April i, 1889.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
671 
run New Zealand close, the classification of Britain 
and her colonies standing in order of pre-eminence 
thus : — 
Oountries. Consumption op tea pbr Caput. 
New Zealand ... ... 7'-65 lb. 
Australian Colonies ... ... 7'50 „ 
Tasmania ... ... 5 - 40 ,, 
Great Bitain ... ... 4 95 „ 
Newfoundland ... ... 4"35 „ 
Cauada ... ... 3 80 „ 
Bermuda ... ... 3 46 „ 
Cape Colony ... ... 080. „ 
Natal (produces some tea) ... 076 ,, 
Mauritius ... ... 0-70 „ 
Considering the preponderance of the negro race 
in Bermuda, the figures for that colony are ex- 
traordinary. Pity that those for Jamaica aod the 
other West India Islands and for British Guiana 
and the West African settlements are not compared. 
The consumption per head in the United States 
is only D46 per head, while Russia, with her 
enormous population, shows a rate per caput of 
only 0 70 lb. Holland, although the greatest con- 
sumer of coffee per head in the world, comes near 
the United States in tea consumption, the rate for 
each head of the population being 1"20 lb. Most 
of the other countries show miserable figures : Italy, 
indeed being represented by ciphers ! Austria- 
Hungary, Boumania and Spain are each represented 
by 0 02! Franc, Belgium and Sweden by 0-03. 
Switzerland and Morocco by 0'08. Germany and Nor- 
way by 0-09. Portugal 0-12. Persia by 0-13. Then 
come more respectable fractions: the Argentine 
Bepublic (which grows its own mate) 0-30 ; Uruguay 
0'34 ; and Denmark 0 37. It will thus be seen that 
there is much room for the introduction of India 
and Ceylon teas, not only where China kinds have 
already possession of the field, as in the United 
States and Canada, Russia and the Australian 
colonies, but where tea is not used at all or only 
to a fragmentary extent as a high-priced luxury or 
a medicine, having, as in South America to com- 
pete with a formidable antagonist in mate, not to 
speak of he"rb teas elsewhere. Tea missionaries 
are wanted, men who can conscientiously advocate 
the use of teas which are absolutely pure against 
not only alcoholic beverages, but infusions of 
inferior China, or vegetable substitutes. The idea 
to form a Company for pushing our teas amongst 
oonsumers in the southern heimsphere, could not 
have been started at a more opportune moment. 
There is also room for similar combinations to attack 
the markets of America and of Russia (if that 
miserably narrow power permits) and the continent 
of Europe generally, while there is room for action 
in South and Central America and in parts of 
Africa. If peace can only be preserved, the Paris 
Exhibition ought to help our staple: and so much 
besides that depends on the nations refusing to 
allow the enormous armaments they have provided 
to be used. — In the imposition of duties on tea, 
positive enmity to the article as a competitor with 
coffee seems sometimes to be shown. Greece has 
the bad eminence of the highest duty Is l|d on 
tea and only 2§d on coffee. France comes next 
with 9d to ll.jd against 6Jd to 9d. Austria-Hun- 
gary has 9d against 4d to 5jd. Germany 5$d 
against 2d to 2| an 1 Holland (whose own chief 
colony grows tea) 2},1 while coffee is free. Curiously 
enough the greatest consumer of tea per heal, New 
Zealand, exacts a duty of Od on tea. 
" GAMBIER." 
" Gambier " forms the subject of correspond- 
ence in today's issue. From the Eastern Archi- 
pelago we carried away vivid impression of the 
devastating effect on the soil of two pursuits : the 
culture of tobacco in Java and the manufacture of 
the astringent substance called gambir from the 
leaves of Uncaria gambir (a plant belonging to 
the same natural order as the cinchona) in 
Singapore. The result in both eases has been the 
same : large tracts of once fertile land so im- 
poverished, that they can now grow only the lalang 
or alang-alang grass, — the iluk of Ceylon, — or the 
ubiquitous lantana, although in most cases, " the 
survival of the fittest " principle has given the 
coarse grass the victory. We saw some of the 
remaining gambir plants, straggling and shabby, in 
portions of Singapore island, which the Chinese 
squatters had been permitted to devastate, and we 
believe we have seen similar plants in Ceylon. They 
are, probably enough, indigenous to Ceylon, but we 
think not abundant, and with our impression 
carried away from Singapore, we must express 
the trust that the culture and manufacture of 
gambir, — or the manufacture rather, — may be left 
to the inhabitants of the Riouw group of islands 
belonging to the Dutch, where there is abundance 
of the plant in the form of jungle, and where land 
for other purposes is neither scarce nor valuable. 
We have small ambition to see Ceylon add the 
manufacture of one of the most powprful astrin- 
gents in the world to her large production of a 
nut, the areca, only second in astringent properties 
to the leaves of Uncaria gambir. The nuts of our 
graceful palm require no preparation, save drying 
and decorticating,* while the leaves of the gambir 
plant have to be stewed and the juice inspissated 
by fire or sun heat, the processes being some- 
what complicated. Besides being used as an 
astringent in medicine, gambir is largely employed 
as a tanning and dyeing agent. Before the vegetable 
origin of this and cognate substances were known, 
they received the popular name of Terra japonica, 
Japan earth. A substance similar to gambir in 
its astringent and other properties is obtained 
from the wood of certain acacias, which are 
chopped into small pieces and boiled, the juice 
being subsequently evaporated. The names of 
the trees are A. catechu and A. suma. Of 
catechu from this source the average import 
into the United Kingdom seems to be about 
5,000 tons, while of the superior preparation from 
the leaves and young twigs of the two plants 
Uncaria gambir and (J. acida, the import is equal 
to 20,000 tons. If the cultivation of the gambir 
plants or the preparation of the product from jungle 
plants is really taken up in Ceylon, we trust it 
may be in the secondary and l>w jungle of por- 
tions of the country not suited for less exhausting 
crops. We hope to have Dr. Trimen's opinion on 
the question. But even if the plant abounded, we 
question if labour sufficient and of the right kind 
would be available. But the enterprise must be 
left to the decision of small capitalists. The cor- 
respondence referred to is as follows : — 
Colombo Museum, 4th March 1889. 
Gentlemen, — I have the honour to enclose a copy 
of a letter addressed to the Director of the Museum by 
Mr. W. N. Evans, the publication of which may, I 
hope, be of use to agriculturists and merchants in 
Ceylon. 
2. As far as I can a«iMrtain from Dr. Trimen's 
" Catalogue of Flowerinp Plants and Ferns " published 
in the Journal of thn C B. 11. A. S. for 1885, and 
from Dr. Thwaites's "Enunaeratio Plantarum Zeylanise," 
it seems that Uncaria gamlir (or, according to Dr. 
Trimen, Uncaria dasi/oneura var. Thwaitesii), which 
belongs to the order RuMaceae, is indigenous to Oeylou. 
* Areca catechu is, we know, obtained from the nuts 
by boiling, but we have no information of this process 
being carried on in Ceylon. 
