February i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
687 
do not make the horizontal cut at the bottom and so 
prevent the sap, and with it the alka'oid-. descend- 
ing. To prevent the hark thus dying the highest suefci r 
or better, three or four should b'' lefc on thp sJipnl, 
instead of the lower ones, although they are generally 
the 8tron."st. Succi rubra are not so liable to die off 
as officinalis.— Yours truly, CINCHONA. 
P. S.— I enclose pieces of the bark of a healthy 
tree coppiced two years ago, showing you how it 
is affected. 
RUBBER GROWTH IN THE UVA DISTRICT 
Badulla, 18th Dec. 1S81. 
Dear Sir, — I send you the measurement of a 
Ceara rubber tree growing in tin? Pa-sara-Bull it- 
watta valley. Would you kindly publish it, as in- 
formation of this description is interesting to those 
engaged in the cultivation of A'ew ProiIiuU ?— Yours 
faithfully, E. C. SWEETING. 
Dimensions tfc. 
Spread of brandies ... ... 18 feet 
Height 22 „ 
Circumference of the stem 4 feet 
from ground ... ... ... 10^ inches 
Age ... ... 20 mouths. 
100 ripe seeds have been gathered from this tree, 
and theie are now some 300 more partially matured 
and a small quantity of flower ehowing. 
CALISAYAS IN MASKELIYA AND DIKOYA. 
Maskeliya, Dec. 18th, 1881. 
Dear Sir, — I was very glad to see Mr. Kay- 
Shuttleworth's letter in your issueof 'he 16th. A- lie 
remarks, there was a sale, of the ab >ve bark, before 
Mr. Moeus visited the islaud, and why si ould not 
the analysis of the above bark be published? I do 
not by any means wish to say that the analysis 
should be necessarily published, but, at the same time, 
it would ba beneficial to the proprietors of the estate 
and to the public, and especially to former purchasers, 
as they would know whether the plauts raised from 
the seed th>y had bought at such a fabulous prices 
are valuable enough to remain in the ground or whether 
it would not be better to have them grubbed up, 
to make room for a more valuable specie*. —B lii ve 
me, yours truly. H. I. B. P. 
[We cannot understand all this revival of an old 
controversy. Immediately alter the return of the pro- 
prietor of Annfidd, he published a series of analyses 
by Mr. Howard of the barks of his trees. As for 
Mr. Moens' inspection, that gentleman we beg to say 
once more, was not infall ble. He pronounced Mr. 
Roberta' Pussellawacaltsayasto beinferior and p actioally 
not worth cultivating ; while .Mr. Howard's analyses 
and the crop and market returns, bhew them to be 
especially valuable. — Ed.] 
COCOA. 
Dec. 23rd, 18S1. 
Dear Sir,— Will your correspondent "Cocoa' kind y 
add to the information he gives us in your i«nie of 
the 13th, about (lacking cocoa se^d for export, by 
stating whetliur he extracts the soi-ds fr m the pods 
and th>n packs them in sawdust, or packs the pod* 
SOtire in sawdust? I a-k, because I have seen it -tntcd 
that the seels should be put into the ground direct 
fr id) luo pod. — Yours truly, 
AN'OTIIKIJ COCOA. 
MfiT£OKOLi>GICA L OB3KHVATORIE3 AT 
HIGH ELEVATIONS. 
Colomlio, J.Jr.l I) e. 1 SSI. 
Dbar Sir,— With reference to a new M teqrologioa] 
Observatory established at the residcucu oi Air. Moins 
of tW Jamaica B..t nical Deparment. an extract from 
the Jamaica fJWer published in your edition of the 
"It is beyond question the highest obs<i' vatory in 
the Brit'sh Empir-, the elevation being 4 900 fe-t." 
Tin following is a list of Meteorological Observatories 
in India and Ceylon at a greater elevation, included 
iu tne annual Report published by the Indian Gover- 
nment : — 
Lat. N. Long, E. Elevation in feet. 
. 0 ' 0 " abo^e seakvel. 
Leh ... 28- 59 7G- 42 11.5 ;8. 
SjLn,da ... 3'- ri 77- 12 6,952. 
Ra'iikhet. ... 2<)- 38 79" 29 6 Uu9. 
Oarjoeling ... 27" 3 83- 18 6,91 2. 
Wellington ... 10 22 76- 50 6,_00. 
Nuwa'ra isliya ... 7- 0 SO- 42 6,i50- 
The above all forward daily weather reports to the 
head office at Calcutta. C. H. A. 
COFFEE IN SOUTHER INDIAN. 
Scottish Indian Coffee Co. Limited, 
Colachel, Travancore, 27th December 1881. 
Dear Sir, —In the weekly Observer, No. 47, of 
date 12' h December, under ihe above heading you 
publi-hed a statemeut by M-ssrs. Alstons & Co. of 
Tellicheny, of exports of coffee from the Mai .bar 
coast, for the year ending 30th June 1881, which is 
not by any means complete as regards Travancore ; 
the port ot Q dlon, fro ■■ which about half the pro- 
duce of the coffee estates in South Travancore is 
annually shipped, being entirely omitted. Tne c ffee 
shipped at Quilon during the two y^ars for which 
statistics are given aggregated over 20,0u0 c«t 
As the stat-ment publis led is apt to mislead, 
especially a< it has bjeu backed up by your edito- 
rial reflections on the poor outturn for Travancore, 
I trust you will give prominence to the above facts 
in an early issue. — Yours faithfully, 
TrlOS. HENDERSON. 
[Would Mr. Henderson kindly furnish us with the 
exact ti'ures for Qidou and Colac'iel for the several 
years we require to fill up our table, so as to make 
the information in our "Handbook" complete, and much 
oblige.— Ed.] 
"NEW PRODUCTS": ALLSPICE OR 
PIMENTO. 
Colombo, 2Sth Dec. 1881. 
Dear Sir, — The allspice or pimento trees can 
scarcely be considered new products in Ceylon In 1747, 
L nnaeus devoted nearly the whole of page 83 of his Flora 
Zey'anka, No. 1SG, to a description of. aud notes 
on, the plant identical with t'ic long narrow-leaved 
Allspice, now tho Eugenia Pimento, D.C. ; but strange 
to s>y, thete is no reference to Hermann's collection 
of plants made in Ceylon, a< regards this ont», tiiou-h 
it is most likely tne pimento wis introduced to 
C.yl.m by the Portugue-e or Dutch long before 
Hermann's visit to Ceylon (Ki70 7). Tho Eugeuia 
(Myrtus) Pimentse, is includtd in Moon's Catalogue 
of Ceylon plants, p. CO, ami was therefore h-re be- 
fore IS24. In IS56, the Rev. William Ellis, tne 
emjnent Polynesian and Madagascar Mm-don try, pa d 
a visit to Ceylon, and, in tho cuius- of a b •Umcal 
trip I had tho pleasure of making with him in the 
direction Of Muttmal, we called at Klie Mouse and 
found a fine tree of tho broad leaved allspico there 
in full fiuit. This is tie Eugenia ens, W. & A., 
in I uiu-t also have been introduced mto India aud 
Ceylon many years n^>. 
The pepper O.i led alUpioe or pimento is the 
driid fru t of Bnpeuia Bra, an I E. Pioieota. Ma y 
years ajjo, ou vuntnig at Lake Hutuo, Colombo, wkuu 
