June i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4i 
resistible desire for moving about) and a feeling of 
buoyancy and strength. Intoxicating in very large 
doses, but, unlike alcohol or opium, the effects are 
not followed by torpor, but produce a general calm- 
ness and soothing sleep. A strong cup of Coffee will 
at once remove any unpleasantness arising from an 
over-dose." 
Then, from the same tree is obtained " Eucalyj>tol, " 
thus described : — 
" For Inhalation in Bronchial Affection. Quantity 
employed— From half to one teaspoonful with half a 
pint of hot water in the Inhaler." 
Next comes the "Tincture," tonic, antiperiodic and 
antiseptic, ' ' Eucaly ptene" : — 
"The Tonic or bitter principle in an amorphous 
condition ; employed in Low fevers in doses of one to 
three grains." 
The "Liquor" is described as 
" The Fever and Ague Remedy. Dose— For Ague and 
Dengue Fever 30 to 60 minims in half a wineglassful 
of mucilage and water, or glycerine and water, with 
the occasional addition of two minims of Eucalyptol 
every two or three hours during the paroxysms of 
Ague." 
This would seem to be a fair substitute for quinine, 
which, however, it is not likely to supersede. Here, 
happily, fever of a malarious origin is rare. Next we 
have an antiseptic, emollient preparation, and then 
"Cigarettes of Eucalyptus Globulus. Recommended 
for Bronchial aDd Asthmatic Affections, and also for 
the Disinfecting and Antiseptic Properties. Note. — 
The Cigarettes are numbered 1 and 2. No. 1 are 
without Tobacco : No. 2 contain a small quantity, 
and are recommended for general smokers." 
There are two further preparations, thus described :— 
<s 01. — Atherosperma moichata ess. The physiological 
effects of this Oil, in small doses, are Diaphoretic, 
diuretic and Sedative, and it appears to exert a speci- 
fic lowering influence upon the heart's action. As a 
medicine it has been introduced into the Colonial 
Hospitals, and employed successfully in cases of Heart 
Disease. Administered in one or two drop doses at 
intervals of six or eight hours. 
" Liquor Atherosperma mosch. Employed in Asthma 
and all affections of the respiratory organs." 
''Dwellers in Ceylon will, t'nerefore,see that the Austra- 
lian gum trees are valuable for other properties than 
as quick-growing yielders of gv,od timber. 
From the Government of New South Wales 1 have 
received copy of an enlarged edition of Baron von 
Mueller's "Select Extra-Tropical Plants Readily Eligible 
for Industrial Culture or Naturalization ; with Indica- 
tions of their Native Countries and Some of their Uses." 
I anticipate reading this volume with the same in- 
terest and profit with which I have perused the 
published " Decades" of the Baron's great work on 
the Kuealypti. The book just received 1 can now only 
glance at, with reference to a lew products in which 
we are specially interested and which can no doubt 
be grown in the tropical and even the subtropical 
portions of this wide-spread island-continent, if only 
cheap labour becomes available. Friends in Ceylon 
when they take into account the fact that the mean 
temperature of Melbourne is the same as that of 
Nuwara Eliya, 75°, will not ba surprised to learn that at 
Berwick, close by, cinchona calisaya had not only 
grown but flowered "already five years ago." We 
need not fear the competition of this colony, how- 
ever, and Queensland and Southern and Western 
Australia which have the proper climate lack the 
labour. The Baron stales of C. succirubra that " It 
has been found hardy iu Lower Gippslaud and the 
Westeruport district." The Baron adds:— '-The best 
temperature 'or cinchonas is from 53° to 66° F. ; but 
they mostly will endure iu open places a mini.num 
of 32° P. ; in the brush seades of the Botanic Gardens 
of Melbourne, where years ago cinchonas were already 
raised by the thousand, they have even resisted uu- 
injured a temperature of a few degrees less, where- 
ever the wind had no access, while under such very 
slight cover the cinchonas withstood also a heat of a 
few degrees over 100° F." 
With cinnamon the Baron seems to have tried no 
experiment, although he notes thar, Dr. Hooker found 
plants at 6,000 feet on the Khasya Hrls, while Dr. 
Thwaites found the true C. Zeilani urn, Breyn, " even 
up to 3,000 feet in Ceylon." Coffee, the Baron 
states, "has been admitted into this list, not without 
great hesitation, merely not to be passed. The cul- 
tivation within extra-tropical boundaries can only with 
any prospect of success be tried in the warmest 
and simultaneously moistest regions, frost being de- 
trimental to the coffee plant." With reference to 
this I may add that coffee plants from Queensland 
shewn in the Exhibition looked very much "shuck," 
while specimens of tea plants were generally far more 
healthy. Queensland shewed even mangoes on several 
occasions and with "bananas" and pineapples she 
keeps Melbourne regularly supplied. * Iu Dunn & 
Hewett's case in the Exhibition cacao is t.hewn in 
every possible shape, and the attempt to represent a 
tree with blossom and fruit is fairly successful. 
But what is called a coffee tree is a miserable cari- 
cature of what, when healthy and free from fungus 
and grub, and covered with snuw-white blossoms or 
ruby-red fruits, is a very beautiful object. May we 
yet see it in its pristine glory in Ceylon The Baron 
notices the Liberian species of coffee, but, strange 
to say, t»k>is no notice of the fairly successful ex- 
periment to naturalize this plant in Queensland. That 
will yet be a great and rich colony, with its vast 
resources of soil and climate. I met Mr. Lukin Gress- 
well here a few days ago, and was much interested 
to hear his account of the great transcontinental 
railway he is engaged in furthering The idea now 
is that the Queensland section should reach the ocean 
at Port Parker, about 9 0 miles short of Port Darwin, 
But all these colonies are doing wonders iu railway 
construction, lines of which will speedily connect the 
coldest regions of Australia with others where tropic 
heat ever reigns. 
Mr. Lukin Gresswell holds that even in tropical 
Australia white men can labour and live, but this I 
doubt. The solution of the problem would seem to 
be Lieut. -Governors with paternally despotic "cown- 
colony" rule in the tropical latitudes, ttie lands being 
cultivated by Indian immigrants. This, and Sir Wm. 
Jervois's idea of Tasmania as the centre of the great 
Australian confederation, may yet be realized. But 
to return to the botanic Barou's book. OF the ubiquitous 
tea plant, which is said to grow in Japan so far north 
as 39° (or 32° farther from the equator than Ceylon), 
where a temperature of 16° F. sometimes exists, it is 
remarked : — ' This evergreen and ornamental bush has 
proved quite hardy in the low-lands at Melbourne 
where in exposed positions it en lures without any 
attention our night frosts as well as the free access 
of scorching summer winds." Again: — ''The plant 
comes into plentifnl bearing of it- product as early 
as the Vine and earlier than the Olive. Its culture 
is surrounded with no difficulties, and it is singularly 
exempt from disease, if planted in proper localities. ' 
The Indian planters believe that the\ have chosen 
proper localities, and yet their bushes suffer not only 
from what the Baron himself calls " the very trouble- 
some tea-bug of Asia, Helopeltis theivora," but from 
red spider and mosquito blight, while in Ceylon small 
motliB do much mischief. The Baron, at the conclu- 
sion of his notice of "Camellia Thca," states: — 
"Seeds of the tea bush ar^ now in many parta of 
Australia locally to be gathered from plan a distributed 
by the writer, and for }ears to conic the cultivation 
