320 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [November r, 1887. 
A New Vegetable Fibre, called Gemoetie, hitherto 
little known in Europe, is now being imported into 
Rotterdam from Celebes. Various attempts have 
been made, without success, to apply this sub- 
stance to the manufacture of cordage. It is prin- 
cipally used at present for stuffing furniture and 
saddlery. — Straits Times. [The fibre of the gomuti 
palm is by no means a ' new' one. — Ed.] 
Pritchardia Thurstoni. — This is a new Fan Talm, 
discovered in the Fiji Islands by the Governor, and 
illustrated and described by Dr. Drude in the Gir- 
tenflora for September, in conjunction with Baron 
Von Mueller. The tall cylindrie unarmed stem 
bears a crown of roundish plicate leaves, from whose 
axils project long slender stalks like fishing-rods, 
bearing a thyrse-like inflorescence at the extremity. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Cinchona Bark Used as Fuel at Last. — We hear 
that a large mill in Colombo has actually used a lot 
of twig cinchona bark as fuel for its engines, so 
that a remark made in our columns some time ago 
has come literally true. At the present monent 
twigs cannot be parted with at 1 cent a lb., and, if 
planters have any with Colombo agents, it might be 
W ell if they advised the latter to put it to the same 
a se as the instance recorded above, provided no ac- 
count for charges was sent in. — Local " Times." [Can 
it be true? — Ed.] 
A Gibbs and "Barky Drier on Elkaddwa Estate. 
— We hear that a Gibbs and Barry's Drier is now in 
course of erection on Elkaduwa estate, and that Mr. 
Barry is now on his way out from home, and intends 
to make a short stay in Ceylon, in order to push the 
Drier which bears his name. We believe the Gibbs 
and Barry drier is largely in use in India, and is 
said to do capital work. The greater the competi- 
tion amongst patentees the better it will be for 
planters, and so we welcome this last imported drier 
into the island. — Local " Times." 
Ramie Culture. — The attention of persons intend- 
ing to engage in the cultivation of ramie is called 
to the fact that the Hawaiian Legislature, at its 
session in 1886, voted the sum of $5,000 for the 
encouragement of ramie culture, to be paid to planters 
at the rate of $50 per acre, for ramie ready to be 
cleaned. A further sum of $5,000 was also voted to 
encourage the manufacture of this article, at the 
rate of $200 for each ton of cleaned fibre prepared 
for the market, at the lowest cost to the producer. — 
Planters' Monthly. 
" Gardening in Ceylon." — Messrs. A. M. and J. 
Ferguson of Colombo have just brought out a work 
on Gardening in Ceylon, which has every ap- 
pearance of proving serviceable to horticulturists 
in the tropics. It comprises hints on gardening 
and directions how to manage the kitchen garden 
and orchard which are full of practical inform- 
ation. The value of the work is enhanced by a 
list of vegetables, and instructions how to grow roses. 
The particulars given of the different kinds 
of vegetables, and the best way not only of 
cultivating them but also of preparing them for 
the table, bear the marks of painstaking care to 
render technical details clear and intelligible. 
Though Singapore is nearer the equator than 
Ceylon, many of the hints and directions contained 
in the work will be found useful to those who take 
an interest in gardening matters. — Straits Times, 
Tub Tea Subscription.— Mr. Wm. Shake- 
speare, who not only never drank a cup of tea in 
his life, but never heard the name uttered in any 
of its forms, from Cha to Toy, and so on to Tea, 
never imagined the use which another William 
would make of his verse in an island of which 
probably Shakespeare had but the vaguest idea. 
The general impression is, we believe, that Mr, 
Rutherford is a wide-awake tea planter, but Mr. 
Wm. Mackenzie, who evidently sleeps with both 
eyes open,— ono directed towards Glasgow and the 
other to Melbourne, — modestly takes credit to him- 
self for waking Mr. Rutherford from a prolonged 
fit of somnolence to a true sense of the duty which 
Ceylon at this crisis requires of her tea-producing 
sons. Be this as it may, we trust the planters 
will be all wide-awake to their own interests in 
subscribing to the "pushing" fund. For what says 
Mr. W. Mackenzie's favourite source of inspiration ? 
There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. 
Ozone from Flowers.— It is said that a " pro- 
fessor at Pavia has discovered that ozone is generated 
in immense quantities by all plants and flowers possess- 
ing green leaves and aromatic odours. Hyacinths, 
Mignonette, Heliotrope, Lemon, Mint, Lavender, Nar- 
cissus, Cherry Laurel, and the like all throw off ozone 
largely on exposure to the sun's rays. So powerful is 
this great atmospheric purifier, that it is the belief of 
chemists that whole districts can be redeemed from 
the deadly malaria which infests them by simply cover- 
ing them with aromatic vegetation. The bearing of this 
upon flower culture in our large cities is also very 
importaut. Experiments have proved that the air of 
cities contains less ozone than that of the surrounding 
country, and the thickly inhabited parts of cities less 
than the more sparsely built, or than the parks and open 
squares. Plants and flowers and green trees can alone 
restore the balance." — Journal of Horticulture. 
Fossil Wood. — An interesting paper has been com- 
municated to one of the California scientific societies 
on the fossil wood found throughout the State. This 
silicified wood is stated to be a variety of quartz ; the 
wood fibre is gradually replaced by quartz, leaving the 
form of the wood intact so much so that sections 
cut and placed under a microscope show |the character- 
istic grain of the wood, by which the genera may 
often be determined, aud sometimes the species. In 
what is known as the petrified forests in Colorado, 
where are stumps of trees several feet in height and 
some 12 or 15 feet in diameter, one stump seemed 
to have been fossilized while in a charred state, and 
from it fossil charcoal was obtained. Many of the 
specimens of wood are encrusted with layers of crystal- 
lized chalcedony of an opalescent tint, so beauti- 
ful that sections have been mounted and worn as 
jewellery. In Wyoming there have been found sec- 
tions of trees 20 inches in diameter and several feet 
in length, like hollow tubes, with the interior surface 
entirely studded with pure quartz crystals, presenting 
a most beautiful appearance. — Indian Agriculturist. 
Doctor Johnson's Partiality for Tea. — In his 
review of Hanway's Tea and its Pernicious Conse- 
quences, Doctor Johnson proclaims himself as " a 
hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for 
many years diluted his meals with only the infusion 
of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely 
time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, 
with tea solaces the midnights, and with tea wel- 
comes the morning." Boswell says that he sup- 
poses no one ever enjoyed with more relish the 
fragrant leaf than Johnson. The quantities he drank 
of it at all hours were so great that his nerves 
must have been uncommonly strong not to have 
been extremely relaxed by such an intemperate 
use of it. It is related of him, but not by Boswell. 
that, while on his Scotch tour, the Dowager Lady 
MacLeod, having repeatedly helped him until she 
had poured out sixteen cups, then asked him if a 
small basin would not be more agreeable and 
save him trouble. " I wonder, madam," he answered 
roughly, " why all the ladies should ask me such 
questions? It is to save themselves trouble, madam, 
and not me." On another occasion he said, 
" What a delightful beverage must that be that 
pleases all palates at a time when they can take 
nothing else at breakfast 1" Croker mentions that 
the doctor's teapot held two quarts.— Indian Tea 
Gazette, 
