June 2, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
823 
1889, we find that the value of the bnck-tea ex- 
ported to Russia during that year was only 4 315 yen, 
the aggregate value of all other kinds sent to the same 
destination being 1,320 yen. In fact, the export of 
Japanese tea to Russia may be said to have no existence 
as vet. The tea men think, apparently, that this state 
of affairs might be greatly altered by a little enterprise 
and the outlay of some capital, especially when they 
observe that Chinese brick-tea, their principal competi- 
tor, is saddled with an export duty of over 12 per cent. 
They may be right or they may be wrong— the former 
we trust— in this hypothesis. For the moment we note 
only that their apparent purpose is, not to enter into 
competition with the present foreign exporters, but to 
open up a field which the latter have not yet thought 
worth exploiting. At the same time we cannot but 
express surprise that the Government has been per- 
suaded to resume, even on so small a soale, a role which it 
was thought to have wisely abandoned in perpetuity. 
Very strong arguments must have been forthcoming 
to oonvince the Cabinet of the expediency of taking this 
step, and we await their statement with curiosity. 
—Japan Weekly Mail. 

Singapoke.— Mr. Ridley has published a report on 
the damage inflicted on the Coco-nut Palms in Singa- 
pore by two beetles. The illustration which he gives 
shows more forcibly than words can do, the terrible 
extent of the mischief. One beetle is the Oryctes 
rhinoceros, recently figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle • 
the other is the red weevil, Rhyncophorous ferruginous. 
In the case of the Oryctes, it is not the grub which 
is destructive, but the perfect insect which flies by 
night to a Palm and burrows into the heart of the 
terminal bud or cabbage, not unfrequently destroying 
the growing point and causing the death of the tree. 
The pest can be kept in check by diligent destruction 
by fire of the decaying foliage in which the grubs 
live and of the dead trees. The beetles may be ex- 
tracted with a dart fixed on the end of a wire probe. 
Unless, however, these operations are made compulsory 
on all the growers, there is no hope for the careful 
planter surrounded by others who are careless. The 
red weevil deposits its eggs into the base of the 
living leaves of the Palms, the eggs are hatched and 
the grubs find plenty of food in the succulent foliage. 
Their extirpation is a more difficult matter than in 
the case of the preceding, but the same methods may 
be tried. — Gardeners' Chronicle: 
New Guinea Plants— Through the favour of 
Baron von Mueller, we have reoeived advance sheets 
containing the descriptions of the plants collected in 
the highlands of New Guinea by Sir William Maceregnr. 
The vegetation of the alpine heights in the Tropica 
is naturally of extreme interest to Botanists, and 
hardly less so to horticulturists, who may fairly look 
for at least some novelties, more particularly at the 
lower elevations. Higher up, the conditions of alpine 
vegetation, even in the Tropics, are so similar to 
those met with in temperate alpine or in arctic 
regions, that there is a very considerable degree of 
uniformity of tvoe in the vegetation : thus on the 
mountains of New Guinea, Baron Sir Ferdinand v. 
Mueller tell ns, may be found the Dandelion, Taraxacum 
officinale, Aira c»spitosa, Festuca ovina, Lycopodmm 
clavatum, L. Selago, Hymenophyllum, Tuobndgense 
Aspidium aculeatum, all plants common on our Scottish 
or "Welsh hills and elsewhere in Britain. Several 
new Rhododendrons are described, in connection with 
which the Baron reminds travellers unable to collect, 
speoimens or seeds for exportation, that they might 
collect the pollen and send it home to be used tor 
hybridising purposes We should prefer to pick it 
in soft dry pape- rather than in oil-silk, which would 
favour the development of mould. New Epacrids, 
some suitable for cultivation, are dawnbefl. and a 
new Gentian of interesting character. The Conifers 
include Phyllocladns hvpophylla and Lihoce .IrusPopu- 
ana The latter is a particularly interesting discovery, 
the distribution of the genus in California, Chili, 
New Z-aland, Central China, and now in New 
Guinea, being very remarkable.— Ibid, 
Prospects op China Tea.— Writing here on the 
decline of the China tea trade and its causes and 
on what may be done to assist its recovery, we 
write from an interested standpoint, wbile the 
China Overland Trade Report writing in Hongkong 
is a more disinterested spectator of the calamity, 
and its advice will thus, perhaps, engage more 
attention. It says on its latest issue : — The trade 
has become unprofitable for foreign merchants and 
the number of firms engaged in it is diminishing. 
For a few years they continued working without 
profits in hope of better times, but these have not 
come, and one after another is giving up the strug- 
gle. With the total abolition of export duty and 
likin, bright days would again dawn for the tea 
trade of China. The fact that it has maintained 
its ground so long, handicapped as it has been, 
shows how highly China tea is appreciated by con- 
sumers and how readily it would be taken were 
the price reduced by the amount now paid as tax- 
ation. No lesson of political economv is clearer 
than that export duties are inherently virions. 
The question of protection or free trade may stiff 
be open to argument ; the polioy of giving bounties 
on exports also finds supporters ; but to handicap 
the products of a country, especially when there 
are keen competitors in the field, is a self-evident 
mistake. To give up the duty would he a great 
sacrifice to the Chinese Government, who would 
lose a revenue of nearly five million taels ■ but 
that is bound to disappear in any case ; the only 
question is whether it shall be allowed to dwindle 
away graduallv until at length the trade is anni- 
hilated or whether it shall hi sacrificed at once, 
and the trade be preserved. — N. Q Herald. 
Linnean Societv. — The Society met on March 6, 
Mr. Carruthers, e s s.. President in the chair. Mr. 
S. Lithgow was admitted, and Messrs. J. Lane, E. R. 
Waite, and G. F. EUiott were elected Fellows of the 
Society. Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited a dried speci- 
men of Picramnia antidesma. the plant from the bark 
of which medicine known as Cascbra amara is believed 
to be prepared, and which is a useful alterative in dis- 
eases of the blood and skin. A paper was read bv Mr. 
D. Morris on the production of seed in certain varieties 
of Sugar-cane, the Saccarum officinarum. It was 
pointed out that, although well known as a cultivated 
plant, the Sugar-cane had nowhere been found wild ; 
nor had the se p d (caryops's') been figured or described ; 
it being the generally received opinion that having been 
propagated entirely bv slips or cuttings, it had lost 
the power of producing seed. Spikelets, however, 
received at Kew, had been carefully examined and the 
seed found which was now for the first time exhibited 
by Mr. Morris. He anticipated that by cross.ferti'isatinn 
and selection of seedlings, the Sugar-cane might he 
greatly improved, and much importance was attached 
to the subject, as it opened up a new field of investi- 
gation in regard to Sugar-cane cultivation. Mr. J. G. 
Baker and Mr. Christy concurred. A paper was then 
read by Mr. Sneneer Moore on " The true Nature of 
callus : Part I. The Vegetable Marrow and Bal'ia 
callitricha." It was shown that 1 the callus of sieve-tubes 
of the Vegetable Marrow gives marked proteid. reac- 
tions, and since it is dissolved in a peptonisine fluid, 
there can he no donbt of it being a true prnt-eid. and not, 
a kind of a starchy mucilage, as is usua'lv supposed. 
The " stoppers " of Ballia also vield proteid reactions ; 
hut as inasmuch as they resist pastric digestion, the 
substance cannot he a true nrotoid, and may. perbans, 
be all''d ti lardaccin. Mr. Moore maintained tbe 
view of Russnw. Stragsbnrger, and others, that callus 
is deposited upon tb° sieve, tn be correct in tbe case 
nf the Vegetable Marrow, since a peptonising fluid 
clears the sipve-pla*es, and leaves them in tbeir pristine 
condition, which wnuld not be the case if callus were 
formed by a swelline un of the sieve". A discussion 
fol'oved, in which Dr. F.W.Oliver, Dr. D. FT Soc-tt, 
Professor Reynolds Green, and Mr. George Murray 
took part.— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
