s64 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, [October i, 1888. 
without having to incur the expense of going out 
of the island. It is true that the report before us 
is not of a very encouraging nature, the students 
having been very unsuccessful at the examination 
and the numbers attending the College having fallen 
off greatly; but this is accounted for as follows : — 
The slight decrease in the strength last year was at- 
tributed to mere ordinary fluctuations, but the facts 
disclosed this year evidently lead to the conclusion 
that the difficulty in finding employment under Govern- 
ment is one of the chief causes that has told so per- 
ceptibly on the strength of the College. The stricter 
rules now in force, as regards the award of certificates, 
the increased length of the courses, and the increased 
cost of the education afforded although unquestionably 
important factors, did not probably contribute so muoh 
to this decline as the cause above mentioned. As the 
College has hitherto been more or less a training ins- 
titution for the Department of Public Works, it is not 
surprising to find the number of admissions fluctuating 
with the facilities which passed candidates have of 
obtaining employment under Government, But the 
Director is disposed to think that the introduction of 
the re-organization scheme in its entirety and the 
strengthening of the staff by two European professors 
will ultimately raise the College considerably in public 
estimation and thus increase the attendance. If the 
men turned out under the new scheme prove themselves 
superior to those educated under the old, the employers 
of labor will naturally prefer them, and the demand 
thus created will lead young men to resort to the ins- 
titution. Until, however, the States compels Local and 
Municipal bodies to employ cnly technically- qualified 
Engineering subordinates, the usefulness of the institu- 
tion must be limited and its cost to the exchequer be 
much greater than would otherwise be the case. 
Of the 93 students who attended the classes in 
1888, 7 were Europeans and Eurasians, 6 native 
Christians, 53 Brahmans, and 27 non-Brahman 
Hindus, there b<" % ig no Muhammadans. As regards 
the social position of the students, it was found 
that a very small proportion belonged to the poorer 
classes, this fact justifying the conclusion that the 
fees charged were too high. If, therefore, a similar 
institution is organized in Colombo, the errors 
which have been committed in connection with the 
Madras College of Engineering should be avoided. 
♦ 
A Beminiscence of Daejiling and Lilies. — 
When we visited Darjiling in 1876 we met a 
Gloucestershire squire, a fine-looking tall man, who 
had been an officer in the Guards. This was Capt, 
A. J. Elwes, brother, we believe, or cousin, of Mrs. 
Talbot of Ceylon. He was employed, with the help of 
the flat-faced Lepchas, in making natural history 
collections in Sikkim, one of the most favoured 
regions of the world, midway between the heat of 
the North Indian plains and the cold of the Hima- 
layas. We were naturally interested to learn that 
Capt. Elwes had been in partnership in a Darjiling 
tea estate with a Mr. Macdonald, a grandson of our 
old parish minister in the Highlands, the Bev. John 
Macdonald, "the apostle of the north." Young 
Macdonald (son of the second Bev. John Mac- 
donald, Dr. Duff's coadjutor in Calcutta) had 
inherited heart disease, and, contrary to the protests 
of the dentist, got a tooth extracted under the 
influence of chloroform. He left his young wife 
in the ante-room, who next saw him dead in the 
dentist's chair. We learned that Capt. Elwes had, 
in his garden in Gloucestershire, the finest collec- 
tion of lillies in the world, and we now find from 
a book catalogue before us, that he subsequently 
published a monograph on his favourite flowers, 
which is thus described : — 
"LlLIEB. Elwes (A. J.) A Monograph of the Genus 
Litium, illustrated by W. H. Fitch, with fine emblema- 
tic) title-page by WO. Smith, coloured maps showing 
geographical diatubutiou, a splendid full-page photo- 
graph of the North- West Himalayas (the native loca- 
lity of Lilium polyphyllum), and 48 magnificently 
coloured plates, imp. folio, £7 17s 6d, scarce, 18S0. 
"This is a magnificent volume, alike a credit to author, 
artist, and printer. The drawing and colouring, by 
Mr. W. H. Fitch, is done with inimitable skill and glows 
with life." 
This is a book we should like to see. Is a there 
copy in Ceylon ? 
Cedeela Toona. — As our readers are aware, we 
have published in the Observer Dr. Trimen's 
most recent and most matured opinion as to the 
comparative innoeuousness of the borer which occa- 
sionally affects the tender shoots of Cedrela toona. 
It is amusing as well as interesting, therefore, 
to find Mr. T. Farr writing in the following strain 
to the local " Times " : — 
Having carefully examined the toona borer myself, 
and having previously made the acquaintance of the 
coffee and tea borer, I was sceptical as to the dan- 
gerous nature of the former, and was fortunate enough, 
through the courtesy of a friend to obtain so valuable 
an opinion on the subject as that of Dr. Trimen, given 
about a year ago. Dr. Trimen says: " The toona will 
do no harm planted on a tea estate. It is true that 
the tree has suffered from the attacks of a small cater- 
pillar which lives upon the pith of the young shoots, 
but this has nothing to do with the borers which live 
on wood and are the larvae of beetles." This opinion 
should set at rest any doubts on this subject, and, 
as the toona tree is without exception one of the 
quickest growing trees ever planted in Ceylon, and 
is the very best wood for tea boxes, it is very satis- 
factory to know that we may plant the tree with 
perfect safety amongst our tea. I have a considerable 
number of these trees of all sizes, and only a few of them 
have been attacked by this caterpillar. 
The ancient date and the second hand origin of 
Mr. Farr's quotation of Dr. Trimen's opinion does 
not detract from the value of that opinion, any 
more than Mr. Farr's lofty pretence of ignoring 
more recent and explicit testimony lessens the 
value of his testimony in favour of a tree, the 
value of which (for timber, not for firewood) we 
have impressed on our readers. 
A Destroyed Island. — Dr. Treub, the director of the 
Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg, Java, has published 
his experience with regard to the reappearance of 
vegetation upon the Island of Krakatau, which partly 
sank, and was wholly overwhelmed by the ashes 
and pumice-stone from its volcano during the violent 
outbreak of 1883. Three years after this date, Dr. 
Treub (on 26th June 1886) visited the island, and as 
he approached it he found that it was covered with 
vegetation to the very summit of the mountain. The 
plants could not have grown from the roots or seeds 
of those existing before the great eruption, for the 
toughest organism must have been destroyed by the 
excessive volcanic heat. The whole island was 
covered with a layer of ashes and pumice-stone from 
3 ft. to 240 ft. thick. Nor could the vegetation, Dr. 
Treub thinks, have been introduced by man, for the 
island is uninhabited and difficult of access. It must 
have been by means of seeds carried thither by birds, 
the wind, or the currents of the sea that the new 
vegetation arose. It consists for the most part of 
ferns, of which eleven different varieties were found, 
and of single specimens of blossoming herbs, such as 
are found on coral reefs that have lately risen above 
the level of the sea. Dr. Treub has, however, found 
that the ferns were not the first living plants that 
hid found nourishment on the destroyed island. 
Almost everywhere there were signs that the ashes 
and pumice stone had been covered by a thin layer of 
algie, which rendered the surface of the soil soft 
and capable of absorbing water. These microscopic 
algie prepared the way for the ferns, and the latter, 
in their turn, for the blossoming herbs. — Aberdeen 
Free Press. 
