May i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
765 
Hooker. Very few synonyms are added, but the 
Sinhalese and other verna ular names are appended. 
An alpbadetical index ofgeuira is a'so supplied. No 
numeric; 1 lists are given, lu', the catalogu : comprises 
no fewer than 120 pages, with, at a rough computation, 
t« enty species in each at leist, so that not far short oi 
30C.0 species must be comprised in the garden record. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle. 
'J h •; Sunj lowkr and Malaria. — It is stated Unit 
since the sunflower has been cultivated on certain 
swamps of the Potomac, malarial fever has de- 
creased. At tho mouth of the Scheldt, in Holland, 
it is stateil that similar results have been obtained. 
The sunflower emits large volumes of water in the 
form of vapour, and its aromatic, as well as the 
oxygen it exhales, may have to do with the sani- 
tary influence in question. — Cassel's Maijazbxc. 
OilANQE Pudding. — Peel and pick to pieces four 
or five oranges (according to size), put into a pud- 
ding dish. Sprinkle sugar between each layer, iio 
careful to take out all of the seeds, as they give 
a bilter taste. Take the yolks of three eggs, one 
tablespoonful of cornstarch, one cup of sugar, and 
oue pint of sweet milk. Boil this custard. When 
it is done and still hot, pour over the oranges. 
Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add 
two tablespoon I uls of sugar, and put it over tho 
pudding, and place in the oven until it is a delicate 
urowu color. — Rural California 11. 
Tea Cultivation — Indian Tea now forms 50 per 
cent, of all the Tea used in this country, whereas no 
longer ago than ISO'5, China furnished 97 per cent. 
According to an aiticle in Nature, the Australians con- 
sume 81 oz. por hoiKl of the population, English people 
73 oz., while the inhabitants of the United States come 
next with 21 oz., thoso of Russia, Belgium, Holland, 
and Denmark consume only from 7—8 oz. per head of 
tho population. Unfavourable contrasts are sometimes 
drawu between the services rendered by botany and 
botanists to the .S ate, an.! those rendered by chemists 
and engineers. Tho botanists, however, can show a 
good record — Indian Tea, ChinohODa, Gotten, India- 
rubber, Guttapercha are all substances, the develop- 
ment, and, in some cases, the discovery of which was 
duo to botanists, and their culture to horticulturists.— 
Uardeners' Chronicle. 
The Secretion fuom Roots.— Keceut investigations 
on this subject undertaken by Dr. Hans Molisch have 
shown that the acid secretion from the roots of plants 
attacks organic even more poworfully than inorganic 
substances, not merely dissolving them, but causing in 
them Important chemical obanges. It exercises both 
a reducing and an oxidizing power. It stains guaiacuui 
blue. It oxidizes tannin and humiu hubstanoes, and 
1 one ■, gr< atly promotes the deco nposiiio 1 of humus iu 
the soil. It transforms cane-sugar into reducing sugar, 
and has a slight diastatic action, flutes of ivory are 
corroded by it. 1 he root behaves iu many respects like 
a fungus, especially in tho fact that the fungus alters 
the organic constituents of tho soil by definite excre- 
tions, and causes their more rapid decomposition. 
This root secretion does not merely impregnate the epi- 
dermis, as has bei 11 ( ;eiu rally supposed, hut is often 
excreted over its surface in the form of drops. — J'hai- 
maceutwal Journal. 
Grains 01 Pauaimsk IN' PliPPER.— A new adulter- 
ation of pepper has just been noticed by M. Kabri, a 
student at the Nancy (Jollego Of Pharmacy, Grains of 
para Ufa is the substance employed, As the prices of 
t.io two substances aro not vory different, there seems 
t.i DC DO ti MOO lor a fraud of the suit, were it not that 
the grains being ah nit twice as pungent as pepper, 
every pound of tlicso added will enable tho sopbwtic- 
ator to introduce ouw pound of some inert substance. 
The mod usual mixture is said to be made with 1 ipnd 
mights of pupper, grains ol paradise, ami starch, whi li 
gives pOWderOO pepper of viry fair aiparuncc. Hut 
the fraud is e isily ilutuoted, because uue popper con- 
tains no tannin, « h le the adulterant .Iocs in notable 
propoition. The test may bo applied by niaeeratiug 
the suspected powder with a mixture of two parts oi 
alcohol and one of ether, and adding to the filtered 
liquor one drop of ferric chloride .solution. Pure pep- 
per affords no co'ouration, while a deep greeni-h brown 
will indicate the presence of grains of paradise. Other 
common adulteraut of pepper, such as date or olive seed, 
strike a slight ureou colour with the ferric solution ; 
but it is so different from the other that no possible 
doubt can be entertained. — Chemist and JJruggist. 
London : Oincuona.— South American Bank : Only 
slightly over 100 packages sold, old Cupred at the low 
price of l;jd per lb., and some fine Calisaya quills from 
the Bolivian plantations at 10id to lid per lb. West 
African Bank : The supply consisted of 7!) bales and 
2 cases, imported via Lisbon from the island of St. 
Thomas. The quality was not very good, and the 
whole lot sold at lid to 5d for fair Ledyeriana chips 
and weak small quills, and 3d to 3kd for weak young 
ditto. Prom a private letter which we received this 
week from a Ceylon planter (who is not personally 
interested in cinchona) we abstract the following : — 
" There are still large quantities of hark, both grow- 
ing and stored, throughout the island, anil shioments 
will largely depend upon the obtainable price. The 
bottom, however, has been touched, and very little 
cinchona is being freshly planted. Harvesting early 
means the extinction of the tree, as shaving leads to 
renewal, and coppicing to fresh shoots. Still, from 
ill-health arising from various causes, a veiy large 
percentage of the trees dies out every year, and when 
a tree is thus seen to ho dying, it is at once taken 
out and fully harvested — root, stem, and branch. Any 
considerable rise in price would at once increase the 
yield of bark beyond what it otherwise would be ; 
but the total available supply, or, say, the number 
of growing trees, is long past the maximum, and 
must continue steadily to fall, with little probability 
of any future increase. Much unsuitable land was 
once planted with cinchona that never will be so 
again. There is little available land left, and most 
of that would be preferred for tea." — Chemist and 
Druggist, Peb. 18th. 
Ants And Plants. — In the last volume of the 
Nova Acta Eetfitt Hocietatis Scientiaram Upsaliensis, 
Professor Lundstrom publishes some remarkable in- 
formation on the relation between ants aud plants. 
Studying the nectar produced on the leaves of the 
Uow-Wheat (Melampyrum) he found that ants were 
attracted by the nectar on the leaves, and that some 
while walking over the leaf bore the seeds of the 
Cow-Wheat iu their mouths down towards the ground. 
Professor Lundstrom was astonished by the great 
resemblance of these seeds to the " ant-eggs " (tho 
cocoons of the ants), and he found that the ants' 
took these seeds for cocoons ; for when he strewej 
some seeds on tho ground the ants saved them as 
they did their cocoons. Lundstrom afterwards found 
that the thin membrane which surrounds the seed 
and causes it to resemble an ant egg so closely, 
falls off soon after tho seed is brought by the ants 
to the soil, and that it remains there untouched 
by the ants. Another observation of the same author, 
noteworthy for aboriculturists, is the followiug. At 
Christineberg, near Hudiksvall, the soil in an avenue 
of Populus treniula was dug and tho ants, which 
were formerly very numerous, disappeared in conse- 
quence. In the next year Professor Lundstrom 
found that the leaves of these Poplars were des- 
troyed by insects in a short time, whilst those of 
tbo other Poplars, where the soil had not been dug 
up, were quite intact. Careful observation showed 
that tho first leaves of tho trembling Poplar huvo 
short round petioles wftll nectar glands, whilst tb • 
petioles of tbo older le ives are much longer, Hit, 
iiiul without those glands, a< Trealease showed in 
the Botanical Qazette, vi. (1881). Lundstrdm's notion 
is, that the ants are attracted by th«*o gliml*, and 
preserve tho tree from the attacks of caterpillars. 
SO., lor the first time. At a la'er season the 
leaves with the long, tl it peti de< nr.' no much dis- 
turbed by the movements of the haves, that no 
caterpillar can go on them. The author found nnt» 
iu every situation where the trembling Poplar grow. — 
Hardener*' Chronicle. 
