542 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1888. 
Preparations of Dragon's Bl ood.— Dragon's blood is 
the product of the province of Djambi, in Sumatra, 
and, to a slight extent, of parts of the west coast of 
the Malay peninsula, north of Province of Wellesley. 
The article comes into the market prepared and put 
up in two different ways, viz., in cakes or lumps about 
l|in. thick, or in small tablets or sticks about 8 to 
9 in. long, both tablets and sticks being well packed 
into palm leaves, to prevent it from running by the 
action of heat. It varies in price from $2# to $50 per 
picul, all depending on the purity of the article, since 
adulteration is resorted to, such as mixing brick dust 
or other foreign matter with the extract while still 
warm, before being poured into moulds. I have before me 
four samples, §20, $25, §40 and §50 per picul, respec- 
tively. The first is cake, and nearly as heavy as its volume 
in brick. By scraping it, it feels gritty, and the scrap- 
ings, when mixed with water and daubed over paper, 
give an uncertain dirty crimson colour, while it should 
be a good crimson, with a light subtint of purple. 
No. 2, looking like a thin plug of tobacco (about 1£ 
by 7 in.), and wrapped into palm leaf, is purer, more 
solid, but not free from adulteration. No. 3 looks like 
a thin, long stick of liquorice, and has a palm-leaf 
wrapper over all, with both ends closely tied and thread 
wrapped over all the entire length. It is very solid 
and said to be a special preparation by grinding up 
the extract with a little oil, which, it would seem, 
preparation would seem to me almost impossible, 
tends to give solidity when dry. Alteration in this 
since by breaking a stick in two and holding a broken 
end to the light, any admixture of any substance in 
the least rough and not exactly the same colour as the 
true extract would show itself. No. 4 (at §50) is in 
cake and looks different from all the rest. It comes 
from the Malay peninsula. . In colour when broken it 
looks like dry blood, with a purplish subtint. In rubbing 
it it feels as smooth as wax, and its volume is much 
lighter than No. 1, at §20; it is no doubt pure and 
genuine. 
Dragon's blood is not always abundant iD this market. 
The imports and exports at Singapore were as 
follows : — 
1884 
1885 
Imported 
Pic. 340 $9,370 
1,054 2,1090 
Exported 
Pic. 280 §9,567 
375 15.727 
Qamhier Cultivation. — The cultivation of gambier here 
is entirely in the hands of the Chinese, and goes hand 
in hand, to a great extent, with pepper planting, as 
the decocted leaves of the gambier plant serve as . 
fertiliser to the pepper vines. The demand for gambier ■ 
has been on the increase for various reasons, chief 
among which, next to speculation, is that gambier 
exhausts the soil in a short time, needing frequent 
changing. 
Gambier Adulteration. — Adulteration is carried on to 
a Large extent in the preparation of the article, and 
great frauds also committed by the Chinese middle 
traders, who supply the exporter with the marketable 
article already packed in matting, in square pressed 
bales or cubes. These frauds, which commenced a few 
years ago, have now assumed alarming proportions, 
and become the cause of much vexation and trouble 
to the European exporters, and discussions have taken 
place in the local Chamber of Commerce as to the 
best means to overcome the difficulty. But the 
merchants here appear to be powerless. The " Koug- 
kek," or Chinese gambier syndicates, simply say, 
"You must take it as we have it or you won't get 
any." No Europeans are engaged in gambier planting, 
and the exporter is forced to take it at the stipulated 
market prices, pay goodly commissions to his middle 
trader, and to ship it to his customers in Europe or 
the United States, knowing that the complaints of the 
latter will be well founded, and of course " tho bruut 
of the fraud " falls upon them, and those that use it 
in manufacture. The bales of gambier brought to 
market in most instances contain admixtures of pieces 
of sticks, stones, clay, and lumps of pressed out gam- 
bier leaves; 
Turkey in Asia. 
Tlie Sponge Fisheries. — Sponge fishing extends all 
along the coast of Batroon, Tripoli, Latakia, and the 
island of Ruad, north of Tripoli. It is not confined 
only to native fishermen, for many Greeks come over 
from Kalimno, Stanchio, Rhodes, and Samos, in their 
little crafts, to share this traffic with the Syrians. 
The catch commences in June and extends to October, 
this season being the most suitable owing to the 
calmness of the sea. The diver gecerally remains at 
the bottom of the sea from sixty to eighty seconds, 
unlike the Australian pearlshell fishers, who often 
remain under water for hours at a time. This is due 
to the fact that the native Syrian diver has simply 
an open net around his unprotected body and uses 
no instrument of any kind in collecting his sponges ; 
he cannot be induced, like the Turks, to adopt the 
diving dress, or "Skafander." The depth to which 
Syrian divers descend is from 25 to 175 feet; below 
these depths no good sponges are said to be found. 
Three kinds of sponges are known here — prime, seconds 
and the red ones, taken near Batroon. Tbe latter are 
by far the best. They have to be cleaned and freed 
from sand and then pressed. The best qualities are 
exported from Beirut to Paris direct, the others go 
almost exclusively to Trieste, while the Greeks send 
their share of the catch to different markets in 
Europe. The average annual catch is estimated at 
about $150,000 in value. The local authorities exact 
a tax of 10 p.c. from those engaged in the business. 
— Chemist and Druggist. 
A NEW VEGETABLE. 
It rarely falls to our lot to have to chronicle the intro 
duction of an absolutely new vegetable. New Peas — li- 
terally as like Peas from the same pod — new Potatoes, 
new Cabbages, Tomatos, Onions — these there are by the 
score. Only a few of them, however, stand the trial of 
the test at Chiswick, where the synonyms imposed by 
gardeners and seedsmen are as ruthlessly cut down and 
referred to their proper places as are the like double 
names by the systematic botanist in preparing a 
monograph. 
But now we have really a novelty to lay before 
our readers, and it is one which we venture to think 
is far from unpromising. The tubers were exhibited at 
the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, on De- 
cember 13 last, by Mr. Haskings, gardener to Sir H. 
Thompson, Hurstside, West Moulsey, and were oblig- 
ingly communicated to us for the purpose of illustra- 
tion. 
The plant producing these tubers is a Labiate, 
and is said to be a species of Stachys, allied to the 
Woundwort of our hedges, but without the disagree- 
able odour ; but as we have not seen flowers or seed- 
vessels, we do not know whether this is correct or 
not. At any rate, the plant goes for the present under 
the name of Stachys tuberifera, our excellent cor- 
respondent, M. Naudin, having bestowed this name upon 
it, to replace that of Stachys affinis, which is quite a 
different plant. 
Our first knowledge of this vegetable was derived 
from a notice in the Revue Horticole 1885, p. 236. 
According to this, the plant was introduced from China 
to the Soci&e d' Acclimatation of Paris by Dr ; 
Bretschneider, Physician to the Russian Embassy 
at Pekin. M. Naudin, however, in his recently published 
Manuel de V Acclimateur (1887), p. 507, speaks of it as 
coming from Japan, and probably also from China. 
Possibly it may be the same as Stachys Sieboldi, which 
we learn is cultivated in Japan under the name of 
" Chorogi,'' but of this we have no means of Judging. 
Its culture in France is due to M. Paillieux, who now 
grows it on a large scale for this Paris market, 
where it is kuown under the name of Crosnes, from 
the locality in which it is cultivated. 
As will be seen from our illustration, the tubers are 
borne at the ends of underground branches, or 
stolocs, exactly as in the Potato. The tuber in 
this case is, in fact, the thickened extremity of an 
underground branch, and it is marked by buds, or 
eyes, at tha nodes, as in the Potato. Those who 
