January i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
If this plan were resorted to the public would at 
any rate have au opportunity of finding out for them- 
selves what constitutes a " trade mark" and what an 
estate mark or brand aud I think genuine Ceylon tea 
would benefit. The subscription from each estate 
would be a small one, say ill to begin with, and as 
advertising is of such very great importance in these 
days, this would be an advertisement and one which 
would bear the supposition of being self-supporting. 
The advertisement required to make known the idea 
would only be inserted in papers like the Grocer, 
Grocers' Gazette &o. for the Trade. 
I trust you will make known the idea and obtain 
the opinion of practical people upon it. 
We trust to have the opinion of practical men on 
the above suggestion. Our fear would be that there 
would scarcely be room in any ordinary wrapper 
for the names of some 1,500 Ceylon tea planta- 
tions ? and he would be a bold man who would write 
" finality " over the list of local tea estates. 
WHY THE BRITISH PUBLIC SHOULD 
DRINK PURE CEYLON TEA: 
(By a Planter.) 
1. Because Ceylon tea is pure and China tea is 
impure. 
2. Oeylon Tea is the best the world produces. 
3. It is grown and manufactured by British subjects. 
4. The Ceylon tea industry affords employment in 
ever increasing volume to thousands of British work- 
men in the manufacture of agricultural implements, 
tea machinery, steam engines ; iron work for factory 
buildings, and in railway materials. 
5. China uses no materials of English manufacture 
for the production of her teas, so that the consumption 
of China teas does not therefore assist British in- 
dustries. 
6. To increase the consumption of pure Oeylon 
tea is to improve England's trade in coal, iron, lead, 
railway materials, steam engines, machinery and agri- 
cultural implements in a large degree, and to a lesser 
extent in many minor industries. It also aids in sup. 
porting the growers who are sous of Great Britain and 
the natives of Ceylon who are subjects of Her Majesty. 
The profit made by the Oeylon grower is largely 
expended in Britain and British Colonies, while the 
profit made by the Chinaman is spent in his own 
country. 
7. There are several millions of pounds sterling spent 
annually by consumers of China teas in Great Britain 
and her colonies to the great detriment of the inter- 
ests of their own countrymen at home and abroad. 
Were this money expended on British-grown instead 
of on China-grown tea, a large proportion of it would 
come back to Great Britain to purchase necessities for 
the production of tea. 
8. By drinking pure Ceylon tea you aid not only in 
giving material prosperity to a Crown Colony of the 
Empire, but you assist in the improvement of the 
Trade aud Industries of Great Britain : you follow the 
good example set by Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen 
Victoria who drinks Pure Ceylon Tea — and who only 
lately graciously accepted a present of Ceylon tea sent 
her by the Planters' Association of Cevlon. 
"INDIAN AND CEYLON INSECT PESTS." 
In recurring to our notice of this little work, we 
may repeat that seldom if ever before have the 
forms of our insect pests been so accurately and 
clearly reproduced — the plates being on thick, toned 
paper, photo-etchings from the original pencil 
drawings, works of art popularly as woll as scienti- 
fically. In this way the tea and sal pest with its 
pnrisites, the cardamom pest &o. are all given in 
Part I, and the price of tha pamphlet of 76 
piges with 4 pages of plates at RP25 in Colombo 
is ridiculously oheap. Planters interested in fight- 
ing inseot pests will iind on one plato a represen- 
tation of forcepump, and cyclone nozzles as worked 
for the spray of mixtures recommended to be used. 
To continue our review: a butterfly injurious to rice 
is described, but it does not appear to occur in 
Ceylon. Its scientific name is Suastis gemias (Fabri- 
cius). Next we have 
A Ceylon Oardamom Pest (Lampides elpis, Godart.) 
Plate I, fig. 5, a, male imago ; fig. 5, b. larva ; tig 5, c, 
cardamom capsules, two of which have been punctured by 
the larva, — all natural size. 
Rjports. — Two reports only have been received re- 
garding this pest. The first report is contained in a 
pamphlet entitled " Notes on Cardamom Cultivation," 
by Mr. T. 0. Owen (Colombo, A. M. and J. Ferguson, 
1883), who Dotes — 
" Of the enemies which attack cardamoms the most 
serious is an insect which bores a circular hole in the 
capsules and cleans out the inside; young plantations 
seem much more liable to this pest than older ones. In 
the former case as much as 80 to 90 per cent will some- 
times be attacked and destroyed in this way ; proxi- 
mity to patana seems also the cause of increased lia- 
bility to these attacks. Applications of wood-ash, lime 
or anything of a like nature, are said to be beneficial." 
Mr. Owen failed to identify the insect which does 
the damage, and it has remained unknown till quite 
recently, when Mr. B. Ernest Green, of the Eton 
Estate, Punduloya, Ceylon, found a full-grown larva 
inside a capsule, and, on breeding it, found it to be 
Lampides elpis, Godart, a common butterfly of tne Indo- 
Malayan regit Q belonging to the family Lyccenida. 
The second report above referred to consists of a letter 
from Mr. Green, dated 21st November, 1888, addressed 
to Mr. E. C. Cotes, of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, 
enclosing drawings of the larva and cardamom fruit 
(reproduced on Plate I), and a letter to the writer, 
dated 23rd December, 1888. He writes — 
"It is a curious thing that, although the damage 
caused by the larva of this insect is so general, it was 
only after a long time aud much trouble that I caught 
the criminal red-handed. I had for some time sus- 
pected this pretty little butterfly, as it haunts the 
cardamom clearings in large numbers. Other planters 
seem to have been equally unsuccessful in determining 
the cause of the damage. My drawing was made from 
a single specimen found in situ in the cardamom 
capsule. I unfortunately neglected to make a diawing 
of the pupa. The larva was full-fed at the time [of 
capture], and pupated almost immediately upon the 
side of the box in which it was confined, Siuce then I 
have failed in obtaining other specimens. This is 
probably because the insects are all now on the wing ; 
the larval stale, no doubt, occurs earlier in the year 
during the growth of the young fruit. At the time of 
the cardamom harvest, when one's attention is more 
especially drawn to the damage, the insects have all 
vacated [the capsules], and are possibly lying as pupas 
amongst the shrivelled leaves and stalks. When the 
next fruiting season commences, I intend to msko a 
very careful search for the eggs and larva, and, if suc- 
cessful, will send you a series for examination. I do 
not think the larva attracts ants, or I should have 
noticed the ants frequenting the cardamom stools. In 
drawing the larva I did not notice any secretive gland 
or retractile tentacles. As regards the food of L. elpis, 
its natural food-plant is, no doubt, one or more of the 
allied Scitaminecc, which abound in all Ceylon jungles 
Curcuma, Amomum, &c." 
With regard to Mr. Green's remarks about ants, they 
are in reply to my questions on the subject. Many 
larvaa of the Lycanidce, including au allied species, 
Lampides celianus, Fabricius, have t wo retractile ten- 
tacles on the twelfth segment, and a gland on the 
dorsal line of the eleventh segment, which latter, at 
the will of the larva, gives off a sweet liquid, of which 
ants are extremely fond ; in consequence of this 
many species of Lycanidce, which possess this gland, 
are most carefully tended and guarded by ants, who 
seem to make " cows " of them, much in the same 
way as they utilise Aphides, Coccidce, &c. Mr. Green 
also notes that " Ordinarily from 5 to 10 per cent of 
the fruit capsules are perforated by this inseot," 
