474 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [November r, 1881. 
they would hardly be able to put down under five pounds 
a ton, and which, judging from its selling price in the 
States, cannot be very rich in soluble phosphate of lime, 
however rich it may be in total phosphates, the percent- 
age of which, by the bye, your correspondent " J.H." 
forgot to mention in his interesting letter in The Field 
of Aug. 27. J. E. P. 
THE MODE IN WHICH SEED BURIES ITSELF 
IN THE GROUND. 
(Gardeners' Chronicle, 17th September 1881.) 
Sir John Lubbock, Bart., President, read a paper at the 
British Association, on"TheMode in which the Seed of Stipa 
buries itself in the Ground." One of the most interesting 
parts in botany, he said, was the consideration of the 
reasons which led to the different forms, colours, and 
structures of seeds ; and it was, he thought, pretty well 
made out that a large proportion of those might be 
accounted for either as serving to protect the seed or 
to assist in its conveyance to a place suitable for its 
growth. If the seeds of trees fell directly to the ground, 
it was obvious that very few of them would have a 
chance of growing. It was an advantage to them, 
therefore, of which many availed themselves, to throw 
out wings, in consequence of which the wind wafted 
them to a greater or less distance. Others, such as the 
whole tribe of nuts being edible, were carried about by 
beasts and birds, and though some were sacrificed, others 
survived. Fruits, again, in consequence of their sweet- 
ness, were earned about by animals, which, after par- 
taking of the fleshy portion, dropped the seeds them- 
selves. Many seeds were covered with hooks, and thus 
adhering to the wool of sheep and other animals, were 
carried to greater or less distances. Others, like those 
of our common Dandelion, were provided with fairy 
parachutes, and were thus borne away by the wind. 
Others again, like some of the Violets, Geraniums, Vetches, 
Brooms, Cucumbers, Cardamine, Oxalis, and others, had 
beautiful and varied contrivances, by which they actually 
threw the seeds to a distance, in some cases, of more 
than 20 feet. Others, again, were enabled to penetrate 
the earth, and thus sow themselves in the ground. In 
one of our English clovers, Trifohum subterraneum, after 
the flower had faded, it turned downwards, and buried 
itself in the ground. The ground-nut of the West In- 
<3ies, and more than one species of Vetch, had a similar 
habit. In the Erodiums or Cranebills the fruit is a cap- 
sule, which opens elastically, and as in the case of the 
allied Geraniums, sometimes threw seeds to some little 
<3istanee. The seeds themselves were in some cases 
spindle-shaped, hairy, and produced into a twisted awn. 
The number of turns on the awn depended upon the 
amount of moisture. If a seed be laid upon the ground, 
it remained quiet, as long as it was dry, but as soon 
as it was moistened, the outer side of the awn con- 
tracted and the hairs surrounding the seed moved out- 
wards, the result of which was to raise the seed into 
an upright position. The awn then gradually unrolled, 
consequently elongating itself upwards, with the result 
that if it was entangled amongst any of the surround- 
ing herbage the seed was forced into the ground. A 
«till more remarkable case was that of the Stipa pen- 
nata. The actual seed was small, with a sharp point, 
and with stiff short hairs, pointing backwards. The 
upper end of the seed was continued into a fine twisted 
rod ; then came a plain cylindrical portion attached at 
an angle to the corkscrew, and ending in a long and 
beautiful feather — the whole being about 1 foot in length. 
The end was supposed by Mr. Francis Darwin, to whom 
they were indebted for a very interesting memoir on 
the subject, to act very much in the same manner as 
that of Erodium, already mentioned. He did not doubt 
that the end would bury itself in the manner described 
by Mr. Darwin, but he doubted whether it always did 
so. One fine day, not long ago, he chanced to be look- 
ing at a plant of that species, and around it were 
several seeds more or less firmly buried in the ground. 
There was a little wind blowing at the time, and it 
struck him that the long-feathering awn was admirably 
adapted to catch the wind, while on the other hand it 
seemed almost too delicate to drive the seed into the 
ground in the manner described by Darwin. He there- 
fore took a seed and placed it upright on the turf. 
The day was perfectly fine, and there could therefore 
be no question of hydroscopic action. Nevertheless, 
when he returned after a few hours, he found that the 
seed had buried itself some little distance in the ground. 
He repeated the observation several times, always with 
the same result ; thus convincing himself that one method, 
at any rate, by which seeds bury themselves is by tak- 
ing advantage of the action of the wind, and that the 
twisted position of the awn, by its corkscrew-like move- 
ment, facilitates the entry of the seed into the ground. 
TEA-CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA. 
The following article will be read with interest by the 
planters. It is taken from the " Town and Country 
Journal," a weekly journal published at Sydney, dated 
9th July :— 
It may prove interesting to furnish a few particulars 
concerning this, one of the most interesting plants that 
can be met with in our gardens. We have been induced 
to refer to the tea-plant on this occasion, chiefly because 
the honour of first introducing it, and of preparing the 
herbage for use, has recently, and on previous occasions, 
been claimed in other colonies, and by persons who 
have not the shadow of a right to do so. It was culti- 
vated in Sydney before either of the colonies referred to 
had a name. It was introduced and cultivated by the 
late Thomas Shepherd, at the Darling Nursery, Sydney, 
as early as 1830, where the original plant might have 
been seen up to a few years since, when alterations in 
the grounds required its removal. From this old plant 
thousands of young ones were distributed during the 
many years it stood, producing annually large crops of 
seed and numerous young plants from layers, throughout 
this and the neighbouring colonies. It may be that 
within 20 or 25 years past, plants have been brought to 
the colonies from China or elsewhere, and as a matter 
of fact we know such to be the case, but it is quite 
certain that the originals in all the Australian colonies, were 
the offspring of this early introduced one. Some of the 
earliest young tea plants propagated to the Sydney Botanic 
Gardens, and if we are not mistaken these very plants 
are still to be seen there. 
With regard to preparing tea leaf it may be said that 
nothing of consequence was attempted until about 1846-7, 
when two samples of cured leaf were exhibited by Mr. 
T. W. Shepherd, who had suceeded his father at the 
nursery, at one of the Horticultural Society's exhibitions. 
One of the samples consisted of young leaves, just 
emerged from the buds, and curled in the orthodox 
manner to represent the tea known as gunpowder. Beside 
this sample, which consisted of about 21b one of a 
Chinese gunpowder, tea, specially brought from China 
for the exhibitor, was placed for comparison. This was 
a very high priced tea ; we have an idea that it was 
about 16s per lb. The two teas were much alike both 
in apperance and taste, indeed some of the visitors were 
almost inclined to doubt the genuine character of the 
exhibit. A great deal of pains had been taken in gather- 
ing, sweating, and cui'ling the leaves to give them as 
much the appearance of the Chinese tea as possible. The 
trial was satisfactory as to quality, but such tea could 
not be produced at a profit even at 16s per 3b without 
much cheaper labour. The other sample consisted of full 
grown leaves not curled but merely sweated and dried, and 
of course did not present the ordinary appearance of tea, 
nor was it palatable as an infusion. It was merely pre- 
pared as a trial for producing a coarse cheap tea that 
could be grown and prepared by any person without any 
appreciable cost and which would pay at a few pence per 
