4io 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1881. 
590, wrote : — "Without s'<cce?s I have trier! to extract 
oil from the fruit. They are dried and used in 
curries by the natives and also pickled." 
The fle-hy exterior of the ripe drupes of the wera'us 
are freely eaten by the natives, and by Europeans 
who are fond of acid fruits. The taste is about mid- 
way between those of an unripe plum and a sloe. No 
pickle is better known in the streets of Colombo than 
that fr om the weralu fruits, and it is hawked about by 
Sinhalese boys wlun the fruit* are in season. 
Moou Cat.., pt. 2, p 36, No. 505, gives the following 
Sinhnlese names for weralus, viz. : sembul (sour), kana 
(eatable), kahata (astringent), gal (rock), and titta (bitter), 
and for Klaeocarpus serratus, he gives the third of these 
kahata, but this is evidently a blunder as no such 
distinction is made respecting the common and edible 
one which is simply the weralu par excellence. 
The endcarps of several species of Elteocarpus are 
used as necklaces and rosaries by the Brahmans, 
several strings of the different kinds being often 
worn by I he same person. They are scented with sandal- 
wood and sold all over India and Ceylon I can 
imagine how much of the time of the Director of 
the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya is taken 
np in answering questions like that put by your cor- 
respondent, and the labor lost in doing so. 
'lwo species of Olea, one of Ligustrum, and four 
of Chiouanthes belonging to the real Olive family, are 
indijieneous to Ceylon, and the 01 a fragrans, a native 
of China, was said to be in Peradeniya Garden in 
Moon's time. The leaves of this latter plant are said 
to be used in China for scenting tea with. " Olea 
cuspidata, Wallich, a tree abundant in Afghanistan, 
Beluchistan and Western Sind, has been supposed to 
be a wild form of 0. Europea, but is regarded by Dr. 
Brandis as a distinct species. It is not known to have 
been ever cultivated, yet its fruit which is of small 
size and but sparingly produced, is capable of afford- 
ing a good oil." (Fluckiger and Hanbury. ) 
The 0. Europea has been introduced to different 
parts of India, but I am not aware that it has 
borne fruits. — Yours truly. W. F. 
SILK IN CEYLON : PRACTICAL HINTS FOR 
SILKWORM REARERS. 
Dear Sir,— Perhaps, with reference to the remarks 
in your issue of Saturday, the following hints may 
be useful to any of your readers who are attempting 
to rear silkworms. Firstly, keep t he worms as much as 
possible at a temperature of 70° and 75°. Secondly, 
always give them their food dry : avoid waste, but let 
them alway3 have some food to go on with. The 
youngest worms must be fed on the small, succulent 
leav s from the tips of the branches. Third y, as far as 
possible allow fresh air to circulate round the trays 
in which they are kept, but avoid sudden chauges 
of temperature. Fourthly feed the worms regularly and 
do not disturb them during moulting. Fifthly, avoid 
crowding the worms, and keep each batch separately, 
according to age. Sixthly, guard against the attacks of 
rats, mice, green liz irds, bronze and "house" lizards, 
birds (especially robins and titmice), earwigs, spiders 
of all kinds, and hornets. Lastly, put not your trust 
in eggsimported by anyone but yourself. It is the 
customn Ceylon as elsewhere, to purchase experi- 
ence with other p-ople's money, and recent impor- 
tations of eggs from China have, so far as I know, 
not been mo e successful than the African palm nuts 
offered some while ago- If there is one thing 
moro than any other in the rearing of silk- 
worms that requires regularity, it is the batching 
of the worms as much as possible at one time. 
It is the custom in largo rearing establishments ' 
to keep only the worms that hatch out on three or 
four days, so as to obtain the systematic feeding and 
regular growth of many thousands, without which 
success is impossible. If follows then that if the 
worms emerge only by tens their rearing necessitates 
an enormous amount of extra time, trouble and ex- 
pense, and must lead only to still greater irregulari- 
ties in the following genera' ions, (if there are any). 
Irregular emerging from the eggs is a sign of great 
debility in the parent stock : the reariug of worms 
under such circumstance- 1 is almost worse than useless, 
and the greatest care and discrimination will be re- 
quired to prevent the present attempts a" Sericulture 
meeting with the same fate as has attended others. — 
Yours faithfully, NO FRAUD. 
ENEMIES OF CINCHONA. 
Dikoya, 16th September 1881. 
Dear Sir, — By this post I send you in a small box 
the remains of a poochie, regarding which, I think, 
any information you can give will be useful to 
cinchona planters. 
I found him in the heart of a healthy young tucci- 
rubra tree to which my attention was first drawn 
by observing a clotted mass of eaten wood-like saw 
dust round the tree. Taking this off, T found a hole 
large enough to put a little finger into, going into 
the tree about 10 inches above the ground. On 
cutting the tree down, above the bole. 1 found that 
the poochie had worked downwards, and on rooting 
the tree up, I found he had worked his way down 
to the very bottom of the stems, or a couple of inches 
below the surface of the ground. Perhaps the por- 
tion of the stem which I first cut may be of interest 
to you, so I send that also by parcel post.— Yours 
faithfully, K. 
[The "poochie" sent is precisely the same as that 
described in our issue of the 7th instant, when a 
specimen wa3 sent to us from Upper Dimbula. It is 
believed to be the larva of a moth belonging to the 
family Hepialidae which has hitherto shown a great 
liking for casuarina trees. —Ed. C. 0.] 
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CINCHONA 
ENTERPRIZE IN CEYLON. 
Maskeliya, 20th September 1881. 
Dear Sir, — With reference to Mr. Talbot's resolu- 
tion before the P. A , it would be well that Government 
should be made to understand that the appointment of 
an analyst is the only way they can now make up 
for the neglect which the einchona eoterprize (an 
enterprise on which the fate of the Colony may be said 
to depend) has met with at their hands. 
Hakgala is in such a state that money spent on it can 
do the planter no good in any way. The stock-in-trade 
there may be said to consist of an imposing gate, 
avenue, and bungalow, a couple of honest propagating 
houses that pretend to be nothing better than they 
are— dingy, unwholesome, dens — an acre or so of 
sickly Java Ledgerianas, about a year old, and a 
few miscellaneous dying succirubras and officinalis. 
Dr. Trimen is probably anxious to effect a reforma- 
tion, but the money so spent can never make up for 
the years wasted, and any ordinary estate in the 
Island will always have better cinchona to show than 
Hakgala. Grafting from stocks of ascertained value 
seems to be the only practically useful work to be 
done, but the non-existence of such stocks is an 
obstacle. If, therefore, Government refuse to engage 
an analyist, let them never quote the expenditure 
on reclaiming Hakgala as being any help to the 
cinchona industry. — Yours truly, 'NEGLECT. 
