April i) 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
intelligent perseverance in this matter reads like a 
lomance. In recent plantings only the quinine- 
yielding ledgerianas and hybrids have been put 
out. The replanting of a piece of land which had 
rain fallow for ten years after the original cin- 
chonas had been uprooted promises to be a great 
success. Several new species of cinchona promised 
well, but trials with the plants yielding cuprea bark 
had proved a failure. Except for their botanical 
interest we do not see wby trouble should be 
taken with these plants, which are not cinchonas 
at all. The issues of febrifuges in the year had 
exceeded 8,000 lb. The plants, including nursery 
stock, numbered 5,335,000, of which nearly 3 
millions were ledgerianas and superior hybrids. 
Counting sales of medicine, the plantations have 
yielded large profits ; and as the Lt. -Governor of 
Bengal was to bring Mr. Gammie's services to 
the notice of the Government of India, we hope 
soon to hear that besides a more substantial 
reward Mr. Gammie will receive the C. S. I. 
The giant lily, Victoria regia, had flowered in 
several of the lakes in the Calcutta Botanical 
Gardens, which leads us to express surprise ths.t 
all experiments in this more genial climate of ou-rs 
have failed, No doubt we have beyond comparison 
the largest flower in the world in the grand spike of 
the talipot (a specimen of which is now in fruit 
in Peradeniya), but the great lily ought to be amongst 
the attractions of Peradeniya and also of Victoria 
Park, Colombo, as well as of the Fort Foun- 
tain tank. The " rain tree " (Pithecolobium 
xamari) has flourished exceedingly in Ceylon, but we 
have never heard that here, as in Calcutta, cattle 
greedily eat the nutritious pods. We surely cannot 
afford to despise any form of forage. In noticing the 
Lloyd Botanic Gardens at Darjiling the disastrous 
effects of the potato disease are remarked on 
and the recommendation made that fresh seed be 
introduced from Malta or Australia. The correspon- 
dence of Dr. Wallichfrom 1794 to 1819 had been trans- 
ferred fromKew to the Library of the Calcutta Gardens. 
The Madras Cinchona reports indicate consider- 
able damage and destruction ,of plants by severe 
frosts in January and February 1888, over 3,000 cin- 
chona plants having been killed outright. Such frosts 
are very rare in the Nuwara Eliya plateau. Drought 
and strong winds are also reported as damaging the 
Nilgiri plantations, the first plot of succirubras 
planted at Naduvatam, and to which special in- 
terest attached, being described as so shaken as to 
be doomed. Wind is bad enough in some parts of 
Ceylon, but if any one wants to see evidence of the 
destructive fury of the north-east wind, he m i 
to the edges of the Nilgiri plateau. Manure, cattle, 
haystacks, silos, deep tillage are all mentioned in 
connection with the Nilgiri cinchona plantations. Mr. 
Hooper had visited Darjeeling and obtained 
all information from Mr. Gammie, so that now 
quinine will be manufactured in Southern India as 
well as in the North. In Mr. Hooper's report it is 
shown that in the case of ledgers as well as other 
cinchonas tho covering of the bark leads to a large 
increase of quinine. It was proved that while 
cattle-manure increased the proportion of quinine 
lime led to an increase in the inferior alkaloids. 
Cattle-manure gave an increase of 48'8 per cent in 
quinine over the bark of unmanured traes. Poonac 
also led to a large increase in quinine. Manure 
and renewing both lessen the amount of the most 
inferior alkaloid, cinclionine. A great deal of in- 
teresting information is given regarding the value 
of robust hybrids, which will be reprinted in detail in 
the Tropical Agriculturist. The approximate num- 
ber of plants at the ond of the year was 1,740,000. 
This does not inc.ude plants in nursories as in the 
oaBo of the Bengal report. 
AtJftlt/T3LTUR1 ST. 693 
PLANTING IN THE LOWCOUNTBY OF TEE 
WESTERN PROVINCE. 
A SIYANE KORALE CORRESPONDENT ON THE TREAT- 
MENT OF COCONUT TREES — RICH MANURE A STIMU- 
LANT OF THE GROWTH OF PLANTS — THE TREATMENT OF 
THE ORCHARDS OF EUROPE AND THE ROOTS OF COCO- 
NUT TREES — THE FORCING OF YOUNG TREES TO EARLY 
BEARING BY DIGGING AND MANURING — THE DIS- 
ASTROUSLY LOW PRICE OF ANATTO — NONBEARING DIVI- 
DIVI TREES — HEAVY SHADE AND SUPERABUNDANT 
MOISTURE AS A CHECK TO RIPENING OF PEPPER. 
The paper that called forth so much indignation on 
the part of a Sivane Korale cotrespondeat some 
time ago was not all in opposition to bim. I there stated 
and opposed views on the treatment of coconut trees, 
that I am not aware be held, even in his most be- 
nighted days, but that are still held and defended by 
some who pretend to a knowledge of coconuts, but do 
not assert themselves in the T. A., and who uever 
obtain greater light from our discussions of the prin- 
ciples of agricultural chemistry, so that some of the 
tardest hits in that article were not aimed at him. 
It is evident that on more than one of my views my 
young critic has not understood my meaning, no 
doubt from want of precision of statement. I never 
thought of denying the patent fact that a rich manure 
stimulates the growth of plants. What I did say, or 
at least meant to say, is, that the growth of plants 
is not governed by the abundance of some of those cou- 
stituent elements in the soil, but by such of those ele- 
ments as are least abundant. The specific sap of a 
plant is composed of its constitueut elements, m 
definite proportions derived from earth aud air, and 
in the case of any of those elements being defici- 
ent in the soil, the plant will only thrive in pro- 
portion to the success of the roots in observing 
the specific proportion of the deficient element. If 
the roots take up indiscriminately the soluble elements 
of the soil, bow comes it, that many of those elements 
are not found in the tissues of the plant ? By what 
organs is the final selection made ? and how is the re- 
jected matter disposed of P To my mind it seems much 
more consistent with the simplicity of nature, that the 
power of selection should be in the roots than in auy 
other organ. There is no transmutation of elements 
either in nature or art, and no plant is known to ac- 
cept a substitute for a deficient element. 
The S. K. writer seeks for analogy in the treatment 
of the orchards of Europe. He is no doubt aware that 
most of the fruits cultivated in Europe are ex- 
ogenous, but even in that case occasional ploughing of 
orchard grounds is by no means an unfrequeut practice 
in England. The roots of most exogenous plants are 
few in number near their origin, but ramify below 
ground, much as the branches do above, waxing in 
girth as the Btem and branches wax. To cut those 
large roots would be very injurious to the tree 'that 
was fed through them, and in some species would 
as surely kill the tree as ringing the stem. The roots 
of indigenous plants are very different in character. 
In the case of the coconut the main roots ra- 
diate from the common centre in all directions 
aud iu uncountable numbers, and all about au inch 
in girth from origin to extremity. To a plant thus 
furnished there is no hardship in the loss of such 
main roots as intrude on the space reserved for the 
operations of cultivation : so far indeed from suffering 
by the loss of superficial roots I have never seen a 
tree so treated that did not recpond gratefully and 
almost immediately. 
Aa regards the forcing of young trees, I am not 
half so sanguine as some other planters I hear of, 
who propose to have their trees in flower in the 
fourth year, a feat beyond my experience and my 
knowledge ; I would do the same if I knew how, 
but I believe on specially suitable soil with liberal 
cultivation a largo percentage may be brought into 
bearing by the seventh year, aud tho balance before 
the end of the tenth. I have elsewhero stated my 
opiniou that coconut trees do not suffer from over- 
bearing, as thuy drop all the crop that is beyond 
