664 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1882. 
BOTANY. 
The parmount influence of agriculture, on the prosperity of 
this Colony has, to a great extent, removed the department 
of Botany from the concerns of this Society to mor- open 
and more accessible channels (if communication and dis- 
cussion. The year has been especially marked by the pub- 
lication of The Tropical, Agriculturist, a monthly period- 
ical established by the Editors of the Ceylon Observer 
constituting in the strictest sense of the word a repertory 
(repertormm ubi omnia reperiri po siht) of information on 
all subjects connected with tropical Botany and Agriculture. 
To its pages to the Report of the Direcior of the Botan- 
ical Gardens, and the Reports of Mr. Marshall Ward on leaf- 
disease, all who are interested in this subject will natur- 
ally refer for the operations of the year. In connection 
with the Melbourne Exhibition, Mr. William Ferguson 
was good enough to furnish, at my request, a set 
of notes descriptive of 96 specimens of Ceylon timber 
sent to the Exhibition. I have sent several copies of 
these notes to the Government Agents, and their Assist- 
ants and to other persons to whom I believe them likely 
to prove useful. I will only add that an elementary Manual 
of Botany in Sinhalese has been prepared, and will shortly 
be published by the Department of Public Instruction. It 
will, I hope, be the means of carrying profitable instruction 
and amusement into many humble homes. 
ZOOLOGY. 
The first two parts of the beautiful engraving of Ceylon 
Lepidoptera with descriptive letterpress now being published 
by Government were received about the middle of the year, 
and the remaining portion of the work is expected very 
shortly. 
A paper was read at our April meeting by Mudaliyar 
Samuel Jayatilaka on the honey-bees of Ceylon and the 
native method of bee culture. This paper derived unexpected 
interest from the visit of Mr. Frank Benton, an American 
Bee amateur, who had the intention of writing a paper for 
our Society on the subject of oar bees, but was prevented by 
a severe attack of malarial fever caught whilst bee-hunting 
in the jungles of the Kurunegala district. Mr. Jayatilaka 
has stated that he got more practical information about 
bees from Mr. Benton in a week, than he had from all pther 
sources in many years. Mr. Benton learned in Java that wax 
is imported into Netherlands India, chiefly from Holland 
to the annual value of two millions of rupees. The wax i, 
chiefly used in dyeing the sarongs and other cloths of the 
people. Mr. Benton's visit to Ceylon can hardly fail to be 
productive of useful results, as the Cyprian bees introduced 
by him are doing well with Mr. W. H. Wright and Mr. Jaya- 
tilaka who thinks that they are more industrious and faster 
workers and more tractable than our common Ceylon bees. 
It is stated that Ceylon bees do not seem to approach vanilla 
flowers when in bloom, whereas the Cyprians are found con- 
tinually among them, and it is hoped that they may turn 
out good fertilizers, and thus save much of the labour now. 
involved in the process of artificial fertilization. There 
seems to be no reason why bee culture in Ceylon should not 
bacome an industry of considerable importance, 
Dr. Vanderstraaten read at our October meeting a synopsis 
of a paper which he has prepared on Sericulture, illustrat- 
ing in detail the process of raising silkworms. As this 
paper has not yet been forwarded to our Secretary for publi- 
cation, I am unable to refer to it. The subject is one of 
undoubted interest, and I may mention that the Rev. Father 
Palla is endeavoring at Mount Calvary, Galle, to introduce 
tin rearing of silkworms as an industry well adapted to 
the habits andinclinations of the people of Ceylon. 
"THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. " 
Mr. Bruce, in hie address as President of the local 
Asiatic Society, is good enough to acknowledge that 
the paramount influence of Agriculture on the pro- 
sperity of thisColouy, "had, to a great exient, removed the 
department ol Botany" (and practical Agriculture) "from 
the concerns of the Society to more open and more ac- 
cessible channels of communication and discussion," and 
he goes on to refer to the commencement of our 
"TBOFICAL Agriculturist" as a special feature of the 
year just closing, and lo point to it as "constituting 
in the strictest sense of the word a repertory of in- 
formation on all subjects connected with tropical 
Botany and Agriculture." We think the new President 
shews his wisdom and practical good sense in thus 
pointing out fields which are already fully occupied, 
so far as our little community is concerned. He 
might have added that with Ferguson's " Handbook of 
Informatior and Directory," the (jovernment Blue 
Book and Administration Reports, the work of Statist- 
ical enquiry— indepd of a Statistical Society and 
Social Congress — in Ceylon is already being lairly 
well performed. There is little room lor rivalry in 
such local work, and if the object of essays and re- 
ports bearing on the industrial condition of the people 
be their social and material advance,! hat object will cert- 
ainly be best served by taking advuntige of the 
medium of publication which secures the widest 
circulation and which is most generally re- 
cognized as a fitting representative. We make 
i his remark to indicate to officers of Government 
— morn particularly to revenue officers — throughout the 
island the readiness with which we shall welcome 
contributions to the " Tropical Agriculturist " bear- 
ing upon (he industries and material progress of the 
people in their oistric s. They will remember tnat 
our monthly periodical knows " no politics," is not 
a newspaper in the ordinary sense of ihe term (not even 
regis t red as such), and that the strictest interpret 
ation of the " Government Minu'e" cannot affect such 
contributions We need scarcely say that the " Trop- 
ical Agriculturist" afWds far wider scope for the 
discussion of the subjects we refer to, than any other 
periodical in the East, probably in the tropics. Locally, 
even, it ha* a manif dri wider circulation than any other 
occasional journal or periodical. Il is officially tiled 
in every kachcheri throughout the island, and 
we trust shortly that the Government will see their 
way to provide a copy for each headman in the country 
capable of reading English. The publication has at- 
tracted the attention of Collectors and Sub-Collectors in 
Southern India, and, if our application to the Madras 
Government is favourably received, the periodical 
will probably be filed in every kachcheri in Southern 
India. In Java, the Straits, and other colonies, East 
and West, the publication is gaming attention and is 
duly recognized in its representative character. We 
say all this, merely to shew that public officers as 
well as agriculturists in discussing the industries of the 
people, and 'new' and 'old products' worthy of 
attention, in sub-tropical regions, will have an 
' audience fit ' though not few, and one from which 
in return they may expect to receive valuable in- 
formation and criticism. An interchange of views 
between revenue officers and agriculturists in Southern 
India, Ceylon and Java, for instance, could not fail 
to be beneficial. By-and-bye we may be able to 
arrange for Special Correspondents in different quarters 
of the tropical world, but meantime, so far as our 
little Ceylon world is concerned, we think it will 
be acknowledged that Mr. Bruce is right in feeling that 
his Society is relieved of the duty of attending to Botan- 
ical, Agricultural, or Industrial, topics, and that papers 
on such subjects— for example, on Silk-growing, Bee- 
keeping, Rice or Fruit Culture, or even Mining — will find 
the most fitting place in the pages of "The Tropical 
Agriculturist," which has already brought Ceylon and 
its .enterprise so prominently before the world at large. 
Cooly Labour for Northern Attstralia. — The 
Government have appointed Major Fergusson, D. 
A. A. G , to go to India and make the necessary pre- 
liminary arrangements for the introduction of a supply 
of coolie labour into the Northern Territory. Major 
Fergusson will very probably receive the advice 
and help of his brother, Sir James Fergusson, formerly 
the Governor of this province and now Governor of 
Bombay.— & Australia Register, 
