7 3 3 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1890. 
understood how a solitary pyramid, rising from the 
sea, or from much lower surrounding levels, lends 
itself to this situation: and how the rising sud, 
flaming above the horizon, will throw the shape of 
euoh a peak in a perfeot isosoeles triangle forward 
upon the opposite space. Aocording as the atmosphere 
is there charged with mist and vapour, and as the sun 
itself climbs the firmanent behind, so will the shadow 
contract and appear to stand upon end, until some- 
times the spectator upon the mountain top is confronted 
by a shadowy facsimile of the cone, reared up before 
him, and appearing to face him with entire uplifted 
bulk. 
This was preoisely what I saw in one December 
from the crest of Adfun's Peak in Ceylon. When the 
sun first arose the triangular shadow was projeoted, 
faint and flat, for miles and miles over land aud 
ocean, its head dippiug in the distant waves. Great 
fleeoy masses of vapour then rolled up from the 
valleys, and formed a sort of wall between earth 
and sky. Simultaneously tbe sun raced upwards, and 
the ever-contracting shadow drew nearer and nearer, 
until it stood upright upon the piled background ot 
vapour, while a prism atio nimbus radiated from its 
clearly -defined apex. As the glittering disc oontinued to 
mount, the mists crumbled, and the shadow itself 
shrunk and was self-devoured, until it finally disap- 
peared from view. 
From the summit of Etna, in the month of April, I 
witnessed the same phenomenon of the recumbent 
shadow ; but, owing to the transparency of the air and 
to the less marked outline of the oone, the vertical 
shadow was not visible. 
There are many beautiful sights in creation, and but 
few more beautiful than these. That, however, is no 
reason why we should describe as a physical portent 
what is merely the natural effect of an easily-ascer- 
tained oausation, or claim it as an evidence that tbere 
are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt 
of in our philosophy. — I am, sir, yours obediently, 
Geobgb N. Cuezon. 
House of Commons, Maroh 4th. 
TOBACCO EXPERIMENTS. 
The report of Messrs. Spencer and Co. and Messrs, 
Oakes and Co., of Madras, on the samples of tobacco 
grown and cured by Mr. Oaine, in the Madura district, 
is not very encouraging. The appearance of the cigars 
made from the tobacco is much better and finer, and 
the color is superior to cigars made from ordinary 
Dindigul tobacco, but tbe cigars made entirely from 
the tobacco do not smoke well, as they burn with a 
dark asb, and the aroma is faint and slightly acrid, 
but the cigars made with ordinary Dindigul tobacco 
with Mr. Caine's tobacco used as wrappers is better, 
but the outer leaf burns unevenly with a wide black 
margin. Mr. Jb'us, the Superintendent of Messrs. Spencer 
and Oo.'s Cigar Department, who has had great experi- 
ence in the cultivation and the manufacture of tobacco 
both in this country and the Dutch Colonies, is of opinion 
that the tobacco has been topped too late, and that too 
many leaves were left on the plant. He suggests 
that ^he caring system to be adopted should be the 
Sumatra and not the American, whioh latter is un- 
suited to the leaves grown in this country ; and if it be 
given strong fermentation, instead of being simply dried 
and assorted, it would very probably not only be sale- 
able in the Indian market, but could also be exported 
to Europe. An analysis made of the samples exhibited 
a very large proportion of nicotine, the chief fault, we 
believe, of all Indian tobacoos. It is hoped that better 
results will be obtained with the tobacco now being 
experimented upon by Mr. Caine, who, from the ex- 
perience he has gained as regards tbe quality of the 
soil, climatio conditions, etc, is hopeful of success — 
Madras Mail, Feb. 28th. 
BARK AND DRUG REPORT. 
Cinchona. — Tuesday's auctions were very heavy, the 
assortment offered including ■ — 
Paokages Packages. 
Ceylon bark ... 1,414 of whioh 1,193 were sold 
East Indian hark... 1,652 „ 1,438 „ 
Java bark ... 36 „ 36 „ 
South American bark 732 „ 237 
Total... 3,834 „ 2,904 „ 
The standard of the barks offered was considerably 
above the average, and the auotions were especially 
notable for the large consignments of East Indian 
barks, mostly of reoent import from Madras, Bombay 
Calicut and Beypore, which they comprised. There 
were numerous valuable parcels of officinalis bark 
and also of renewed sviccirubra. Druggists' varieties, 
which have been somewhat scarce lately, were in, 
unusually large supply. At the commencement of the 
auctions the tone was rather undecided, and buyers 
appeared to hold off ; subsequently the bidding became 
somewhat brisker, and, considering the magnitude of 
the sale, the result cannot be called unsatisfactory, 
although occasionally the level of the previous sales 
was scarcely maintained. We think that the unit may 
be fairly placed at l£d per lb., occasionally reaching 
2d, for fine parcels, but more often dropping to lfd 
per lb. The following are the approximate quantities 
purchased by the principal buyers : — 
lb. 
Agents for the Mannheim and Amsterdam works 163,783 
„ the American, French and Italian works 159,328 
„ the Frankfort o/M. and;Stuttgart works... 75,243 
„ the Auerbach factory " 69,580 
„ the Burnswick faotory 59,411 
Messrs. Howards & Sons 57,389 
Sundry druggists, speculators, &o. 118,526 
Total quantity sold... 
Bought in or withdrawn 
...703,260 
...147,914 
Total amount of bark catalogued ...851,174 
Cubebs. — Small sales are made from time to time 
at ourrent prices, but the principal buyers keep off 
the market, and prices seem to tend slowly downwards. 
The threatened extermination of the cubeb plants in 
the Dutch Indies has lately been forming a theme 
of disoussion among interested parties there. The 
cubeb vine grows wild in abundance in the Preanger 
districts of south-western Java, on the volcanic eastern 
slopes of the Garoet mountain, and the gathering of its 
fruits is a considerable source of revenue to the natives. 
The entire commerce of the article is in the hands of 
the Chinese, who ship the bulk of the berries by way 
of the port of Cheribon to Singapore, while on small 
proportion goes by way of Batavia. The natives col- 
lect the berries by the simple process of pulling the 
vine down entire from the forest trees against whioh 
it clings. The Dutch Indian Government have not 
paid any attention to the extermination which is 
going on, but they are now urged to put pressure 
upon the natives to cultivate the vine. In certain 
parts of Java, however, it has already been culti- 
vated by European planters during the last few 
years. — Chemist and Druggist, March 1st. 
TEA-TABLE TROUBLES. 
There is probably no household article of daily 
consumption which has been the object of such supreme 
gush, such audacity of unmitigated puffery, as that of 
the simple article of tea. At the same time, it is equally 
certain that there is no article which in its time has 
passed through such a scathing ordeal of fierce denunci- 
ation at the hands of professional and unprofessional 
opponents as this same commodity. In its days of earlier 
infancy, when as yet it was unknown as an important 
article of commerce, it was denounced and anathematised 
as a social pest, an enemy of mankind. Eminent 
physicians and learned divines wrote against its use, 
and published pamphlets in which were enumerated 
a fearful list of maladies deolaied to be the result of 
