April i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
677 
their systems of trading on credit, cannot have been 
■without its effect on the native traders in the setle- 
ments. The Shen-pao allows that the black tea mer- 
chants have done better than in many previous years, 
the diminution of demand in the country having 
kept down the prices paid to the growers, while the 
foreign demand has continued good. The green tea 
merchants have also done well, though the profits 
have not been so large as on black teas, while Ping- 
sueys, the Shen-pao says, have been unfortunate. The 
Hit-pao contents itself with saying that 1888 was a 
brilliant year for the Chinese tea-merchants, and 
went far to redeem their losses in preceding years. 
— Kong Kong Daily Press, Feb., 6th. 
— — -* 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, PERADENIYA, 
CEYLON. 
A Classified Catalogue of the Library of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon. December, 
1888. Compiled by Henry Trimen, m. b., p. b. s., i 
E. t. o., Director. 
We have received a copy of this very interesting 
and useful publication from Dr. Trimen. It is 
prefaced by the following introductory note : — 
In this catalogue the books in the Garden Library 
are classified on a plan which it is believed will be 
found practically useful to such Botanists, Horticul- 
turists, Planters, Foresters, &c, as may have occasion 
to consult it. The classification, being based on the 
actual contents of the books themselves rather than 
their mere titles, becomes to some extent (so far as 
the Library goes) a guide to the literature available 
for inquirers on any particular subject. The adoption 
of more frequent cross-references would have increased 
its usefulness in this direction, but added to the bulk 
of the catalogue. 
The many desiderata of the Library are only too 
conspicuously evident, and there are also many im- 
perfect works. My own private library at present 
supplies and fills up many of these gapB, but any 
donations of botanical books wanting in this catalogue, 
especially of volumes needed to complete series, will be 
very thankfully received and gratefully acknowledged. 
Henry Trimen. 
The value of the Library, although it is not so com- 
plete as the worthy Director wishes and naturally 
hopes to see it, is great, as may be seen by the fol- 
lowing table of contents : — 
I. — General Systematic Botany (post-Linnean) ; II. — 
Partial Systematic Botany, Monographs, &c. (Phane- 
rogamic ;) III. — Floras (Phanerogamic: — 1, Asia, 2. 
Australia and the Pacific, 3. Africa and Islands, 
4. Europe, 5. America; IV. — Cryptogamic Botany 
(Monographs and Floras) ; V. — Structural and Phy- 
siological Botany ; VI. — Economic Botany and Planting; 
VII. — Periodical Publications; VIII. — Publications of 
Societies ; IX. — Reports and Catalogues of Botanic 
Gardens, &c; X. — Forestry and Forest Reports ; XI. 
— Gardening and Agriculture ; XII. — Miscellaneous 
Botany : — 1. Pre-Linnean Botany (General), 2. Bio- 
graphioal, &c, 3. Topographical and Travels, 4. 
Fossil ; 5. Bibliographical ; XIII. — Other subjects 
than Botany. 
Those wishing to consult books on our leading 
products— coffee, tea, cinchona, &c. — will find them 
under the proper sub-headings. To the young 
Foresters of Ceylon, such a Library of reference 
ought to be especially valuable. 
♦ 
TEA IN NATAL. 
The Morning. Post has an interesting article on the 
cultivation of tea in Natal, from which it appears 
that if all turns out as well as is generally expected 
there is every probability that before the end of the 
present year samples of the first crop of bohea ever 
gathered in South Africa will find their way to the 
London market. The writor says : — 'The climate there 
is warm and moist, there is, too, an abundance of sun- 
shine, in which the shrub delights, and which is more- 
over needful for the full development of flavour and 
strength in the leaves, for in China it is noticed that 
the tea made from plants grown in the shade, and 
not fully exposed, is invariably watery and tasteless. 
Recently no less than four companies were formed in 
Natal to test the capabilities of the colony in the 
matter of tea-growing. Since the Natal Company 
acquired its estate the colonists have pushed on the 
work of plantation apace, so that there are now over 
one hundred acres under cultivation. Thirty acres 
are planted as a nursery, one of the largest, it is 
stated, ever laid out in connection with tea-growing 
and forty acres are ready for seed. Over two mil- 
lion seeds have been planted, and upwards of 
a million and a-half young plants are al- 
ready in such forward condition that they are ex- 
pected to yield a first picking early this year. But Natal 
is not the only new country in which tea-growing 
has been commenced in late years with good prospects 
of success. In the Malay Peninsula the tea-shrub seems 
to thrive even better than in India or its native place, 
China. The temperature and rainfall of Johore varies 
so slightly all the year round that "flushing" goes on 
every month without intermission. The yield of tea is 
therefore greater than in India, Ceylon, or China; and 
as to the quality, it appears to be equal to the very 
best products of Assam and Ceylon, since it fetches as 
high a price as either in the open market. What may 
be the result of the introduction of the thea sinensis in 
the Malay Peninsula, where cheap labour is readily to 
be obtained,* cannot, of course, as yet be said ; but the 
success that has, it seems, so far attended the efforts 
made to acclimatise the plant in Natal auggest the re- 
flection that India and Ceylon are not the only rivals 
which China may, in th6 future, have to compete with in 
the tea markets of the world. — L. % C. Express, Yah. 15th. 
» 
DRUG TRADE REPORT. 
London, 14th February 1889. 
The Commencement of the Cinchona Auctions this 
week suffered some delay in consequence of the absence 
at the time fixed for the opening of the sale of the 
representative of one of the foreign manufacturers. 
The brokers first on the list declined to proceed with 
their sale until competition should be completed by the 
arrival of this gentleman, and the other buyers were thus 
kept waiting for exactly seventeen minutes, sundry 
suggestions, complimentary and otherwise, being ad- 
vanced regarding the reasons of the delay. At last the 
missing gentleman hurried iu, and the sale proceeded. His 
absence was caused, it is said, by the receipt, just before 
the commencement of the auctions, of a telegram from 
his principals revoking or altering certain limits. But 
when once the sale had commenced it proceeded with 
remarkable dispatch, one catalogue of 957 packages be- 
ing disposed of in the space of twenty-eight minutes. 
Annatto. — A large consignment (125 baskets) has 
arrived from Pari this week. 
Cardamoms. — The cultivation cf cardamoms is being 
much extended, it is 6aid, in the north-eastern parts of 
Ceylon, where the best qualities are produced. Some 
of the Ceylon-grown Mysore cardamoms yield as much 
as 600 lb per acre of dried fruit ; and a shipment of 
this variety recently sold in London at 2s 5d per lb 
paid the owners better than any other crop, barring 
the best qualities of tea, could have done. The boxes 
are carried to Kandy (30 miles) on the heads of Sin- 
halese villagers, leaving the estate the morning of one 
day and catching next morning's train for Colombo, 
whereby the minimum of riBk of injury to the caro»- 
moms is incurred. 
Cinchona.— At the fortnightly auctions held on Tues- 
day a rather smaller supply was offered than at the pre- 
vious sales of the present year, the catalogues on this 
occasion incladingonly 
Packages Packages 
Ceylon bark ... 1,234 of which 1,0UI were sold 
East Indian bark ... ^1,217 „ 1,204 „ 
Java bark ... 22 „ 22 „ 
South American bark 203 „ 37 „ 
Total ... 2,676 „ 2,264 
• This is new to us, and will be in the Straits, 
we suBpect. — Ed. 
