December i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 
435 
43 Croton oil {Croton tiglium) grows freely and fruits 
abundantly, 
44 Annato (Bi.xa orellana) grows vigorously, and is 
deserving of a trial on a large scale. 
45 Black pepper {Piper nigrum) grows well in the 
Sett'ement, and might be more extensively cultivated 
to advantage. 
46 Oubebs {Piper cubeba) promise well, and are be- 
ing propagated as largely as possible. 
47 Maltese oranges and lemons. — The lemons have 
grown well and are now flowering. 
48. Mahogany {Sioietenia mail ogam). — Seeds were 
received from Kew in 1886. The plauts have grown 
well, and maDy are now ten feet high. Unfortunately, 
few are free from the ravages of ants. 
49. Two speoies of Eucalypti have grown with re- 
markable vigour, and it would be interesting to try 
these valuable trees on a larger scale. 
50. From a sample of Liberian coffee observed to be 
growing well in the Settlement, and sent to the Kew 
authorities for report, the London Brokers to whom 
the sample was submitted, declared it to be the finest 
sample of Liberian coffee ever seen in the London 
market, 
Roads and Drains. 
61. The main drive through the Garden (from the 
"arden boundary to the Batu Berendau Road) has 
boen widened and maintained, and now admits of a 
drive through the extent of the Garden. 
52. A road, 500 yards in length, has been opened to 
he Assistant Superintendent's quarters. 
Formation. 
53. In July, a supplementary vote of $1,000 and in 
October a further vote of $200 was sanctioned, for 
digging a lake, and levelling the adjoining grounds. 
54. The excavations were continued to the end of the 
year, and 5,000 cubical yards of earth were removed. 
55. A dam remains to be constructed, and a vote 
will be required for the work, which should be com- 
pleted as early as possible, as an abundaut water supply 
close at hand is absolutely necessary. 
56. It may be mentioned that the rainfall for the 
first four months of the year, taking the average for 
that time from 1883-86, amounts only to 3'60 inches 
monthly. Much labour is now lost through fetching 
water from long distances. 
Assistant Superintendent's Quarters. 
57. Quarters for the Assistant Superintendent were 
completed at the end of AuguBt, and occupied on the 
first of September. 
58. A statement of Expenditure is appended in Ap- 
pendix B, and of Revenue collected in Appendix C. 
R. Derry, 
Assistant Superintendent of Forests. 
Malacca 11th, February, 1889. 
CULTIVATION IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS: 
COCONUT PALM DISEASE. 
(From Report by the Director of the Public Gardens 
and Plantations on the Cayman Islands.) 
Botanical Department, Gordon Town P.O., 
Jamaica, 22nd December, 1888. 
The dayman Islands, consisting of Grand Cayman, 
Little Cayman, and Cayman Brae are situated about 
180 miles to the north-west of Jamaica, and perhaps 
the same distance south of the centre of Cuba, that 
is to say, between the meridians of 79° 44' a-id 81° 
26' W. and the parallels of 19° 44' and 19 c 46' N. 
Grand Cayman is the largest of the group. Its 
greatest length, running east and west, is stated to bo 
17 mile u , but the roa 1 which passes a'ong the south 
coast mu^t be twice as long. It is 4 or 5 miles broad 
at the eastern end, and 7 or 8 at the west end. A 
large bay, 6 miles across, oalled the "Sound," cuts 
into the land on the north side, so that the western 
portion of the island is a narrow slip from half to one 
mile broad. The island is low, and surrounded by coral 
reefs. The " Handbook of Jamaica" states that "the 
coast is in some parts bold and rock-bound, but with 
no elevation exceediag 150 feet;" but certainly in the 
western part of the island, the elevation is nothing 
like so much. 
The beach in all the islands is composed of the 
dibris of coral, the pieces ranging in size from large 
lumps to fine sand. Within the beach the coral is 
consolidated into a limestone rock, but the surface ia 
very rough and uneven, due probably to the carbonic 
acid in rain-water acting with different degrees of 
intensity on the varying character of the rocks. The 
residue from this chemical action ia the red clay 
which forms the soil. In Cayman Brae, along the 
west coast, there are cliffs at a short distance from 
the shore 40 or 50 feet high. The character of the 
islands from a geological point of view appears to be 
similar to that of the formation known as the " white 
limestone" in Jamaica, 
With regard to cultivated plants, it may be 
gathered from the nature of the soil, and the wild 
plants that there would be a general resemblance to 
those of Jamaica. In Grand Cayman mangoes are 
not so plentifully distributed aa here; they grow into 
fair-sized trees ; fruit was not ripe, but was said to be 
inferior to some of the Jamaica mangoes. Oranges, 
both sweet and bitter, and a few lemons are pro* 
duced, and great quantities of limes are exported 
pickled. Yams, cocoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, pine- 
apples, melons, sugar-canes, bananas, guinea-grass, all 
flourish, 1 took a few good pinesuckers with me and 
gave them to the Gustos for trial. The sugar-cane 
looked poor but I was told that its indifferent appear- 
ance was due to long-continued drought, and that 
canes grow sometimes from 12 to 15 feet in height. 
There are a great number of papaw trees, some With 
thick trunk and several branches; the fruit is usually 
large and fine. There is a good deal of log-wood, 
fustic, mahogany, and hard-wood timbers. The log- 
wood trees appear to be mostly young, all that was 
fit to cut having been exported. The mahogany and 
hardwoods are u c ed in the construction of well built 
schooners up to 50 tons, the softer timbers for plank- 
ing being important from the United States. The 
good timber has been almost all cut down in the woods 
to the west and south ; but I was told that there are 
great numbers growing still on the north side, where 
also the soil is deeper and richer, and more cultiva- 
tion carried on than elsewhere. I was sorry not to 
have been able to go there, but as it was doubtful 
whether I could go and return in one day, I had to 
abandon a projected visit. It would be interesting 
to know what these timber trees are. The guava and 
the coco plum grow wild. I saw two Coffee trees grow- 
ing not far from the sea, and even in May after 6 
months' drought, there waa a fair quantity of berries 
on them. This is probably the first attempt to grow 
Coffee in these Islands, and the result appears to 
justify planting, where the soil is suffiicently deep- 
In Little Cayman there is Mahogany but no 
Cedar (Cedrela odorata) ; and in Cayman Brae there 
is plenty of Cedar, but scarcely any Mahogany. In 
Little Cayman I waa told that there is no logwood 
nor fustic, and that there was no logwood in Cayman 
Brae, but in the latter island I found fustic in the 
woods. 
Coco-nut Palms grow on Grand Cayman, and 
Cayman Brae- Disease has for several years blighted 
the Palms in Grand Cayman, but no disease has appeared 
in the other island and I was informed that some 
600,000 to 800,000 nuts are annually exported. 
11. No accurate information could be obtained from 
the people as to the first appearance of the disease, 
some said it was 15 years ago, others again thought 
that it might have been 40 years. In a dispatch from 
the Msrquis of Sligo in 1834, he mentions that all the 
Coco-nuts of the leeward side had been destroyed, 
but that the infection had not reached the windward 
side. It is probably that this was the same deadly 
disease. I saw a great number of these palms of 
different ages in various stages of the disease, and 
at several localities. From George Town I went north- 
wards about 7 miles to north-west point, and east- 
