334 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, i88r. 
Cocoa. — The production in Guayaquil this season 
keeps moderate, and in the five months ended 3lst 
May, was only 93,774 quintals of all growths, aga ; nst 
181.902 quintals in 1880, 112,248 quintals in 1*79, 
41,329 quintals in 1878 (the short crop), and 119.595 
quintals, in 1877- ' he total exports from Trinidad 
from January 1st to .July 7th amount to 7,283, 
510Mb, against 6,273, 1901b., in 1880, 6,697,4901b. in 
1879, 7,273,5941b.in 1878, and 5,389,2351b. in 1877.— 
Trinidad Chronicle. 
Hydrophobia. — Any one who is bitten by a dog, mad 
or not, is welcome to try the following nostrum, which is 
culled from the Queen's Closet, dated 1663 : For the 
Biting of a Mad Dog, ov s' in ing of an Adder. — Take a 
handful or more of hazel nuts, a quarter as much of 
rue, with a clove of garlic ; stamp all these together; 
then take the juice and put a little treacle to it, and 
if he be a man that is stung or bitten, give it 
him to drink in beer, or wine, or ale; but if it be 
a dog, give it in the milk ; then take that from 
whence the juice came, and bind it to the place 
which was bit or stung. — New York Hour. 
Libbrian Coffee and Tea in Fui. — We have re- 
ceived a communication from the hon. Jas E. Masnn of 
the Alpha estate Tavinni, accompanying a vessel con- 
taining the leaf, flowers, and berries of the much 
talked of Liberian coffee plant. The leaf is 12^ inches 
by 6^ inches, and the berries are three inches in cir- 
cumference. The trees bear heavily, when planted in 
suitable localities, and the berry has realized more 
than 9''s. a cwt. in New York, which encourages the 
belief that desert-d coffee plantations may yet be util- 
ized for other payable products besides cocoanuts. The 
tea plants on the Alpha estate are also in bearing 
carefully planted in nurseries to supply the demand 
which, must shortly be created in the colony for a pro- 
duct which will thrive well but is not easy to pro- 
pagate from imported seed. — Fiji Times, July 2. 
Ceylon Flora.— I cannot allow the description given 
of the Ceylon flora by " H. J. K. " in your issue 
of April 30th last to pass unobserved. He sa\s (p. 560) 
that neither ferns, mosses, nor creepers, are numer- 
ous. I find the indigenous species of plants men- 
tioned by Dr 'hwaites in his Enumeration of 'Ceylon 
Plants to include dicotyledons, 1959; monocotyledons, 
648 ; and Mr. William Ferguson gives in his list, 
Filices, 225 ; Lycopodiaceaj, 14 ; Marsileaceas, 3 ; 
Equisetacese, 1 ; total, 2850 ; double the flora of Britain, 
and about one- thirtieth of all species in the world yet 
described. Ceylon in proportion to its area must be re- 
garded as equal to that of any portion of the globe. It 
is noted for its Ferus and Balsams, while Orchids abound. 
Ebony, Calamanuer, Satin wood, and other fine cabinet 
woods, are plentiful in the forests. Palms and Bamboos 
are specially beautiful and luxuriant, few objects in 
Nature being more grand than a Talipot Palm, Corypha 
umbraculifera, in fl iwer, and few more graceful than 
the slender Areca Palm, Are?a catechu, or the tall, 
drooping Bamboo of the mountain forests The beauti- 
ful flowering trees, such as Lagerstromia reginas, 
bombax malabaricus, scarlet Cotton tree, with the 
varied foliage of several timber trees, give arich con- 
trast to the deep green of the forests. The brilliant 
Ixoras, Erythrinas, Buteas, Jonesias, and Hibiscus, 
enliven the forests with their splendour. The lense, 
impenetrable herbaceous plant mentioned is Strobitan 
the, called by the natives "Nelloo," of which there 
are some twenty species, and is what constitutes the 
most abundant underwood in the forests. The greatest 
variety of plants is found in the central, southern, 
and western provinces, which contain all the mountain 
ranges. To the north and east is comparatively flat 
pasture country, with poorer soil, lesser rainfall, and 
scrubby trees and bushes. There are few parts of 
the world so rich in fungi as Ceylon. A. — June 14. — 
fjardtners' Chronicle. 
Carolina Paddy. — The superintendent ofGoven ment 
Farms has reported to the Board of Revenue on the 
growth and produce of the so-calle I "Carolina" 
pa Idy received from the Governmeut of India. 
Mr. Robertson considers the vielo of grain is v^ry 
small, consideied in connection with the yield of straw ; 
probably some was lo-t by shedding fr >m irregularity 
in ripening, also by d pre'lations by rate, squirels, 
birds, e*x , losses from which all crops suffer but 
which are always disproportionately severe when a 
crop covers but a few square yard's of land or ripens 
when but a small area of other crop is rip\ <'rop 
experiments conducted in the open field on such a 
microscopical scale can but seldom afford any useful 
information. There has undoubtedly been some mis- 
take either in obtaining or in forwarding the pad ly ; 
it is certainly not Carolina paddy, and from its low 
quality it does not appear to me to be a var ety 
deserving of any SDeci d attention here. — M'dreis M il. 
Palm Win is — In most books it. is said that the I 'aim 
wine is obtained by excising the central bud of the 
tree, as the Mexicans do ihe Vlagney (Agave mexicana), 
to gather the pulque, and th it after a short time the 
tree is exhausted aud dies off, which I believe readily 
enough. Now I have seen Palm wine extracted from 
the Borassus flabelliformis, the Coconut Palm, the 
Arenga saecharifera, and Caryota urens (the best of 
all), always by cutting the extremity of the spad;ces, 
and receiving the juice in large Bamboo joints or 
earthen pots; the leaves or central bud were never 
interfered with. The process goes on from year to 
year for the entire life of the palm, which does not 
seem a bit the worse for the bleeding. Some years 
ago Sir J. D. Hooker published a paper describing 
very minutely the extraction of toddy fiom the 
Borassus, and his experience is entirely like mine. 
What I want to know is this : Have any of your 
readers seen with their own eyes the Palm wine ex- 
tracted by cutting the cabbage of the Palm? Are 
they ready to make solemn affirmation that they saw 
this? I believe this notion owes its origin to careless 
observers, and it j propagation to the turner us and 
hateful fam ly of books made from cuttings pasted 
together. The only other Palms from which wiue 
is ob ained are, I believe, the Palma de Vino (Attalea 
magdalenae?), on the lower Magdalena, and the Date 
Palm. Although 1 have m"t millions of both, 1 never 
came across a spot wheie their sap was collected. 
Are the male and female Date Palms equally product- 
ive of wine ? I ask the question, as it is the only 
one from the above species in which the sex-s appear 
on separate ind viduals. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
The Palmy rah Timber is used for a variety of 
purposes and it is impossible to exaggerate the extens- 
ive havoc that is being carried on from day to day 
among Palmirah trees. The demand for this timber 
b ing steady and animated, every man, who can find 
a little money, pretends to be a Timber trader, whose 
business is cniefly confined to palmyrah trees. Not 
long ago the Palmirah was the most common tree in 
the Northern Province, one meeting with it on all 
s des and in large groups. The state of things as 
far as this is concerned has considerably changed and 
we think for the worse. Large tracts which were 
covered with these trees are now bare, waste lands, 
shewing signs that the timber trader has been busy 
there. The districts of Pachchellapallai, Wadama- 
radchy. Poonaryn, the Islands &c. contain numerous 
instances of the havoc that is being committed among 
them. The premier division of the Province, Jaffna 
itself has not escaped the Timber trader. We have 
an impression that the intense heat and the protrac ed 
drought, we suffer from, are in a great measnre due 
to the extensive destruction of this tree. It is not 
our object to discuss at present the influence of trees 
on climate and rain : but the fast disappearance of 
this tree, caused by the brisk trade in it, carried on 
