February i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
667 
ami others, vol. 2, p. 99, species 28, will afford all the 
information required by most people. You are aware, 
of course, that several attempts to make indigo in Cey- 
lon have been made. 
28. I. TiNCTOMA, Linn.; DC. Prodr. ii. 224 (excl. 
var. (3 ; shrubby, faintly argenteo-eanescent, leaflets 9-13 
KCrge obovate-oblong, pod nearly straight 8-12-seeded not 
torulose. Roxb. Fl. hid. hi. 379 ; Wall. Cat. 5474 ; W. 
&• A. Prodr. 202; Wt. Ic. t. 3G5 ; Bali, dk Gibs. Bomb. 
Fl. 59 ; Brand. For. Fl. 135. I. indica, Lamk. Diet. 
iii. 245. I. sumatrana, Gaertn. Fruct. ii. 317, t. 148— 
Rheedc Hort. Mai. i. t. 54. Fl. Zeyl. No. 273, p. 125. 
The universally cultivated indigo. Whether it be truly 
wild is doubtful. 
A shrub 4-6 ft. high, with twiggy woody thinly silvery 
branches. Leaven 1-2 in. long ; leaflets opposite, mem- 
branous, turning blackish when dried ; petiole j-1 in. 
Racemes lax, nearly sessile, 2-4 in. long. Calyx $\ in., 
silvery ; teeth as long as the tube. Corolla J-j in., 
reddish yellow. Pod f-1 in. long, fa in. thick, glabres- 
cent, scarcely at all recurved. I. Anil, Linn.; DC. Prodr. 
ii. 225, also commonly cultivated, a native of America, 
differs by its short congested racemes and pod turned 
back like a sickle. I. flaccida var. constricta, Thwaites 
Enum. 411, from Ceylou, is probably a distinct species, 
but the flowers are unknown. It lias the habit and 
leaves of /. tinctoria, with a slender tetraquctrous sub- 
tonilosi 1-G-soeded pod. 
-Yours truly, . W. FERGUSON. 
THE DiKO YA AND MASKEL1YA 
CALLSAYAS. 
Maskeliya, 7th December 1881. 
DEAR Sib, — The following suarl from this district 
appears in your issue of 5th instaut: — "I should like 
to know why the cinchona calisaya seed was adver- 
tized as Ledgeriuna lust year and sold for K25, whilst 
this year it is culled by its proper name Calisaya 
and ia advertized at 1150 per lb." Allow me to 
inform your correspondent that the ealisayas 
referred to were classed as " Ledgeriauas " by the 
highest authority in the island, at the lime, and it 
gtas inly after Mr. Moens' hurried and super- 
ficial inspection last year that they were said 
I to be not Ledgerianas but inferior ealisayas. This 
general condemnation has since been proved to 
h ue l> en wrong, as both on Emelina and Anntield 
true Ledgeriauas are to be found. The news that the 
price has been doubled in the case of Emelina, I 
Believe, is ou account of the demand for the seed. 
These ealisayas have been found to grow where other 
cinchonas will not, and from an elevation of nearly sea 
lev. I, Udagama and Awisawella, to the Borton Plains. 
Tik following is an unsolicited testimonial from an 
experienced and intelligent Maduliima planter:— 
" Lunugala, 29 h Nov 1881. 
"I have by far the finest show of Ann field a of any 
estate in Madulaima. 1 put a lot out last December 
and they are now upward* of four feet high and look- 
ing well. They were planted in good patuna about au 
HeVation of 3,400 feet to 3,500 feet, and 1 have a great 
opinion of them and am planting 5 acres this year with 
nothing else." 
Planters will do well to bear in mind and plant 
the variety of cinchona that grows best in their \< rt- 
icular «lis rict. The true Ledgoriana will not flourish 
in a poor soil and wet district. — Yours truly, 
A PHOl'HIKTOi:. 
SHALL WE A HAN DON I'KUNINC MAN UK 
iNc ami wkkdim; in tiii: lultivatIOW 
OK UOKKKH ■> 
Kotuialc, 7th Dec. 18S1. 
Dkai: SIR,— It h surprizing that more plant] ig 
criticism ou Mr. Marshall Ward's third report has 
not forthenme. However, now that Mr. Talbot ha 8 
turned the first sod, we may look for the assistunc 0 
of a huge force in clearing the wuy to some terminus 
of ideas, wiicnce we can all start fairly. Mr. Talbot 
has not given us his reasons for disputing the crypto- 
gamist's conclusion that ''manure can in no senbe 
be looked upon as a cure for ihe disease. " 
Nevertheless, he sums up his id as very pithily in 
the words : — " There is a good deal lo be found out 
yet as to the best time to prune and manure, with 
a view to dodging the disease in July :ind Au ust, 
and having healthy wood ready to blossom in Janu- 
ary." Why not have sad •'December" in lieu f 
the last eight words ? There is a good deal to bo 
found out yet ; a very great deal. Iu fact, every- 
thing hinges on this important discovery. But we 
have some hints from the report, which, though of 
a negative nature, are none tne less of valuable as- 
sistance to us These are to be found on pag- 15. 
The gist thereof is, that the formation of young Leaves 
in the monsoon months should be discouraged. How 
are we to avoid such development ? It has been the 
custom to commence pruning directly after crop, say 
in January, and this work would, in the ordinary 
course of events, be carried on for three mom lis, 
which would land us with the whole estate pruned 
(alio ing a good force to be emp oyed) at the end 
of March or the beginning of April. Now, what app ars 
to be wanted in all works undertaken with th« view 
of "dodging the disease" is an impossible instan - 
aneity. If you intend to try disinfectants, "Siarp" 
is the word; sweep up the whole estate <ne day 
and apply your acids the next. So with pruning 
and manuring : the present pruning season is not the 
coriect one; either h;irk back or yo forward. The 
former se< n:s impracticable, any period 1 etvveen Janu- 
ary and August, reckoning backwards, being coutemp 
oranems with crop operations, and forward leads us 
into the very jaws of the monsoon. Now is the 
chance for a i hilauthropic Phineus to pi'o us between 
these crushing symplegades ! Verily, thj occasion is 
fleeting and judgment difficult. 
But that the present crop is turning out far better 
than statistics warranted our calculating on, and com- 
pares (1 trust my experience is the general one) 
favourably with its immediate predecessors, with an 
immediate past pregnant with ruin, and for the future 
the impracticable cry pto^amistical remedies, our sorry 
tung would be :— 
'• Ah ! welladay ! for we are souls bereaved ; 
Of all the creatures under Heaven's wide cope 
We are most hopeless, who had once most hope, 
And most belief-less, who had once believed." 
You, sir, have oid us that estates have not re- 
ceived tnat aiUntion of late which was their annual 
treatment tip to 1879. Cau it be that tho collce, 
unpruned, has not put forth those enticing meals, 
those happy hunting-grounds of Hemelfia'a mycelium, 
ami that tris is the cutis'- of our heavier crop and 
lighter hearts? Is it not worth while to try this 
simplest of experiments: "hetlur it be or be uot 
possible to drive Hemile'ut away entirely by minim- 
izing our knife- thrusts into the healthy, vigoioua 
wood, thereby starting a supply of shoots in the 
fcason most congenial to our enemy, bhools that, 
the chances are 99 to I, will tall victims to tho 
disense and drag their elder sisters w.th ihem ! 
Similar]) with injnd c om-, Dnsoiflntinoinnnarin , which 
i a delicate operation, whtn it is remembered what 
hacking • f the trues' roots are entailed in it. Your 
ground is, from aostoniary oloso planting, one network 
of lateial and lib OU8 i : while the tiee is atlhcted 
with bug-ill- cine, don't go and cut oil a too hero 
and a linger there. No wonder collco cuts op rouyh 
after moh treatment [—Faithfully yours, 
1'OsT TENLTIKAS LUX. 
