376 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [October i, i88r. 
grass on a large scale ; the hard solid subterranean 
rhizome is excessively branched, and each branch term- 
inates in an aerial stem or culm. In tbis species 
these are crowded very closely together, and are 
added to every year, the oldest ones being principally 
in the centre, but the rhizome branches are so inter- 
mingled aud interlaced that there is little regularity 
in this matter. 
The clump figured must contain several hundred 
culms of various ages, and the mass measures 98 feet 
in circumference about a yard from the ground. Each 
culm is cylindrical, and grows as vertically straight 
upwards as its older companions will allow ; the 
squeezing and jostling which occurs is wonderful, and 
the enormous compressing force will in cases force a 
culm out of shape slightly. As with other bamboos 
they take their full diameter almost immediately, and 
while yet soft, the silicic hardening not being com- 
pleted till they have reached nearly the full height. 
The outer ones towards the top get somewhat, pushed 
over by the immense weight of foliage of those within, 
and are sometimes broken off in consequence. The 
usual dimensions of the culms are from 26 to 29 inches 
in circumference, the largest I have measured attain- 
ing 33 inches, or nearly a foot in diameter. They 
are not thickened at the joints, perfectly smooth, of 
a pale dull green colour as a basis, but this is over- 
laid with a sort of "bloom" of whitish blue, and 
the effect of this is to give a pale greyish tint to 
the stem. Their actual length is over 100 feet, but 
that is about the height of the clump figured ; each 
joint is 15 to 18 inches in length, and the thickness 
of the wall about 1 inch ; the lowest ones are shorter, 
with a rather thicker wall. When young each node 
gives off a large thick, leathery, yellow sheath, topped 
with a rudimentary leaf-blade, but they are quickly 
detached, and fall off or often slide down the stem, 
slipping over one another, so as to form quite a mass 
at the base of the culm. These sheaths are beauti- 
fully polished within, but are set outside with minute 
brown hairs, separable by the slightest touch and 
somewhat irritating to the skin. No sheaths are seen 
in the photograph, which was taken when no young 
culms were rising. A dense narrow collar of short, 
stiff, crowded, very hard, blunt rootlets comes off just 
above each partition in the lower part of the culm ; 
these increase as we pass down in length and number 
till at the very base they pass into the innumerable 
rootlets originating from the rhizomes themselves, 
which in incredible numbers permeate the soil in 
every direction, and effectually prevent the growth of 
any other large plant in the immediate neighbourhood. 
This, and the litter caused by the quantity of fallen 
leaves, are the principal objections to these magni- 
ficent objects in a botanic garden, and by choosing 
suitable sites for planting them, these are rendered 
of no great consequence. During the very high winds 
that are experienced in Ceylon at the changes of the 
monsoons and at other times, a few stems are occa- 
sionally broken off, and the grinding, creaking, and 
clattering noises which go or. overhead among the 
straining stems in windy weather are apt to alarm 
any one standing beneath. 
I may add that in the view the river is the Maha- 
welliganga, which, by a bend, surrounds three sides 
of Peradeniya gardens, and on its opposite bank we 
get a glimpse of a coconut plantation. The little 
bamboo on the bank under the giant is the common 
small wild one of Ceylon, Beesha stridula, the " Bata 
le" of the Sinhalese, but a poor specimen. The palm 
on the bank is a young plant of the oommon "Ki- 
tool," Caryota urens ; whilst the small tree, only a 
portion of which is included on the left hand of the 
picure is the " Gadoomba " Trema or Sponia orient- 
alU, a useless plant, and a good example of what 
the late Dr. Scemann used io call a "tree-weed." 
I should add that I am indedbted for this photo- 
graph to Mr. Skeen, of Colombo, whose artistic taste 
has brought together a beautiful series of studies of 
tropical tree-furms, mostly taken in the Royal Gard- 
ens and the neighbourhood of Kandy. — H. Tbimen. 
"ALLEVIATION OF AGRICULTURAL PRO- 
DUCTS IN BRAZIL." 
The attention of the press has of late been largely 
directed to a consideration of the measures needed to 
enable our greatest staple to withstand a competition 
which is yearly becoming more severe in the European 
and United States markets. 
Of these measures there are some, such as improve- 
ments in growth, gathering, preparation and selection, 
which are within the power of the planters them- 
selves ; others, as the abatement of the debasing of 
the better qualities by mixing here with inferior ones, 
and the trade tricks of false nomenclatures abroad 
are rather matters of commercial arrangement ; but 
there is a third class, in regard to which action is 
sought from the Government. The excessive cost of 
internal transport, and the heavy imperial and pro- 
vincial taxes upon the export. 
It is in truth, undeniable that, thus burdened with 
excessive rates of internal transport, rates which, 
even on the railways, are tenfold those of European 
lines, and with 13 per cent export taxes, levied, 
not on the plantation value, but on the price at the 
shipping mart, the coffee of Brazil enters heavily 
weighted into the competition abroad, and that at 
home the limits of profitable production are injuri- 
ously narrowed. 
The Government is asked, therefore, to abolish the 
imperial export tax, and to reduce the freight upon the 
State railways. Nothing could be more simple in 
thesis, but, unfortunately, the discussion has not yet 
reached the point of demonstrating the practical man- 
ner in which the relief is to be obtained. 
In fact, the fiscal system of the State opposes it- 
self to such a relief of agriculture, as 17,000,000 mils, 
to 18,000,000 mils, of the revenue is derived from 
the taxes on exports, and the reduction of the D. 
Pedro II. railway freight to half, which would still 
be four-fold the rates of European lines, would en- 
tail a further loss of revenue to about 6,000,000 mils. 
It may be argued that the increase of production 
would in time compensate indirectly for the losses 
from these reliefs, by the augment of importation and 
of other sources of revenue. But there is no warrant 
for relief that the compensation would be realized 
before many years, and meantime it would be necess- 
ary to provide revenue from other sources to fill up 
the void. But from whence are these resources to be 
derived? Certainly not from the overtaxed, imports, 
the bounds of whose taxable productiveness appear 
already reached, if not passed, importation tending 
to decline. Certainly not from any probable great 
increase in stamps or in the other items of direct or 
indirect taxation which figure in the estimates. 
It is clear, indeed, that most, if not all, of the 
grave deficit caused in the revenve by even a partial 
remission of the export taxes and railway freights 
would have to be met by new direct taxation, and 
what that taxation is to be we have still to learn. 
But this is the x whose equation it is necessary to 
discover, and the solution is the more difficult to 
find as the taxes on exports, impolitic and anti- 
economic as they are, represent the only contribution 
to the State expenditure from the immensity of land 
held by individuals in Brazil. 
It is true that the taxes paid by the producers who 
add to the general wealth, and furnish means for the 
support of the State, should rather fall on those 
