4 o 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [June i, 1881. 
been made in cultivating this product. Plants bave 
been put out singly on one estate in the hill 
country on which 1 was resident. The visiting agent, 
on one of his inspecting visits, suggested a field on 
which the coffee had gone out, to be planted with cinna- 
mon. I was asked to make enquiries in the low- 
country as to cost of plants. Clumps of plants were 
then selling at R30 per thousand; that was consid- 
ered too high, and my P. D., who was resident on 
the adjoining estate, during one of his frequent 
visits to Ambagamuwa, purchased plants at RIO the 
thousand and planted them out singly, one in each 
bole. When next I met h>m, I pointed out to him 
the* great mistake he had made. The plants would, I 
said, be fit for cutting in about three years Each stock 
would then put out a couple or eo of suckers which 
in their turn will be fit for cutting in a couple of 
years. The clumps or bushes will thus be gradually 
pruned, and it would take ten or twelve years before the 
cinnamon will pay more than the cost of monthly weed- 
ing. My P. D. looked surprised and asked me why 
I hadn't told him so before. For the simple reason, 
I answered, that he had not consulted me. I have 
written so much, as I see from time to time ad- 
vertisements of cinnamon plants for sale, and as a 
warning to planters not to put out plants singly. It 
will never pay, especially as the quality of the cin- 
namon grown on the hills is interior and is known 
as Corle cinnamon. The best use to which sucD cin- 
namon can be put is to have it scraped into chips 
and sold for the extraction of oil. Cinnamon seeds 
are generally sown in the low country, in beds 
in which drills are made with the hand, and into which 
from 10 or 12 to a handful of seed is dropped. 
The more tbe seed the larger the clump, the sooner 
it will pay and the chances of the plants growing, 
as tbe outer ones protect the inner ones. It has 
been said in an old number of your Directory, in 
an article written evidently by that very able planter 
who now writes from the "Western Province," that 
it is next to impossible to make supplies good on 
our old estates. If the writer of the article in ques- 
tion were to visit the estate under Mr. Drieberg's 
charge at Ekelle, he would no doubt be agreeably sur- 
prised to see acres and acres of supplies flourishing, 
by Mr. Drieberg sowing his seed in handfuls in drills. 
Finally it will be impossible for planters up-country 
to put out plants in clumps, unless from nurseries 
on the estate, as the cost of carriage of so much 
soil with the clump will be ruinous.— Truly yours, 
B. 
India-rubber Seed. — The Zanzibar correspondent 
of the Times of India writing on the 5th instant 
reports : — 
On a recent visit to the mainland, Dr. Kirk, who 
is well-known as an enthusiastic botanist, has obtained 
specimens and seeds of the true India-rubber plant of 
the district, which will enable the botanical authori- 
ties in England to describe and fix the species. 
Tlie seeds have been sent to the Indian Government 
at Calcutta, where the East African plant will be 
cultivated along with the plants already obtained from 
Brazil and Central America. As the Ea>t African 
India-rubber grows wild over upwards of 1,000 
miles of longitude and extends far inland, no doubt 
many parts of India will be found suitable for its 
growth. The India-rubber plant has already been 
introduced at Madras by Dr. Kirk, who has also 
supplied the seeds from which plants are now b ing 
distributed to our tropical colonies from the Royal 
Gardens, Kew. 
We have received several interesting communications 
on the subject of Rubber cultivation in Ceylon which 
will appear in an early issue. 
CEYLON AT THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION. 
I have alluded to the vote of thanks accorded by 
the Pharmaceutical Society for specimens of Dr. Tri- 
men's drugs. A copy of the local organ of this. 
Society has been sent to me, in which you will find 
the following : — 
Donations.— A special vote of thanks was carried to 
A. M. Ferguson, Esq., the executive commissioner 
for Ceylon at the International Exhibition; for a 
valuable collection of drugs, seeds &c, from the Cey- 
lon Court for the society's museum. And also to Mrs. 
Guille, for the care she took in packing the specimen*. 
Again, the President, in his address, stated :— 
" The president of the Board of Pharmacy and him- 
self, as president of the socieiy, had issued a joint 
circular to the executive commissioners of a 1 the 
courts at the Melbourne International Exhibition, ask- 
ing for specimens of chemicals, drugs, &c , for tbe 
museum. Already they had received the most courte- 
ous responses, and from Mr. A. M. Ferguson, the 
commissioner for Ceylon, and editor of the Colombo 
Observer, they had received a numerous and valuable 
collection of dried specimens, arranged by Dr. Tri- 
men, the eminent botanist, which it was intended to 
carefully preserve, as well as all other specimens with 
which they might be favoured." 
Of course only portions of tbe specimens were given i 
the rest will go to Mr. Guillefoyle for his museum, 
or to other institutions. 
Besides Mr. Blackett, Mr. Bosisto, M.P., is alead- 
ing member of the Pharmaceutical Society, and in the 
number of the periodical sent to me I rind notices 
of the interesting exhibits of products of the eucalypti 
and other native plants which Mr. Bosisto shews in 
the Exhibition. While some of the eucalypti are of 
dwarf habit and useless for timber, the blossoms give 
food to bees so useful in th>"s country. Hives are 
abundant everywhere, and so is honey. I rather wish 
than hope for the success of apiculture in Ceylon. 
We have enough of neither summer nor winter, I fear.* 
An extreme contrast to the dwarf eucalypti are the 
great trees, the tallest by far in the world, of Fern- 
shaw and Gippsland, E amygdalina. The leaves 
of Amygdalina, odorata yield large quantities of essen- 
tial oil which Mr. BosiNto was the first to introduce 
both in Australia and Europe, in the hospitals of which 
it is recognized 
' As an antiseptic of great power. A few drops sprink- 
led on a cloth and suspended in a sick room render.-, 
the air refreshing ; and for disinfecting and deodoris- 
ing, a tablespoonful of the Oil added to two or three 
pounds' weight of sawdust, well mixed and distributed 
will speedily produce a purifying effect. It is also 
employed as a valuable Rubefacient in all Rheumatic 
Affections, as a Basic Odour in aromatising Soaps, 
and as a Solvent of Resins difficult of solution." 
Then there is " Syrupus Rostrati": 
" Prepared from the Inspissated Juice of the Red 
Gum Tree. A delicate mucilaginous astringent, em- 
ployed in all affections of the mucous membrane, par- 
ticularly in Diarrhoea and Chronic Dysentery." 
But the great source of Bosisto's preparations 
is E globulus, " the blue gum," which is so 
great a success in South India and Ceylon, as 
well as in other parts of the world. To Mr. 
Bosisto it yields an essential oil, the effects 
of which are thus described : — 
"Tonic, Stimulant, and Antiseptic. A small dose 
promotes appetite ; a large one destroys it. In stronger 
doses of 10 to 20 minims it first accelerates the pulse, 
produces pleasant general excitement (shown by ir- 
* Mr. Benton a sures us that the alternate rainy 
and dry seasons here operate, much as winter and 
summer do in temperate regions.— Ed. C. O. 
