April 1 , 1890.] 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist" 
727 
food when occasion requires. Examples of these are 
the Nepenthes or Pitcher plant and the Brosera or 
Sundew, both of which are pretty common in the 
marshy parts of the lowcountry of Ceylon. Mauy of 
these plants present most ingenious contrivances for 
capturing insects. Darwin has written a very interest- 
ing volume on the insectivorous plants dealing fully 
with their peculiarities of struoture, and habits, and 
noting various experiments carried out on them. 
Lastly come the epiphytes, or air plants, among 
which are the orchids, which are able to get water 
and mineral matter from the atmosphere by means 
of the velameu which imbibes the vapour from the 
atmosphere, the mineral food beiDg deposited as dust 
on the rerial roots. Such are the peculiarities in the 
nutrition of some plants. The parasites and insecti- 
vorous plants are among those which ore most peculiar in 
their habits : but the former, as including the parasitic 
fungi, are perhaps most worthy of study, and indeed 
they call for far more attention than has been paid to 
them hitherto. 
NOTES FROM EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 
Ken dan gam uwa. 
The experimental gardens in connection with the 
schools at Kendangamua and Ellawala are laid down with 
crops of arrowroot and collu (horsegram). The latter 
crop is however rather sickly, owing evidently to a defi- 
ciency of lime in the soil. The arrowroot is growing 
luxuriantly as the soil is favourable lo its growth. I 
have seen arrowroot growing in abundance in several 
gardens, the owners of which know very little of its 
uses, and take no proper care of it. I am at present 
getting two bits of laud cleared for cotton and other 
products. A portion of the garden is planted with 
vegetables. 
J. A. P. Samerasekere, 
Agricultural Instructor. 
School of Indus try, Haputale 
During the last holidays, Mr. Wijeysinghe, who is 
a schoolmaster here, and myself visited a village a few 
miles off with the object of showing the inhabitants 
how to use the improved plough; The Howard's 
Ciogalec plough belonging to the school was accord' 
ingly sent to a paddy-field owned by our intelli 
gent and respectable cultivator in the village. At the 
appointed time we went to the field and began the 
work having yoked a pretty tame pair of buffaloes 
to the plough. We had not made the matter very 
public, as we were not quite confident of getting a 
tame pair of animals which wore so necessary for a 
successful exhibition. The few, however, who were 
present received a very favourable impression of the 
good work done by the plough. By way of supple 
menting what we had done, we spoke to them a iittle 
about the merits of the improve! implement. The 
owner of the field now intends to purchase a plough 
for use in the land, and Sir. Wijeysinghe also wishes 
to buy one for his paddy lauds at W6lipanne iu th 
Kalutura District. 
I must not omit to mention that there is not so 
great scope for the improved plough in paddy culti- 
vation up here as there is in the lowcountry. For we 
often find that the valleys are too wet and muddy 
all the year round, and where the land is terraced 
the terraces are "generally too narrow to admit of 
ploughing. Edwin T. Hoole. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
"Penguin" writes of the pedigree of poultry: — It 
has been generally presumed that our present races of 
poultry, from the clumsy Cochin to the gallant game, 
are lineal descendants of the common Indian jungle 
fowl, the Callus Bankira, or, as it is now termed by 
naturalists, the Gallus Ferruginous. Not loDg since 
Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, who is at the same time an 
able naturalist and expert poultry-fancier, and whose 
opinions on such matters carries perhaps more weight 
than that of any individual writer now living, chal- 
lenged this popular belief. In the first place, there does 
not appear to be any sufficient grounds for excluding 
other species of the Gallus besides the Gallus 
Ferruginous from the ancestry of the present poultry 
of commerce and " fancy." There are at least three 
other distinct and well-marked species, viz., the Gallus 
Sonnerati, or Souuerat jungle cock, the Gallus Staubyi, 
or jungle cock of Ceylon, and the Galius Fureatus, or 
forktaiied cock of Java. Mr. Tegetmeier writes : — "I 
have no doubt in my own mind that the wild Galli have 
intermixed in not a few instances, and perhaps iu not 
a few centuries in producing our domesticated breeds." 
Nor does there appear any reason to believe that this 
view is other than plausible and practical. No doubt 
there was from the earliest times communication 
between the Continent of Asia and the Islands of Java 
and Ceylon, and as, since our knowledge of them, 
it has proved that four speciea will and do interbreed 
and produce fertile offspring, there is no reason to 
suppose that we are indebted to nothing but the pure 
and adulterated Bankira species for our present races 
of poultry. The Bankira fowl is described as " closely 
resembling a small black-breasted red game-cook 
with a tail carried more horizontally than usual." The 
wide divergences from this type, even in the !' Game 
races," are certainly more explicable if the possibilty 
be granted that the other species have had some share, 
even if it be but a comparatively small one, in pro« 
ducing them. 
****** 
Nature thus refers to the peculiarity of trees growing 
in inverted position : It is sometimes said about old 
trees {e.g. an old lime in the new gardens at Potsdam) 
that the present branches are properly roots ; and it 
has been reported that trees may be planted, and w ill 
grow, in an inverted position. A scientific enquiry 
into this matter has been made by Herr Kay, in 
Germany, taking a. number of plants of wild vine 
(ampelopsis) and ivy, about 35 metres high. In 
I884I10 planted these with both ends in the ground, 
