April 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
719 
A Railway- throuoh a Plantation of Palms.— 
A railway through a Palm grove is a novelty to 
roost gardeners, we therefore avail ourselves of Mr. 
O. B. Clarke's kindness by giving an illustration 
taken from a photograph made by that botanist, 
■who also kindly furnishes the following particulars : — 
This view is from a photograph of the railway near 
Thcria Ghat, iu the Khasi Terai, in East Bengal. 
The Palm is Areca Oatechu, which is largely cultiv- 
ated at the fool of the Khasi Hills, where it grows 
as luxuriantly as in the islands at the mouth of the 
Megna, and attains 80 feet in height. It is the Palm 
which supplies tho betel-nut chewed throughout Snuth- 
East Asia and Malaya; and from its exact erectuesa 
is likened by the Sanskrit writers to an arrow shot 
down from heaven. The railway depicted is worked, 
at the foot of the hill, by a locomotive; it ascends 
the face of the Khasi Hills, 3,000 feet at an angle 
varying from 3° to 45 a , and is there worked by a 
wire rope. This route through Theria Ghat has always 
been 6be chief approach from the plains to Kb isia ; 
and it was this route which Sir J. I). Hooker 
traversed and described in the second volume of his 
Himalayan Journal . — Gardener/' Chronicle. 
Ants and Plants. — In the last volume of the Nova 
Acta Itegitf Socittati.i Scientiartini Upsaliensis, Professor 
Landstrom publishes some remarkable information on 
the relation between ants and plants. Studying the 
nectar produced on the leaves of the Cow-Wheat 
(Melampyrum) he found that ants were attracted by 
the nectar on the leaves, and that some while walk- 
ing over the leaf bore the seeds of the Cow-Wheat 
in their mouths down towards the ground. Professor 
Lundstrom was as astonished by the greit resemblance 
of these seeds to the " ant-eggs " (the cocoons of 
the ants), and ho found that the ants tjok these 
for cocoons ; for when he strewed some seeds on 
the ground the ants saved them as they did their 
cocoons. I.undstiotn afterwards found that the thin 
membrane which surrounds the seed and causes it 
to resemble an ant egg so closely, falls off soon after 
the seed is brought by the ants to the soil, and 
that it remains there untouched by tho ants. Auother 
observation of the same author, noteworthy for arbori- 
culturist*, is the following. At Ohristineberg, near 
Hudiksvall, the soil in an avenue of Po| ulus treruula 
was dug and the ants, which were formerly very 
numerous, disappeared in consequence. In the next 
year Professor Sundstnim found that tho leaves of 
these Poplars wen; destroyed by iusects in a short 
time, whilst those of the other Poplars, where the 
soil had not been dug up, were quite intact. Care- 
ful observation showed that the first leaves of the 
trembling Poplar have short rouud petioles with 
nectar g ands, whilst the peti'des of the older leavos 
are much longer, Hat, and without t' ese gland-., as 
Tn-alease showed in the Botanical Gazette, vi. (1881). 
Lundstrom 's notion is, that the ants are attracted 
by these elands, and preserve the tree from the attacks 
of caterpilliirB, &c, for tho first time. At a later 
season the haves with the long, flat petioles are so 
much disturbed by the movements of tho leaves 
that no caterpillar can go on them. The author 
found ants in every situation where the trembling 
Poplar grew. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
Cultivation ok the Soil Leading to In- 
iT.r\ in Kvu'oltu ins ash Runiu.l. -In recently 
noticing tho completion of the great irrigation 
lank at Kalawowa and tho giant canal to Aim- 
radhapura, we ventured to suggest that the arid 
climate of tho region would be modified by the water 
captured and applied to the tilled soil. From the 
United Sales thore comes a curious excmplilication 
of the scientific principles involved. It is believed 
that lbfl rainfall of tho region formerly known as 
"tho tlroat American Desert" has increased since 
its cultivation. Mr. C. F. Adams gives reasons 
for crediting such a result, thus : — 
The whole region in question is a gentle slop, , 
stretching for about tiOII miles cms* ami wast, north 
Kiel smith. It is drained by a number of rivers 
which receive contributions from -mall streams iu the 
nature almost of gutters or ditohes, morft of which, 
as you go west are dry for the larger portion of the 
year. The region is not liko any which is found 
east of the Missouri River, but it rises to a consider- 
able altitude only in its western portion. This vast 
territory, from a time so far remote as to be almost 
incalculable, was regularly burned over by fire, and 
during certain periods of the year was grazed over 
and trampled by countless herds of buffalo. Never 
being broken by tho plough, its surface gradually as- 
sumed a brick like consistency. It was impervious 
to water. Upon this brick like surface there grew a 
mossy vegetation known as "buffalo grass." Water 
flowed off from this surface much as it would from 
the roof of a house. It passed into the ditches 
or gutters above referred to, and was slowly carried 
down into the Missouri. In fact, the whole country 
was literally one vast tile-roofed watershed, of which 
the Rocky Mountains were a species of rude ridge 
pole. It followed, of course, that the rainfall of tho 
country, instead of sinking into the soil, and in 
some form remaining in the country, was carried off 
to the Gulf of Mexico. As population advanced all 
this changed. The brick or tile-like surface was 
broken, the water percolated into the soil and was 
held there, the moss-like buffalo grass gave place to 
growing crops, and consequently all the meteorologi- 
cal conditions were chauged. Before this took 
place, there was no more evaporation from that country 
during the greater portion of the year than there is 
from the roof of a church. After the soil was broken 
regular evaporation began. Consequently both soil and 
atmosphere became impregnated with a moisture un- 
known before, which lasted all through the year. This 
seems a natural explanation of the alleged increase of 
rainfall, which has unquestionably taken place. 
Neither is there any safe ground for believing that the 
climatic changes have yet reached their limit. As the 
soil is broken further west to the base of the Rocky 
Mountains, there cau hardly be any question that the 
atmospheric conditions will change correspondingly. 
Water which formerly poured away will be held, first 
in tho soil, and then in the atmosphere, returning 
again to tho soil in the form of rain. Consequently, 
there seems no good reason for doubting that the 
entire area of country west of the Missouri and east of 
the Rockies will within a few years enjoy a rainfall 
sufficient to admit of raising crops without any con- 
siderable degree of artificial irrigation, the general 
breaking up of the present tile-like, impervious surface 
of the soil being the single condition precedent. The 
question is not only one of scientific intrest, but it 
is of vital importance to all the companies now buil ling 
railroads through that region and any explouation of it 
derived from observation and experience cau hardly be 
otherwise than of value.— Leader, Feb. -1th- 
DISTRIBUTION OF CEYLON EXPORTS. 
(From 1st Oct. 1887 to 28th Mar. 1888.) 
COU.NTHIXS. 
C'ehona 
Brunch 
Coffei> 4 Trunk' Tea. 
cwt. 
C'cob 
lb. 
lb. 
To United Kingdom 
, , Marseilles 
,, Oenoa 
„ Venice 
i, Trieste 
„ II ,i ir.: 
,, Antwerp 
, , liremeu 
„ Havre 
„ Kottenlum 
,, Africa 
,, Mauritius 
„ India & Eastward ... 
,, Australia 
,, Ainoricn 
Total lotporti" from Oct. 1 . 
18*7 to Mar. V8 188* 
Uo lss»l do 1887 
Do W"> d > IvSi. 
Liu do lOSo 
e.l.TO 
550] 
ay 
947 
asie 
3 
a 
uoo 
■ji 
" i!8 
A0VO 
053.1 
1\>2 
4689900 
BMia 
"7601 
"iil 74 
i 
455 U 
7417018 61179 
3724 385 
60u, ... 
Carda- 
moms. 
lb. 
104343 
40 
84136 
01-' 
... 
BtMOt ... 
10838 
2ltiM.t ... 
Ittoos ;;, 
91388 
llhRWS 
ISliOU 
I- . ...I 
1 1 m o 
71 joy* i 
lliJl.' 5 
77l3l*i hi,-> 
4:'U*74<! 14474 
8367904 &MI 
IWJv.'J J si 
i.-tWI 
1(47 
IMII1 
ll.ll-''-, 
SUMO 
