820 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June i, 1889. 
in the Forest School Museum are free from such heart- 
wood. The wood may be that of B. pentandra, or some 
other malvaceous species. 
Mr. Blechjnden states that the wood, especially the 
darker portion of it, has a decidedly unpleasant odour. 
It is improbable however, that if properly dried, any 
Indian wood would corrode the lead coating of tea 
boxes, such corrosion being generally due to the use of 
greeD wood still containing sap. 
Almost any wood of moderate specific gravity will 
do for tea boyes, provided it is hard and the grain 
twisted enough to hold nails, and the common mango 
furnishes one of the best woods for the purpose. 
The School Museum does not contain all Indian 
woods, but chiefly those given in the numbered cata- 
logue of Indian woods, at the end of Gamble's Indian 
Timbers. 
If Foresters all over India would kindly from time 
to time send to the Forest School well authenticated 
specimens of other woods not given in that catalogue, 
the collection there would be far more useful than at 
present, as the School Museum is apparently the only 
place in India where woods can be readily identified, 
and demands for such identification have recently arisen 
several times. 
We may note that Gamble's book states that semal 
wood has no annual rings, this is not always the case 
however, and Mr. Angus Campbell, formerly of the 
Roorkee Workshops, states that semal when old has a 
very dark, almost black, heartwood, and that most of 
the semal trees from the Chandi forest, felled for well- 
curbs for the dam across the Ganges at Narora, had 
dark heartwood, which appeared strong and was hard, 
and used to puzzle people when planed and polished, 
and they were told it was the despised semal. 
[Bombax malabaricum, or semal, is the red blos- 
somed cotton tree. — Ed.] 
Cedrela Toona (red variety.) — Plants planted in 
last December in a coconut plantation three miles 
from Mirigama railway station about 100 feet above 
sea-level are growing very rapidly, and they are now 
3J to 4J feet high and healthy. 
Royal Gardens, Kew Bulletin for April is 
occupied with a list of new garden plants de- 
scribed and published during the year 1888. It has 
been extended to include the descriptions of new 
plants (and name alterations) which have appeared 
in several horticultural periodicals, that were not 
included in the former list. The number of new 
garden plants annually described in various English 
and foreign periodicals, renders it a matter of 
considerable difficulty to botanists and horticulturists 
to keop them in view. 
Review op the Planting and Agricultural Indus- 
tries of Ceylon. By J. Ferguson. (John Haddon 
and Co.) — Though these papers have appeared in 
print before, thanks are due to Mr. Ferguson for 
publishing them in a separate volume. The first 
item that any interested person will look for is un- 
doubtedly coffee, and next, perhaps, tea. Coffee 
has never recovered from the blow which the leaf : 
disease and the removal of Protection struck. In 
1874-77, the export of plantation and native coffee 
reached 988,328 cwt., the estimated crop for 1887- 
88 being 150,000 cwt. Cinchona, too, has seen its 
best days ; the Ceylon bark is not good enough. 
Tea, of course, is the coming industry, 23 lb. 
being exported in 1873, and 22,000,000 lb. in 1887- 
88 ; at this rate, in five years the failure of coffee 
will be compensated, — that is to say, the value of 
the tea will be as much aa the coffee was. Mr. 
Ferguson gives plenty of details and statistics re- 
lating to all the tropical as well as the three 
principal products, and the short history which 
he attaches to the accounts of each enterprise are 
exceedingly instructive and interesting. — London 
Spectator. 
Japan Tea.— Favourable reports have been received 
in regard to the tea crop from several localities, 
and the prospects throughout Yamashiro are said 
to have very much improved.- Mail, March 18th. 
Cochineal. — The cultivation of cochineal in the 
island of Teneriffe was commenced about sixty 
years ago, and in 1831 the first exports (about 
19 lb.) i ere made. The shipment rapidly increased 
until 1869, when the maximum quantity of 
1,888,708 lb. was exported. Since that time the 
cultivation has been on the wane, and the grow- 
ing application of aniline dyes threatens to ex- 
tinguish it in a few year.j.— Chemist d- Druggitt. 
Mr. Goschen is fortunate with his budgets, 
but he is also emphatically the right man in' the 
right place as an able and sound fioancier and 
his measures have tended greatly to strengthen 
Lord Salisbury's Ministry. We, in Ceylon, have 
no particular reason to regret that the duty on tea 
is not to be reduced this year, because such reduction 
would really tell more in favour of cheap 
China, than of Indian and Ceylon, teas. We call 
attention to the remarks in detail made by Mr. 
Goschen in reference to tea, coffee, and cacao. 
The Cultivation op Coffee under shade after 
the Coorg and Mysore fashion continues to be 
discussed and experiments in the Uva Province 
are likely to be made erelong, with seed got from 
the Indian districts referred" to. The result will 
be watched with the greatest possible interest here. 
—In the meantime, not only are there good crops 
on a considerable area of old coffee upcountry, 
but we hear that such Liberian coffee as con- 
tinues to be cultivated in Ceylon is, this season, 
bearing exceedingly well and in a year when the 
prices are so high, a profitable return may be 
anticipated. 
I Utilization of Old Rails.— The Government 
of India having issued instructions for the utili- 
zation of surplus old rails, sleepers, &c, belong- 
ing to the North- Western Railway, a question was 
raised of constructing a Feeder Radway line between 
Ludhiana and Ferozepore, on which it was thought 
that the old stores could be utilized as however it 
was represented that there would not be sufficient 
traffic to maintain this line, and as it would also 
tend to attract away traffic which, it is believed, 
will go to enhance the revenue of the Patiala- 
Bhatinda-Bhawalpur Railway, the question, for the 
time being, has been shelved. — Indian Engineer, 
April 17th. 
Ceylindo. — This word forms a big heading 
to a page advertisement of Messrs. Kearley & 
Tonge, Mitre Square, EC, in the Grocers' Gazette. 
This advertisement says : — 
All wishing to extend their tea trade must recognise 
this Ceylon, whose advance to the front as a tea-growing 
country is quite unique in the annals of the planting 
industries, possesses particular advantages for the 
successful cultivation of tea. Its teas are famous for 
their grand flavour and quality, and are invaluable for 
mixing purposes. Ceylon teas came with such a sudden 
rush into the market that they have somewhat detracted 
certain buyers from the Indian teas possess character- 
istics which are not and never can be found in Ceylons, 
and the point of perfection in tea is reached only by 
Pure Ceylon cannot for a moment compete with a 
skilfully blended Ceylon and Indian tea, the latter 
being the most economical, the finest, the strongest, 
and the most remunerative of all tea. We know 
that rubbish is sometimes pawned upon the Grocer 
under the misnomer of pure Ceylon and Indian tea, 
and, with a view to protect the interests of our 
customers and to give everybody the chance of getting 
the genuine thing, we have registered our Ceylon 
and Indian Blends — Ceylindo. Ceylindo is now the 
acme of perfection in tea blending. 
