526 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February t, 1888. 
repeat a statement concerning the truly marvellous 
rate of growth of the Blue Gum in Guatemala, Central 
America, where in twelve years it has been known 
to attain a height of 120 feet, and a circumference 
9 feet in the trunk. Assuming this rate of growth to 
be maintained for twenty-five years, the result would 
be a height of 250 feet, and a foot less than half that 
yearly rate of growth for another twenty-five years, we 
should have 350 feet — about the greatest height it is 
known to grow. But allowing a hnndred years as 
the full period of growth, it is very short in com- 
parison with the life of an English Oak or Beech. 
Although this species offers no claim to be re- 
garded in this country as a timber tree, yet its 
colour and rapid growth render it very desirable 
as an ornamental shrub for summer bedding or for 
the so called sub-trcpical garden. Young plants 
are easily raised and kept in a moderate temperature 
in the winter season (a cool green-house suffices), so 
that they are available for the summer decoration of 
the garden, where their singular habit and beautiful 
colour render them very attractive. In the South of 
France these trees flower early, and their blossoms 
may occassionally be seen in the markets at Christmas 
time or soon afteawards. The great vlaue attributable 
to this tree when planted in marshy localities is due, 
not entirely to the rapid growth of the tree but also 
to the drainage operations necessarily connected 
with its planting. Nevertheless, some of the benefit 
arising from its planting on a large scale may not 
unfairly be attributable to the balsamic odours it emits, 
and which are now known to be more or less antagonis- 
tic to the development of bacterial or miasmatic germs. 
The magnificent blocks of Jarrah timber exhibited 
at the Colonial Exhibition will be familiar to most 
who visited that interesting display. Few or no tim- 
bers excel the Jarrah in hardness and durability. It 
is the produce of E. rostrata, a species native to 
Western Australia. To Mr. Bosisto, of Melbourne, 
great credit is due for the production of oils, tannin, 
and other useful materials, which these species, or some 
of them, supply in abundance. 
It is impossible to speak of these Eucalypts without 
calling to mind the services of Baron Von Mueller, 
not only in making known, but in distributing seeds 
and plants of these most valuable trees. Their discri- 
mination is by no means easy, bub it is to he hoped 
that the cultural experiments of M. Naudin at Antibes 
will be of great service, not only botanically, but also 
economically, as showing which species are available 
for growth in warm, temperate, and subtropical dis- 
tricts in Algeria, India, and elsewhere. In purely 
tropical countries none of the species seems to thrive, 
but on some of the Indian hills, and in many of our 
Colonies, these trees are destined to be of great value. 
— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
(Jndfe the old doctrine that nothing but liquid 
could pass through cell walls, and by the endosmotic 
process, it was difficult to conceive how there could 
be any ground for the popular belief that hybrids 
occasionally spring from grafting. Yet the fact 
that new varieties can originate from grafting has 
been proved true by the experience of careful experi- 
menters in recent years. The new discovery that the 
substance called protoplasm is continuous, and passes 
from cell to cell, as well as plant liquids, makes the 
explanation of graft hybrids now clear. — American 
Cultivator. 
Native Agriculturists and Bonedust — The un- 
wearying efforts of the Agricultural Department of 
Government to induce cultivators to make use of 
manure are bound to bear fruit eventually, although 
the change comes slowly about. The latest incident 
reported as a sign of gradual improvement in native 
agriculture 5h that a hundred maunds of bone-meal 
were sold last year to certain villagers of Bengtl, wbo 
had previously received small quantities of the manure 
gratuitously on trial. There can be little doubt that 
the cultivators in Bengal would have been forced 
long ago to take, to the use of manure had nature 
not been so lavish of her favours. As is well-known, 
the rivers of Lower Bengal slowly build themselves 
up into highlevel canals, which every autumn break 
through or overflow their margins, leaving a rich 
deposit of silt upon the adjacent flats. Every year 
some thousands of square miles thus receive, as has 
been aptly said, a top-dressing of virgin soil, brought 
free of expense from the Himalayas — a system of 
natural manuring which in some places defies the 
utmost power of overcropping to exhaust its fertility. 
It is something, however, to know that the absurd 
prejudice agaiust the use of bone manure is beginning 
to give way. We can only hope that it will vanish 
altogether before it has time to affect permanently 
the position of Hiudu cultivators in their rivalry with the 
peasantry of other countries. — Englishman, Dec; 22nd. 
The Chinese Quince. — From Mr. Van Volxem, of 
Brussels, we lately received fruits of this species, re- 
markable for their delicate perfume. As, however, the 
flesh is hard aad leathery, we cannot recommend it 
for culinary purposes. The Chinese Quince, Cydonia 
sinensis, was originally described by Thouin, in the 
Annalis du Museum, p. 144, t. 89, and was introduced 
about 1802. It was figured in the Botanical Rey inter, 
t. 905 (1825), from a specimen in the nursery of 
Whitley & Co. (afterwards Osborn's). The flowers are 
large and pinkish in colour, and the fruits are not often 
produced out-of-doors, though Thouin figures one from 
the Paris garden. The tree, moreover, is apt to be 
injured by spring frost. Bentham and Hooker refer 
the genus Cydouia to Pyrus, but for garden purposes 
it is inconvenient to call Pears and Quince by the 
same name, hence for gardens the epithet Cydonia 
sinensis seems preferable, the more so as there is also a 
true Pear which bears the name Pyrus sinensis. To 
meet this difficulty, Mr. Hemsley, in his Index Flora 
Sinensis, calls our present plant Pyrus (Cydonia) 
Cathayeusis. Dr. Shearer, who gathered the specimen 
at Kiu Kiang, says, in a note in the Kew Herbarium, 
that " it is called by the Ciimese, Wooden Cucumber, 
from its solidity and shape. . . . The large and 
fragrant fruit is said to be used for scenting Tea and 
flavouring wine. The bark is olive-green with bald 
patches, and the trunk thick and contorted. Grow- 
ing in tubs it is indeed a very handsome ehrub." — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Observations on the Cultivation of Arrowroot. — 
The cultivation of arrowroot is grounded upon one 
only principle, whatever may be the nature of the 
sail and the variety of manure app ied. It consists 
in tilling well the land before planting, and weeding 
during the growing season. If this principle is fully 
acted upon, a good crop is always certain, whatever 
may besides be the circumstances of the soil or of 
the manure. It is from the result of this priucip'e, 
that we see the arrowroot succeed hetter in a well- 
tilled and weeded soil, without manure than in a 
ground well-tilled and unweeded but with manure. 
It should here be remembered to have the ground 
weeded for arrowroot is more important than to 
apply manure. There is a common principle in 
theoretical agriculture which has very few exceptions ■ — 
" That anything sowed or planted succeeds better 
when made by lines or rows than when it is ex- 
ecuted at random ; but from that principle is de- 
rived a general and exclusive maxim in agriculture. " 
The greater the distance between the rows of ar- 
rowroot, the greater will be the produce aud the 
finer the tubers ; daily experience proves that to be 
a fact. The thickness of the plant does not increase 
the produce of the crop ; on the contrary, the pro- 
duce is rather less, notwithstanding a double quantity 
of tubers has been used in vain. Beside the greater 
produce and the economy of the tubers, planting 
at a good dista ce has other advantages. Arrowroot 
exhausts the soil a great deal, but when planted at 
a distance, the soil is a great deal less exhausted, 
and what exhaustion it suffers is partially restored, 
as well by the air and the light that the breadth 
of the lines permits it to enjoy amply, as by the 
effects of the frequent tillages which keep it always 
in a proper state of becoming impregnated with 
meteorical substances caused by the repeated contract 
of all its parts with the gaseous atmospherical matters 
—true source of fertility and soul of vegetation.— Co?'. 
