THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Juke i, 1881. 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
" EMPTY IRON TIN, PRESSED DOWN CRAMMED 
FULL WITH COCKCHAFERS." 
Dear Sir, — "Just a line" to request your corre- 
spondent "Cockchafer" from Dolosbage to kindly in- 
form us what his empty iron tin crammed full of 
cockchafers was composed of ? When I was at Dimbula 
two years ago we never knew a man (even an Irish- 
man) who paid at the rate of sixpence for such an 
article. In this manner we cannot conceive how your 
correspondent (vide Observer 31st) was able to secure 
600 beetles for the amount. As for the " boiling water 
ready at 4 o'clock in an asphalte boiler," we are 
ready to believe anything after the empty iron tin &c. 
—Yours faithfully, NO COCKCHAFER. 
WILD THYME AND COFFEE LEAF DISEASE. 
Penryn, Cornwall, 4th March 1881. 
Dear Sir,— Enclosed are two slips about wild 
thrme. May not some use be made of it in connexion 
with coffee leaf diseae, growing it amongst the coffee, 
or otherwise ?— Yours faithfully, F. CUMMINS. 
Thymol, the New Antiseptic and Disinfectant. 
Thymol, a newly discovered Crystal prepared from 
wild thyme, is pronounced by Chemists and Physicians 
to be far superior to, and stronger than Carbolic Acid, 
coal tar, or any other of the antiseptics and dis- 
infectants hitherto known. It has been shown by 
Lewin & Bucholtz, to be about eight times as powerful 
as carbolic acid. 
It has the very great advantage of being quite harm- 
less, and possesses the delicious and fragrant odour 
of wild thyme. 
Cornwall is ceitainly at its best in May. In autumn 
the light granite-sand soil is apt to be parched ; aud 
there is but little heather in the mining parts, so in- 
dustriously is the surface soil "skimmed" for fuel. 
The furze mostly blooms twice a year ; but its autumn 
blossoms are few indeed compared with the abundant 
glory with which it clothes all wild places in spring- 
time. Then, again, the hedges in autumn are dry 
and brown ; while in spring a Cornish hedge — a stone 
wall generally with a good core of earth — is not only 
a botanical study, but is something for a painter to 
pore over. In some of those hedges you may count a 
score of different kinds of wild flowers. Sometimes 
for. miles they are covered not only on the sides but 
alonsj the tops with primroses, set so thickly that 
the leaves are scarcely seen. Sometimes they are 
ablaze with foxgloves and red campion. The flowers 
are not of rare .kinds. You look in vain for any 
orchis except the commonest, or for the large vetch 
and purple flag which now and then light up the 
gloom of a deep Devonshire lane. But what with 
patches of lichen, and three or four varieties of hawk- 
weeds and ferns small and big, and flesh-coloured stone- 
crop, and v;i/d thyme, so abundant as to colour the whole 
face of the stone for many yards, a Cornish hedge 
in the spring is something not to be seen elsewhere. 
And all this, combined with a sense of freshness un- 
attainable at any other season, you lose if you put 
olf your Cornish trip till the usual time. You don't 
even have the compensation of better weather ; for 
mostly — though last year was an exception — May in 
Cornwall is often drier than July. After the long 
wet of winter there comes a month or more of steady 
0.0 hin$, when you may be sure of smiling seas and 
warm seaside nooks day after day. And if you miss 
the ^reat ca'ches of pilchards, you cjme in for mackerel 
whiffing, w ork in which you may take a personal share 
nstead of only looking on. — Chambers' Journal. 
"CINCHONA" AND " CHINCHONA." 
28th March 1881. 
Dear Sir,— In his book on the Peruvian bark tree 
the author has exercised his right and spelt the 
Spanish-Latin name as he thinks it should be spelt, 
and surely no other English writer can be supposed 
to know better, .for none have given so much time 
and study to the subject of chinchona in all its bear- 
ings. Nevertheless he must be aware, as those are 
who have been like himself among Spauish Americans, 
that the word is by them written and printed "cincho- 
na," and this not out of me v e whim, but on the recom- 
mendation of the Madrid Academy, than which there is 
no higher authority in all Spanish-speaking countries. 
With regard to the pronunciation, I wish to point 
out that here in Ceylon you are at fault. As is 
almost invariably the case in adopting a word from 
another language, the English have again used a little 
license aud given the word a eouud to suit them- 
selves, as when on the introduction into England of 
the Portuguese and Spanish wines Oporto and 
Xeres they made so free with the names as to call 
them respectively, Port and Sherry. The correct 
pronunciation in this ca9e is "cinchona," — ch being the 
same as in chick, chip, chum. This is a more import- 
ant matter than the spelling, because if pronounced 
"cin^ona" for instance the word would be as completely- 
disguised to the ear of a Spaniard as the word chaff 
would be to that of an Englishman if pronounced 
kaff (lo a North Briton perhaps there would be no 
difficulty), and would certainly not be recognized by a 
CASCARILLERO BOLIVIERO. 
COFFEE AND GRUB. 
Lindula, 31st March 1881. 
Dear Sir, — I must thank " A. L. C." for answer- 
ing my queries respecting grub, but surely he has 
made a mistake in mentioning 6c. as a fair sum 
to be given per 100 beetles ! Until I learnt the ex- 
perience of others I had settled to give 12c. per 
bottle containing on an average 2,000 of the small 
speckled beetle or the small brown cockchafer, or 
12c. per 100 of the large patana cockchafer (Leuco- 
pholis pinguis), or the stag-beetle. Perhaps it is to 
the latter "A. L. C." refers? I am glad to say 
that I am not yet much troubled with beetles or 
grub, but as they increase (as I fear they will) the 
pay will decrease in proportion. 
And with regard to the enemies of this insect pest : 
the problem seems to be to discover what birds or 
animals (besides Sinhalese) take a delight in chewing 
beetle . so, as every little helps, I give my unqualified 
support to the green lizard (erroneously dubbed 
' bloodsucker'), which at present swarms in thousands*, 
and which is called in Tamil ondn, pacchonthi, 
karattondn, or more commonly karattdn. It is per- 
fectly true that in the low-country a little speckled 
lizard plays havoc with the young shoots of cacao 
and Liberian coffee, and richly deserves, therefore, 
to be hunted to the death ; but he is herbivorous, 
while, as far as my careful observation has gone, our 
green friend is; purely carnivorous. I have often 
watched the latter creep up a petania or verbena 
plant and quietly gobble down a small beetle that 
had alighted to eat the flowers, but only last week 
had I the pleasure of seeing one with a beetle an 
inch and a half long in its mouth. And here I may 
draw Mr. Haldane's attention to the fact that the 
victim was one of the squeaking beetles, which I think 
he has not described. A f.-iend (not a planter), hear- 
ing the other day that a blue-gum was black with 
beetles feeding on the resinous exudations, asked if 
there was any connection between the increase of 
grub and the introduction of eucalypti. I suppose 
I was correct in denying the soft impeachment ? 
KAROLY FURDO. 
[There are no Eucalypti in the part of Maskeliya 
affected with grub, we believe? — Ed.) 
