner sacrifice their own lives 
rather than allow a single coconut to be cut down, 
i fainly the bill will have to bo considerably 
modified ore it oan bo pasBed. 
Vanilla. — The new Mauritius crop, which is known 
to be very short, is now due at Port Louis. At 
auction to-day only a few tins offered, and were partly 
sold at high prices. — Chemist and Druggist. 
The Dwari 'ed Trees of Japan. — The French are 
much interested in the dwarf trees shown by the 
Japanese horticulturists at the Exhibition. There are 
exhibited Thuias, Pines, and Cedars, said to be 100 
to 150 years old, not higher than 18 inches. Hence 
one can have small forests in flower-pots, and a col- 
lection of Fir trees in a balcony. They are puzzled 
to conceive how these vegetable deformities are pro- 
duced by patience and labour. Kach branch as it shoots 
is said to be embedded in earth and retained in position 
by props or supports and bands. The curvature is 
made at right angles, and the upper part of the branch 
continues to grow while the other withers and dies. 
Every time a young sucker or shoot appears it is treated 
in the same manner. It is by thus stopping the 
development and forcing the tree to take various con- 
torted forms, that they are able to produce these 
curious abortions, 'lhis has to be continued by several 
generations of horticulturists, if we are to believe. 
Whether there is anything to admire in such dwarf 
trees is a question of taste : but a sight of them 
explains the fantastic and unnatural forms of the 
plants which the Japanese produce on their lacquered 
trays, on their bronzes, and their embroideries. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Limes of Western Europe. — Mr, C. S. Sargent, in 
the Garden and Forest, says that, " I can find no dis- 
tinguishing characters in the bark, in the habit of 
growth, or in the flowers, which in all three species 
are destitute of the petaloid scales that occur in those 
of our American species, or in the winter buds of 
these trees as they are found growing here ; but in 
the leaves and in the fruit they are clearly distinct. 
The following characters, therefore, may be found 
useful in enabling cultivators who cannot always readily 
refer to the old figures to distinguish the different 
species : — 
" Conspectus of the Species. 
"Leaves pubescent: fruit prominently four -ribbed 
at maturity. ... 1. Tiiia platyphyllos. 
" Leaves naked, except in the axils of the principal 
veins : fruit destitute of wings. 
" Leaves ample, the base more or less oblique, green 
on both surfaces : tufts of hairs pale : shell of the 
fruit thick and tough. . . . 2. T. vulgaris. 
" Leaves small, sub-cordate or rounded at the base, 
pale on the lower surface : tufts of hair, rusty brown : 
shell of the fruit thin and brittle. . . . 3. T. ulnifolia." 
— Gardeners' Chronicle, 
Eugenia Jambolina. — The value of Jambul in cases 
of diabetes has not so far been conclusively proved, 
and I therefore give all the information I have been 
able to secure, in order to enable the profession to 
form some sort of opinion upon a drug which, if it 
really performs what is claimed for it, would be hailed 
as one of the most important additions to recent 
Materia Medica, It will be seen from the reports which 
follow that in many cases Jambul does certainly appear 
to have been of benefit, whilst in others it failed 
entirely. To account for this strange uncertainty in 
the action is, with our still imperfect knowledge of 
the chemistry of Jambul seed, somewhat difficult. 
Some explanation may be looked for by workers in the 
process of drying the seed, but although this may be 
a correct view to take, there is the fact that seed 
taken from one bag received from the East Indies has 
yielded totally opposite results in the hands <»f medical 
men. It is no longer a subject of doubt that Jambul seed 
has the power to prevent the transformation of starch 
into saccharine matter, and I am greatly indebted to 
Dr. T. A. E- Balfour, of the Royal College of Phy- 
sicians of Edinburgh, and his co-worker, Dr. G. Sims 
Woodhead, for important evidence on the behaviour of 
Jambul in the presence of Staroh, and also on the 
results obtained with it in a case of diabetes. — Christy's 
" New Commercial Plants and Drugs." 
