September i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
flowers is described as rudimentary, though perhaps 
sterile would be a better term to use, because, as 
figured, and designated in the explanations of the figures, 
it is a fully-developed gall-pistil. This conditiou is 
regarded as the nearest approach -to assumed original 
complete hermaphroditism. 
In all six sections of the larger group the sexes 
are strictly separated, as to the individual flowers; 
and in the section Uvostiym'i, male, gall, and perfect 
female flowers are intermingled in the same receptacles. 
We have overlooked it if there is any explanation 
of tin: advantage derivable from the presence of gall- 
flowers where both sexes are also found in the same 
receptacle ; but it may, perhaps, be found in the fact 
that the inflorescence is proterogynous or proterund- 
rous, hence insect agency is as necessary as in those 
species where the sexes are in different receptacles. 
In the remaining five sections the male and gall - 
flowers are invariably borne in one set of receptacles, 
and the fertile female flowers in another set ; and the 
presence of neuter flowers in the female receptacles 
characterizes the section Synwcia. The neuter flowers 
contain rudiments of neither sex, which condition 
King explains by saying the neuter flowers are asexual. 
Neuter flowers are wauting in the sections Sycidium, 
Cooeflia, Eusyce, and JSeomorphe; but the arrangement 
of the flowers is otherwise the same as in Si/ncecia. 
The two first of these sections have monandrous male 
flowers, and the two last have diaticlrous or triandrous 
male flowers: while the receptacles of the first and 
third are mostly axillary, those of the second and 
fourth are usually borne in facicles on the stem and 
branches. Thus it will be perceived that the dis- 
tinctive characters of these four sections are some- 
what artificial. However, it is only fair to say that 
the author himself points out this fact. 
We have very little to say except in favour of this 
work, which is certainly one of the most important 
of recent contributions to systematic botany ; but 
we should have liked to see a closer adherence to 
established usage in the application of certain botanical 
terms. To use the terms moucecious and dioecious 
in relation to the individual receptacles as well as the 
whole tree is perplexing, and also unnecessary, because 
suitable terms for expressing these distinctions are 
current, and even employed by the author himself in 
some passages. — AV. 15. H. — Nocture, 
: * 
THE CULTIVATION OF A WOOD FOR 
TEA BOXES. 
Dr. H. Meyer, Lecturer in Forest Botany at the 
University of Munich, has recently published the 
results of his inquiries as to Forest Cultivation, in 
a tour of some months which he made through the 
northern part of India. Being informed of the scarcity 
of iudigeuous wood suitable for Tea Boxes, he directed 
his particular attention, to this subj-ct, and he has 
come to the conclusion, taking soil, climate, and other 
contingent matters into full consideration, that the 
quickest, cheapest, surest means of provi ling for a 
future suitable supply of wood for Tea-boxes, in this 
c inntry, would be to cultivate the Oryptomeria 
(Japanese *i>ji), or, as Dr. Meyer calls it, Sequoia 
Japonica, for the Hills round Darjeeling, and the 
Paiijlonia imperialis (or the Japanese Am) for the 
plains, Terai, and lower hills of the N. W. P. and 
the Punjab. It may be argued that the proper persons 
to give attention to and advice on this subject are 
the Forest Department, and no doubt the matter 
will be taken up by them, hut it is within the ability 
of any planter to create for himself timber reserves, 
and the doing so will be found by no moaus unprofitable. 
In Japan the Svji (Japanese cedar) is largely 
cultivated all over the whole empire, and it is also 
found iu a wild state. It forms a splendid mass of 
forest in many districts, and grows to the height of 
150 feet) with a girth of (i feet and more. The tree 
11 said to be a native of China. At any rate from 
that country the first seed was brought to Darjeelipg 
by Mr. Fortune. A few tyeea onfo were at the time 
planted, but the kindly way in which thoy have 
taken to the hill soil and climate shows the adaptability 
of the place to their cultivation, and it is to be 
hoped now that the value and suitability of the wood 
for tea boxes is established, it will induce a 
considerable extention of cultivation. 
In Japan itself the wood is highly prized, and very 
extensively used. It grows in all situations and 
soils, — in damp villages as well as on high mountain 
slopes, and is one of the commonest and also one 
of the most useful of Japanese timber -trees. The 
sapwood is whitish yellow, from 2 to 3 inches broad, 
and is, when beams or boards are wanted, generally 
not removed from the dark-reddish sometimes black- 
bluish, striped heart-woo>.i. The wood is very light 
and soft, and easily manipulated ; and may be used 
for all kinds of carpentry besides tea-boxes. For 
propagation of the Snji, the terminal piece of every 
branch is used, lg to 2 feet long. The plantation 
in the grou nd must be made before or at the begin- 
ning of the rainy season, the cuttings being put 3 
to 5 inches deep in the soil. Tins method is much 
perferred to sowing, the young seedling being tender, 
and easily killed by frost. Although, of course, the 
tree takes many years to arrive at m&lurity, its com- 
mercial value is none the less ascertainable at any 
stage, and a tea estate possessing a' reserve of the 
timber, in almost any stage of growth, would possess 
a marketable commodity of ascertainable value. 
In planting, scarcely 4 feet should be left apart, 
for only in a dense growth does the Suji soon lose 
its branches, and produce a clean, straight, and 
valuable bole. 
There is another timber-yielding tree, the wood of 
which is suitable for tea boxe , — the pavloiniai 
imperialis (called kiri in Japanese), but it does not 
grow well in the wet climate of the Eastern 
Himalayas. The wood of paulownai is largely used 
in Japan, not only for tea boxes, but tor boxes and 
furniture of every kind. Oue p eulhnty in the 
cultivation of this tree is, that when the seedlings 
are two years old, they are cut off close to the 
ground, and the new shoots grow straight up to a 
height of 10 feet or more without a branch, in a 
single year. 
When the tree attains a girth of from 3 to 4 feet, 
the timber is available for use for tea box s. In 
Japan the tree is sawn off, every 8 or 10 years, very 
close to the grouud, and the new shoots grow straight 
up to a height of 10 feet or more, without a branch, 
in a single year. 
Dr. Meyer, who supplies us with all this information, 
offers to provide the Forest Department with seeds 
from Japan, and we trust that his offer will be 
availed of, and the seeds distribute! to such as are 
williug to experiment with them. 
It would be no small thing gained if we could 
grow iu the Terai aud hill districts of Iudia a wood 
more suitable for tea boxes thau that we now possess, 
and although, perhaps, it may seem a long time to 
look forward to for the realization of any personal 
advantage from such cultivation, yet the land thus 
planted with wood of an uualteriug value, would always 
be by so much enhanced in saleable merit. 
We commend the subject to the atteutiou of owners 
of tea properties, who may find thus, ia time, their 
timber land evon more valuable thau the laud under 
the tea stself. — Indian Tea Gazette. 
■* 
liuunmt. — The belt of laud around the globe, 500 
miles south of the equator, abouuds iu trees producing 
the gum of India rubbu\ They can be tapped for 
twenty successive seasons without injury, and the trees 
stand so close that one man can gather tho sap of 
eighty in a day, each tree yielding on an average 
three table-spoonfuls a day. Forty-three thousand of 
these trees have been counted iu a tract of country 
a milo long by eight wide. There are in America and 
Europe more thau 150 manufactories of Indiarubher 
articles, employing some 500 operatives, and consum- 
ing m re than IO,000,(XX) pounds of gum a year, and 
the business is considered to bo still in its infancy. — 
South of India Obam*r> 
