October i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
271 
arecanuts will form an important item in its ex- 
ports, coastwise. The tree is best raised in nurseries, 
and may lie planted out the following season. It 
attains a height of from 40 feet to sometimes 60 
feet in the eourse of ten years, but bears the fifth, 
and although that may seem a long period to 
wait lor returns. Once in situ no cultivation what- 
ever is required, and the factory's appearance cannot 
fail to be greatly embellished by the presence of 
this ni"st graceful of all the palms, which an emin- 
ent botanist has likened to "an arrow shot from 
Heaven." 
/ ,n<<llu.— The terrestrial orchid that yields the 
aromatic pods of this spice, though better grown at 
1000 feet or 2000 feet above sea-level, may, with 
care :md attention to keeping the young roots clear 
of ants and other insects, be successfully raised 
In the plains and trained on the stems of tho areca. 
When once it obtains a firm hold, little attention 
milled, but should inclination to spread laterally 
adicated, such should be encouraged and bam- 
boos, hung by loops from palm-stem to palm-stem, 
will atfunl quite enough support Tor the ramifying 
tendrils. The bamboos must not be firmly lashed 
to the palm-stems, as the an ca sways in response 
to the slightest breeze ; thus a certain amount of 
play must be allowed for. The vanilla will bear 
well the third year, and the pods must bo gathered 
as soon as they begin to chango colour, or they 
will hurst, then dried under an open shed, and 
are better exported in cases. E*ch should bo 
wrapped in a piece of clean paper, but those who 
deem such a proceeding too elaborate may omit it. 
Had or bd is the fruit of a well-known tree 
that may with advantage be introduced from native 
gardens, but as the best is grown about Dacca, seed 
should be imported tlx nee. Bael will yield in the 
seventh year, and, though its medicinal properties 
are little ki own iu Europe, there is no doubt 
that it would make its way in public favour once 
brought prominently to notice. Its merits lie in the 
pulp c >i thined in a h \rd calabash. The pulp, beaten up 
w ith sugar and strained through coarse muslin, has an 
uiuloniablc regulating effect upon the bowels specially 
valuable w hen choleraic complaints manifest themselves. 
A n . In- Indian chemists manufacture a dried preparation 
hi i his fruir called "diite ie bael," but muchoftho 
virtue of the pulp is lost during the process, and for ex- 
port the form of preserve should invariably be adhered 
to. At the same time tho fact should not be lost sight 
of that as it is a medicine rather than a condiment, 
sugar or other preservatives used in the prepaiation 
Rhuuld only be resorted to as sparingly as is cou- 
nateu with the prcservatiou of its therapeutic properties. 
Xux Vomica, under the name of Koochela, from 
tho button-like seeds of which the alk iloid strychnine 
is obtained, is found growing wild in many parts 
of Assam, in such abundance iu one pari of Cnchar 
an to give a name to an isolated block of lava- 
strewn rise, upon which a tea plantation has since 
been formed ; there is no difficulty iu obtaining it 
in any quantity, as all natives know it. Unless 
Dae is an adept in chemistry the extraction of the 
active principal need not to bo undertaken, but the 
pods or see. Is dried in the sun and packed in tea 
aheatl for export. If chemical action is resorted 
to, all utensils used must be kept securely locked 
Bp. as strychnine, it is almost needless to say, is 
n highly daugerous drug to leave about. 
MhUt), — The neem tree abounds, and the bruised 
leaves are much in request where strong drawing 
poultices are required, being specially useful about 
main,' ason, when troublesome boils are so 
preval nt. An extract, distilled from the leaves, 
040 be made that is of considerable value in 
' dating the action of tho milder applications, 
such as bread and linseed meal applications. Native 
pn»et i doners make uso of the neem for a variety 
of purposes, and as they are not by any means 
reticent In affording information, investigation and 
uperiimmt mny possibly result iu adding another 
sin, pie, though efficacious, remedy, to tho BritUh 
l'haruia Copal*, 
Voud-ka-putta is a quick-growing tree, allied to the 
acacias, the bruised leaves of which are applied to 
the water-rash, which nearly all new-comers to 
Assam suffer from ; but as tamarind leaves have 
much the same effect, the duud may or may 
not possess any superior qualifications. However, 
this matter may readily be determined by experi- 
ment. A tincture or extract of such sent to an 
ana'vtical chemist would soou answer the question. 
Cassia. — Cassia liguea is iudigenous to the hills, 
but whether it would flourish in the plains is not so 
certain, though the true cinnamon — a few plants — 
was successfully introduced into Sylhct twenty years 
since. If you are located in a hill ravine, a small 
experimental patch may be brought under plant at 
an elevation deemed suitable ; for the cassia, though 
of much coarser flavour and inferior in other respects, 
bids fair, at no remote date, to outrival cinnamon 
either as a spice or oil producer, the general 
public being hardly competent to distinguish one 
from the other. — Pharmaceutical Journal. 
♦ ' 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AGRICULTURAL 
AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF INDIA. 
Stick Covered Cocoons. — Mr. J. Cleghovn, writing 
from Sarda, Rajshahye, seut some very curious cater- 
pillars, covered with a cocoon or envelope of stalks 
of the grass ou which they had been fouud feeding ; they 
were examined by Mr. Wood-Mason, who reported on 
them as follows: — 
" The curious bodies forwarded to the Society by Mr. 
Cloghorn are larva cases containing still living larvie 
of a species of moth belonging to, the family Psychidee 
the Sacktriigcr of German eutomologists, so-called on 
account of the sacks which the larva; build for the protec- 
tion of their bodies, and iu which they live, drag- 
ging the structures about with them from twig to twig, 
and from leaf to leaf, while they feed. The portable 
cases are constructed of silk, fortified on the outside 
with pieces of the food-plant. The pieces by which 
the cases before me are defended, are arranged in a 
succession of imbricated whorls, and they resemble bits 
of grass. The free ends of the pieces all point away 
from the mouth of the sack. The first or lowest whorl 
of pieces is at its hinder end, and the last or upper- 
most at its oral end. Each end is for a short distance 
devoid of defending pieces, and is open. The larvaj 
while feeding — and this they do chiefly during the 
night — keep hold of the case by means of the pair of 
legs at tho hinder end of the body. When they have 
done feeding, or when they are alarmed, they retire 
into the case, suspending this by a few threads of 
silk to a twig, from which they hang suspended till 
feeding time returns, or the dauger is past. They 
chango to pupn in the larva case, previously fasten- 
ing this by its mouth to a twig much more securely 
t hair usual. The caterpillars that are destiued to 
hecome male moths turn iu their cases just before 
changing, so that their heads point to the opposite 
end of the case, from which the moths emerge, 
leaving their empty pupa skins projecting more than 
half way out of the cases. The males are winged 
and leave the case in quest of the- females. Those 
being devoid of all vestiges of wings, and of all but 
tho nearest rudiments of feet and feelers, remain in 
tho cases, and are there impregnated by the males. 
'• The transformations of the insect whose cases and 
larva; are before me not having been observed, I am 
unable to tell you its specific name, or even to say 
for certain to what genus it belongs. It probably, 
however, belongs to the same genus as Eunuta Cramm, 
one of the pests of the teu-plant, tho babul, and 
several other plants. If any moths should emerge, they 
shall be determined, and their name communicate, 1 to 
you. Tho species of Psychiiltr of ton remain iu tho 
larval state for many months. 
"The ailied Eumeta Craineri, the larva' of which 
bear thu popular name of the fagg t caterpillar, 
attack' the babul tret 1 , the tea plant, a creeper, u»mo 
uukuowu to mo (of which thoio is a luxurious growth 
