100 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1888. 
Usually plants received in September, are established 
and partially acclimatised before the rains begin in 
the midnle of October. A large number of ferns 
also, received from Bangalore and Ootacamuud, nearly 
all succuiubed at once to the same cold rain, a 
circumsiauce particulary remarkable in the case of 
one liundi ed plants of Adiunlum cethiopicum, a species, 
which, in its natural habitat at Ootacamund, must 
often endure several degrees of frost and a vast 
amount of cold and wet. 
The Committee continues to subscribe for the 
Gardeners' Chronicle, and the Botanical Magazine ; 
and to receive as the Society's most highly valued 
exchanges, the Proceedings of the Agricultural and 
Horticultural Society of India, The Indian Forester, 
The Tropical Agriculturist, L'lllustration Horticole, 
Eevue Agricole de la Societe d' Acclimatation de 1' 
He Maurice, and the Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous 
Information. "Annals of Botany" a periodical issued 
by a scientific Committee at Oxford has also been 
subscribed for. The usual distribution of the Monthly 
Proceedings of the Committee and the Society's other 
publications, to Members, Correspondents, Societies, 
Governments and others, was continued. 
Economic Plants. — The grievous depression amongst 
the planting community of Southern India mentioned 
last year, unhappily still continues and paralyses 
private enterprise in the direction of new introduc- 
tions. The stock \oi such plants is, however, still 
kept up iD the Society's Nurseries in hopes of better 
times reviving the demand. Numbers of Maragogipe 
Coffee, Eri/throxi/hn Coca, Lance-wood, Mahogany, 
Landolphia, Trincomallee-wood, Edible Prickly- Pear, 
and other useful plants are still available. 
Chocolate. — The large tree of Theobroma Cacao of 
which mention has more than once bsen made in 
the Committee's Annual Report, as flourishing and 
bearing fruit under the shade of the Coconut Palms, 
succumbed to the drought, but another plant a year 
or two younger growing near it not only survived, 
but seemed not to suffer. The old plant was isolated 
in the grass so had no protection but the shade 
overhead, and got only such water as was given to 
it directly by hand ; while the survivor is in the new 
border closely surrounded, sheltered, and shaded by 
the Coconut Palms and the young trees and shrubs 
in the border, and got the full benefit of the perio- 
dical floodings of the border. The Honorary .Secre- 
tary is still of opinion that the cultivation of Cocoa 
might very possibly be successful in Madras if the 
cultivators would take the same trouble as the growers 
of the Betel-leaf do in Bengal, to shade, shelter, and 
irrigate their orop. 
Rubber Plants. — The Landolphia plant mentioned 
in last report successfully ripened its crop of fruit, 
and from the seeds Mr. Gleeson raised about 8U 
plants which were in due course placed at the dis- 
posal of Government for further experiment. Orders 
have been issued to various officers to take over the 
plants and try them in climates and situations which 
are expected to be favourable to their growth and 
development. The Castilloa elastica plants mentioned 
in last report still thrive. 
Bread-Fruit. — A batch of root-cuttings of the tree 
which bears the seedless Bread-fruit was obtained 
through the kind offioes of Mr. Logan, the Collector 
of Malabar, and the Superintendent hopes to raise 
from them a few good plants. A large, rooted plant 
was also obtained by Mr. Robinson, the Chief En- 
gineer of the Madras Railway, from the Western 
Coast, presented to the Society, and planted at once 
in the Coconut tope where it is showing great promise. 
Three other fine plants are thriving, planted ©ut in 
the Gardens, two having been presented by Mr. Lovery, 
and one being the survivor of a number received 
from Dr. Trituen, Ceylon. Some very interesting 
papers ou the subject of this tree will be found in 
recent Proceed'" of the Committee. In view of 
Mr. Lovery's success in growing and fruiting the 
tree, and of the healthy and vigorous appearance of 
fhe young trees in the gardons, the Committee sees 
no reason why this tree, such a safe-guard from 
famine as it might bo, should not bo found growin 
by the side of the channel of every irrigation well in 
Madras. The Committee is informed that Mr. Lovery 
has interested several of the wealthy Brahmins living 
in and about Mylapore in the subject, the produce of 
the tree being especially suited to the needs of their 
community. The Society is of course willing and 
anxious to do its best to obtain plants from Ceylon 
or the AVestern Coast, for every one who is prepared 
to pay the cost which should not come to more for 
each plant than that of a young, grafted Mango. 
Tree Tomato. — The Committee still hears fre- 
quently from the Hills of the great success of its in- 
troduction, thanks to Mr. Morris of Jamaica, of 
GyphoniUbiulra betacea. Unfortunately the plant will 
not grow on the plains, but in the cooler climates of 
Southern India, it is an unqualified success, and its 
popularity continues to increase. Happily its fecun- 
dity is so great that the Society has no difficulty in 
complying witb demands for seed by applying to 
some of its correspondents in more favoured local- 
ities. 
Carludovica Palmata.— In August, 1887, three 
plants of this Palm were received in a Wardian 
case from Dr. Henry Trimen, Director, Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Ceylon. Two of them unfortunately died, 
but the third promises to grow well, and is now 
five or six times as large as they were when they 
arrived. The followiug interesting accouut of the 
Plant and its uses is extracted from the Treasury 
of Botany — 
" Common in shady places all over Panama and 
along the Coast of new Grenada and Ecuador. Its 
leaves are shaped and piaited like a fan, and are 
borne on three-cornered stalks from six to fourteen 
feet high : they are about four feet in diameter 
and deeply cut into four or five divisions, each of 
which is again cut. The Panama bats commonly 
worn in America, and now becoming common in 
this country, are manufactured from these leaves. 
Those of the best qiality are plaited from a single 
leaf without any joinings, and, as the proetss some- 
times occupies two or three months, their price is 
very high, a single hat often costing 150 dollars, 
and cigar-cases of the same material, £6 each. 
The leaves are cut whilst young, and tha stiff 
parallel veins removed after which they are slit 
into shreds, but not separated at the stalk end, 
and immersed in boiling water for a short time, 
and then bleached in the sun. " 
Paritium Elatum.— (The mountain Mahoe) seeds 
of this plant were received from Kew, on 19th July, 
1884* from which a few plants have been raised. 
Two of them have been planted iu the new border 
in the Coconut Tope where one of them is very 
promising, being now about 23 feet, 9 inches high 
and 9 inches in girth, at 3 feet from the ground f 
It is stated in the Treasury of Botany, 2nd Edition 
(page 847), that this plant " affords the beautiful 
lace-like inner bark called Cuba bast, at one time 
only known as a material used for tying round 
bundles of genuine Havannah Cigars, but afterwards 
imported, particularly duriug the Russian War, as a 
substitute for the Russia bast used by gardeners for 
tying up plants ; it is now largely substituted by 
other materials. The tree, which is found only in 
Cuba and Jamaica, grows fifty or sixty feet high, 
and yields a peculiar greenish-blue timber, highly 
valued by the Jamaica cabinet-makers." 
Moringa. — A species of this tree M. Pterygosperma 
Gaertn., is well known to Anglo-Indians as the 
producer of the " horse radish " used on the plains, 
and less generally as the supplier of the main 
constituent of " Drumstick curry. " There is another 
representative of the family with finer and more 
beautiful foliage in the Gardens, where it has stood , 
a solitary specimen, for many years, without flowering. 
Interest was excited in the subject by " The Kew 
Bulletin " which, in its first number mentioned another 
species which produced a tuberous root, reported to 
grow, and be valued as food by the Arabs in the 
* Vide aute Vol. Ill, New Series, p. 414- 
f Measured on 20th March, 1888. 
