&44 
THE TROTPlOitt. 
/wawtjOLTumsT. 
[June 2, 1890. 
In financial measures the Government have not 
been successful. Exchange has gone down, and 
foreign Capital is Blow to recognise good security 
under the new state of things. The European 
Governments will not recognise the Eepublic until 
it hears the voioe of the nation in its constituent 
assembly. No doubt all will right itself 
soon — order has not been disturbed although in 
European and American papers we see ac- 
oounts of riots &c, &c, these are real canards. 
As far as the material prosperity of Brazil is con- 
cerned I believe the change will do good. Formerly 
everything was smothered up with officialism. When 
anything had to be done with the Government 
letters had to be got from its political supporters, 
and not being able to get these business could not 
be done. This will continue to a oertain extent 
until things got consolidated. 
Agriculture is progressing, free labour is working 
the plantations. The Government which was de- 
posed, borrowed money and advanced to Banks at 
^percent. TheBanks charging G per cent, and taking 
the risk of loss on hypotheses. Many cases hap- 
pened of the money passing to pay old hypothecated 
Bonds, but the most I believe went to the support 
of the planters. In the Province of S. Paulo 
large numbers of European families have settled on 
estates, and this Immigration is still continued. 
Other Provinces or States as they are now called 
are following the example of S. Paulo— Govern- 
ment sends the Immigrant family free to the 
nearest Railway station. 
Coffee planting is being extended on all sides 
in new land : much faster than old Districts die 
out new ones are formed. The distance from tho 
sea-port is considered nothing. Eailway carriage 
makes up for distanoe. Railways are being made 
everywhere. There is at present a momentary check 
on these enterprizes owing to want of confidence 
in Europe, but on the Republic being officially 
recognized by all the European nations oapital will 
flow its usual course. 
Foreign capital employed in Brazil is not exclu- 
sively British. There is French as well, and a fair 
amount of Belgian. Brazil is rich in natural resources 
and with only a very few exceptions her Railway 
lines pay well. 
There is talk of a land tax in lieu of the export 
duty. This will bring cfieap land into the market 
a bad outlook for holders who will neither cultivate 
nor sell. There are thousands and thousands of acres 
held by large owners who will not cultivate the land 
nor will they sell it. Coffee land near a railway 
sells now from £10 to £20 an acre, and although 
there are large tracts in private hands, land can 
scarcely be had to buy. The proposed new law 
is being much discussed in the papers, and its 
advocates seem to have a strong side, that is 
putting it against export duty. In Ceylon you 
have no export duty and no need of a land tax 
and your endeavour should be to resist the latter 
as much as you can. Here it is different, the 
planter pays someway or other on his coffee in 
Municipal, Provincial, and general Government 
taxes from 10 per cent to 12 per cent before 
the Agent for the European or American buyer 
can put it aboard ship. 
Coffee in Bkazil. — Sr. Luiz do Castilho, the 
Bio de Janeiro state agricultural expert, estimates 
that according to tho present planting methods 4,000 
coffee trtefl produce 80 arrobas of clean coffee, 
which at 5$ gives 4"0ft. To raise this coffee one' 
man's work for 300 days is requisite, which at 
1 "-000 per day amounts to d50fl ; result a Iosb of 
•008 to tho planter.— Bio Neivs. 
ABOUT THE HILL COUNTRY, CEYLON. 
flowers, fruit and vegetation in the hills and 
IN the lowcountet. 
Colombo, May 12th. 
"From the Hills" is still an appropriate title for 
notes which have been brought down to be extended. 
Before returning to the Haputale railway summit 
and its wonderful series of tunnels, however, I 
must just glance at the effects of summer genial- 
ity at an altitude not far short of 6,000 feet and 
again at sea level. Before I left " the hills" on the 
8th the outburst of bloom under the influence of 
nearly a fortnight of warmth and sunniness after 
the heavy rains of April, was calculated to convey 
an idea of what " the Indian summer" of North Ame- 
rica must be. In the garden attached to Upper 
Abbotsford bungalow, the elevation of which is 5,7.'>0 
feet above mean sea level, the show of blossom was 
such that I obtained from Mr. A. M. Ferguson 
junior, the following floral list. It does not include a 
considerable number of plants which are likely to blos- 
som further on, but as the heading ehewB, only those 
actually in bloom, at the end of the first week 
in May — the violets, jasmines, honeysuckles and 
heliotropes, (the latter making wonderful growth,) 
being redolent of grateful perfume : 
List of flowers at present in bloom in Abbotsford. 
Gardens. — 1 Arum (Oalla iEthiopica) ; 2 Hot puker 
(Tritoma ovaria) ; 3 Bougainvillaea ; 4 Manranoya 
barclayana; 5 Iris; 6 "Verbena; 7 Sweet William; 8 
Pink; 9 Poincettia; 10 Rose; 11 Chrysanthemum ; 
12 Jasmine ; 13 Honeysuckle ; 14 Thunbergia ; 15 
Loptospermam ; 16 Lily ; 17 GhdioJus ; 18 Mont- 
brettia; 19 BignoDia ; 20 Begonia; 21 Violet; 22 
Ixia ; 23 Fuchsia ; 24 Duranta ; 25 Plumbago ; 26 
Zinnia; 27 Brunfelsia ; 28 Visearia ; 29 Phlox; 30 
Stock; 31 Spirsea; 32 Heliotrope; 33 Tecoma; 34 
Dahlia ; 35 Habrothamnus ; 36 Whin ; 37 Stone-crop ; 
38 Abutilon ; 39 Franoisia ; 40 Chamomile ; 41 Crocus ; 
42 Jonquil ; 43 Ippcacuanha ; 44 Cornflowers ; 45 
Gaillardia ; 46 Oorreopsis ; 47 Cactus; 48 Orchid ; 49 
Strawberry; 50 Shoe flower; 52 Indian shot; 53 
Geranium ; 54 Salvia; 55 Passion-flower ; 56 Hydrangia; 
57 ? Lilac ; 58 Daisy ; 59 Vinca ; 60 Solarium ; 61 
Libonia ; 62 Magnolia ; 63 Gardenia ; 64 NicotiaDa ; 
65 Myrtle; 66 Petunia; 67 Stockroee; 68 4 o'clock 
plant ; 69 Oleander ; 70 Browallia ; 71, 72, 73, 74. 75, 
and 76 names not known ; (of many of the above there 
are from 6 to 12 varieties : lilies, for instance.) 
Planted round the borders of the lake which 
supplies water-power for the tea-making machinery, 
the contrast between the large, purely white bloscoms 
of the first named plant, (" Lily of the Nile ") 
and the brilliant scarlet shading into orange, of the 
long spikes of the second, is very striking, and when 
both are reflected in the still water, the effect is very 
beautiful, colour as well as shape being reproduced 
in the inverted forms. — The growth of the heliotrope 
is such as to encourage the belief that this plant 
in our higher mountain regions, will yet vie with 
specimens we saw at Ootacamund and Coonor, where a 
height of 12 feet and over is frequently attained by 
this plant. It is not merely grown in Gardens at the 
South India Hill Stations but actually utilized for 
hedges. All the way down, to Kandy and Colombo, 
the railway station gardens were glowing with rich 
and beautiful colours, and when I took my first 
drive along Turret Boad, Colombo, and past the 
Banyan tree along the Lake sides, southern and north- 
ern sections, I no longer wondered that Mr. Henry 
Varley should have exclaimed, after I had given 
him a similar drive, in the corresponding season, 
— " I could not have imagined so much beauty 
in God's creation !* " Residents in Colombo are fami- 
* An opinion fully corroborated today by Mr. aud 
Mrs. Axel Gustafson: the latter an American literary 
lady saying that Colombo was perhaps the only place 
that exceeded her expectations in every way. — 
Ed. T.A, 
