228 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October e, 1887. 
cept the ' Berberis nepalensis,' which, is thriving, 
and which is now nearly a foot in height. Of the 
' Pinus longif olia ' and ' excelsa ' also, the first supply 
germinated, but died off leaving 2 plants of the 
former, and one of the latter now thriving. The 
second supply of ' Pinus longifolia ' seeds, received 
from the Society has succeeded well, and I have 
now some 15 or 20 thriving plants. Neither the 
' Cedrus deodara,' nor the ' Araucaria excelsa ' seeds 
have germinated, nor have my own seeds of the 
latter, the produce of these hills, as yet. Colonel 
Beddome kindly sent me out some seeds of tuberous 
Begonias and ' Begonia Froebelii ' and ' Streptocarpus 
prolifera, but none of them germinated. I purchased 
a pound each oC Walnuts, Barcelona, Brazilian 
and Cobnuts, from one of the shops in Madras and 
put them down, only 8 Walnnt and 4 Barcelona 
nuts have germinated and are thriving. The Society 
sent me 6 Chesnuts and 6 Walnuts, 4 out of the 6 
Walnuts germinated, and are thriving, whereas the 
Chesnuts failed. The ' Araucaria excelsa' ripened its 
seed, and I had the pleasure of distributing seeds to 
Bangalore, Mercara and Madras, i have also put 
down some seeds here, but they have not germinated 
as yet. The Olive seeds I distributed largely have 
succeeded everywhere,* but the Spanish Chesnuts were 
a complete failure. Owing to its hard shell the Olive 
takes from 3 to 6 months to germinate. I have 9 plants 
of ' Erythroxylon coca,' they are thriving, but slowly. 
I have been trying the Persian Date up here for some 
years and have a few plants, they do not grow but re- 
main stationary. I have succeeded in growing the 
seeds from the Date fruits procurable in Madras 
Bazaars, as well as those procurable on the Western 
coast. This is a good way of securing good plants, as 
the fruits can be selected and the pulp eaten to make 
certain of their quality, and the seeds planted ; or the 
entire fruit may be planted at once, the pulp furnish- 
ing manure to the future seedling. I hoped the Date 
would succeed well here from the examples seen of the 
' Phoenix pedunculata,' which grows wild and fruits 
freely. Though there is little pulp on the seed, the 
coolies eat not only the ripe fruits, but the green also, 
which they use as a substitute for the arecanut. The 
next time I raise a crop «f Date plants from Bazaar 
fruits, I mean to try arid graft them on to the 'Phoenix 
pedunculata' and watch the result. 
"CactacEjE: — Of the six Cactus cuttings I received 
from the Director of Revenue Settlement and Agri- 
culture, 2 rotted away, and the other 4 are thriving 
and are about three feet in height and breadth. Of 
the Maltese Cactus received through the Society, se- 
veral are alive, and have only thrown out one or two 
small shoots each as yet; they seem to grow very 
slowly. Of my own Cactus plants, one plant produced 
a small crop of fruits, but these much to my disap- 
pointment were destroyed by rats just as they were 
ripening, not a single fruit escaping their ravages. 
"Of low country trees, the ' Oicca disticha,' or 
country Star Gooseberry, and the 'Averrhoa caram- 
bola' fruited for the first time on these hills. 
" The tree Tomato has been doing well and I have 
been distributing seeds and plants to all who cared 
to have them. Unfortunately they are very liable to 
attacks from white ants, which concealed under 
ground, destroy tbe base of the root stem and 
kill the plants. To guard against these attacks it 
is necessary that the soil around the roots be fre- 
quently loosened, and the parts examined carefully 
to prevent destruction. 
" Aurantiaceie" : — The Orange family grows freely 
here, producing a large number of varieties. Of 
these, we have the ' Burra' ' Cheen,' called in the 
Northern District ' Batavia,' and in Madras, ' Oher- 
nie,' it is also popularly known as the ' Saut-ghur 
Orange taking its name from a village at the foot of 
tin; fihauts, some 40 miles from Vellore, where it 
use 1 to be grown in large numbers and imported into 
Madras and elsewhere. We have also the sweet and 
bitter Seville Oranges, the seeds Of which were origin- 
ally imported from abroad. The country Orange termed 
* Those tried in these gardens unfortunately failed. 
—J. s. 
' Kolinge ' and 'Dihlee' in Tamil and 'Koda' in Hindu- 
stanee is also found here, but is not much ap- 
preciated. The juice of this fruit abounds in mucilage, 
and the Native Confectioners prefer the half ripe 
fruits to candy or preserve entire in sugar. We 
have some 3 varieties of the Pumelo, distinguished 
chiefly by the size of the fruit and colouring of the 
flesh into pink and white; but as a whole owing 
either to the soil or elevated climate, the fruits pro- 
duced on these hills are worthless as a fruit. 
" Of the loose skin varieties, popularly termed 
'Kumla,' in two sizes, amongst which are some of the 
finest Orange fruits ; these chiefly come from the Hill 
Districts of the Northern Division, Wynaad and Coorg, 
and are much appreciated as fruits. 
"We have also the ' Citrus japonica or Kumquat ' 
of China, the fruit of which is small, acid and oval. 
The chief difference between the Orange varieties 
and the Lemon, Citron, &c, consists in the adher- 
eace of the rind to the fruit which is not separable 
like that of the Orange itself. I regret to observe 
that most of the old Orange trees planted some 60 
years ago , soon after these hills were opened out and 
occupied, are now dying out fast from natural decay. 
The citron also does well here, and fruits freely, a 
good fruit often weighing 51b. We have only one 
variety of the citron here. 
" We have also several varieties of Lime, of which, 
the chief are the sweet and sour Lemon, and the com- 
mon round Lime known in Hindustanee as Nemboo, 
and ' Elemitchum pullum' in Tamil ; besides we have 
two varieties, one nearly as large as a medium sized 
Pumelo, and the other that of a large Orange and 
the fruit umbilicated." 
A WONDEEFUL BEAN. 
From the proceedings of the Madras Agri-Hor- 
ticultural Society we quote as follows, but with 
much scepticism as to the alleged power of 
cedron bean to cure snake bite : — 
Read letter from Rev. G. Ritcher, dated Mercara, 
22nd July, 1887, thanking for the Onion and ' Era- 
grostis ' seed and ferns sent, and adding: — 
"I read lately in a German Publication " DaB 
Neue Universum" (The new universe) a very 
interesting article on the Cedron bean, 
'Simaruba ferruginea or Simaba cedron,' which de- 
serves your DOtice, and Mr. Stephenson may perhaps 
be able to obtain the bean for an experiment in India. 
"'During my journey in Panama,' writes Mr. 
John Penn Curvy, ' I observed in front of my tent 
a rattle-snake about 15 paces distant. It bit a bird, 
sitting upon a branch about 3 feet from the ground, 
and before I could kill the snake, it bit the bird again. 
1 counted 14 rattles on the tail of the snake. The bird 
a kind of Bustard, recovered so far that it flew a dis- 
tance of about 25 paces, where it pecked at a shrub 
which resembled the American quince, and then rose 
into high, air as if nothing had happened. I drew the 
attention of one of my native servants to the occur- 
rence, but looking at me with astonishment, he laughed 
at my ignorance of this well-known remedy against the 
bite from poisonous snakes and insects. ' We care as 
little for the bite of a rattle, Moccasin, Copper-snake, 
or Tarantula, as we do for that of a mosquito,' he said ; 
' the Oedron-bean kills the poison in 5 minutes.' We 
all doubted his assertion, but on the following night he 
caught a large rattle-snake, and next morning in front 
of the whole camp he allowed himself to be bitten 
several times on the left hand and then killed the 
snake. The punctures of the bite were as large as a 
pin's head and soon assumed a purple inflammation 
which spread over the whole hand. We offered the 
wounded man our help, but he declined and pulled from 
hi« pocket a L'edron-bean of the size of a chesnut, gnawed 
at it, and spread the saliva over the wound. He then 
prepared with the scrapiugs of the bean and hot water, 
a decoction which he swallowed, and after half an hour 
all the external symptoms of the inflammation had dis- 
appeared. " Tony " only felt a little nausea, but after 
two hours he was quite well again, Other experiments 
