8i8 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1882. 
NEW FIELDS OF ENTERPRIZE : BEWARE OF 
SHARPERS. 
Badulla, Stli February 1881. 
Dear Sir,— I enclose the copy of an extract from 
the Scottish American Journal, dated 15th December 
1881, which, I think, might to be widely circulated 
through every paper. Some of the young men referred 
to were, for some time, in Ceylon, but, thinking tbey 
could better themselves in another part of the world, 
and se.-ing such an advertisement as that referred to 
below, at once jumped at such an opening, and were 
shamefully deceived. This system is not only confined 
to America ; as I have heard of similar eases having 
been connected with Ceylon, where young men paid 
large premiums, such as £100 per annum, to learn 
their work and another £100 for their board. Such 
cases of extortion ought to be exposed. Any man, 
after six months' planting experience, is surely worth 
not only his board but also a small salary. — I remain, 
dear sir, yours faithfully, A NOVICE. 
PEELING CINCHONA AND CINNAMON BARK. 
Koslanda, 12th Feb. 1882. 
Dear Sir, — In your issue of the 9th, I observe a 
note on peeling cinchona with the help of a cinna- 
mon-peeler's stick for rubbing the bark, so as to 
facilitate the peeling. 
From my experience, it is undoubtedly a fact that 
this stick is necessary in peeling cinnamon, but it is 
no help whatever in peeling cinchona. 
I tried both the cinnamon-peeler's knife and the 
rubbing process with cinchona, and found the stick 
utterly useless, to say nothing of the damage it did 
the bark ; but I strongly recommend ihe knife to 
cinchona planters, if they really go in for barking 
and making pipes iolamode. 
Cinnamon, as a rule, will not peel all the year 
rcii.d, but I never found it the case with cinchona : 
so the stick for rubbing is not necessary, even if it 
were a success. 
I tried it simply for curiosity sake, and found 
that the rubbing, although gently applied, damaged the 
bark to a great extent. 
I also observed that cinchona will not peel after 
36 hours (from the time it is cut), and the only 
remedy in a case of that kind is to steep the sticks for 
an hour or two in water. — Yours faithfully, H. J. C. 
KAPOK, COTTON, COTTON TREE, SILK- 
COTTON. 
Dear Sir, — I fear these terms have got somewhat 
mixed, and some have added to the trouble by con- 
founding the Sinhalese vvord'kapu,' for the common 
cotton, with ' pulun,' the Sinhalese for the silk-cotton. 
The following may prove of interest to your reader; : — 
The red-flowered silk-cotton tree m>t uncom- 
mon from the coast up to the Kai dyan coun- 
try is, I believe, truly indigenous to Ceylon, and is 
the 'katu (thorny) imbul-gaha' of the Sinhalese, and 
111 the Flora (/British Indi; 1, p. 349, the follow- 
ji-g botanical names are given for it : — Bombax mala- 
baricum, heptaphylla, and Ceiba nahnalia malabarica, 
and Gossampinus rubra, whilst Maxwell 1. Masters, 
who has elaborated this order, calls it " cotton tree." 
From 'Bombax' comes 'bombastic,' inflated, puffed 
up, &c. The woolsack is said to be in some way 
connected with thi3. I think Masters is wrong in 
calling this the "cotton tree," and leaving the other 
without a common name. One of the generic names, 
eamalia, is, I think, derived from the Malayalim 
r.ame of the tree under which Rheede figured it in 
hifi Hortus Malabaricus The cotton of this tree is 
scant compared v. ith that of the next tree. There is 
a very common drug sold in the bazars of India and 
Ceylon, and which is used for the tame purpose as 
shark-fins, rat-tails, &c, in fact as an aphrodisiac, 
and known as 'madana-kamapu' in Tamil. 'Madana' 
means intoxicating, 'Kama,' the goddess of love, 
'pu,' flower, which I have never seen identified with any- 
known plant. Several years ago I had some of this 
drug soaked in warm water, to which some soda 
was adder 1 , and 1 discovered that the drug was com. 
posed of the young unexpanded flower- buds of this tree. 
[Indian compilers, writers, plagiarists, please copy !] 
2nd.— The tree commonly known in Ceylon as the 
Silk-cotton tree, very common near gardens and cult- 
ivated grounds, is 'remarkable for its green bark, 
and the regular manner in which its brandies spring 
from the trunk in equidistant, threes forming angle3 
of 120° with the trunk when the, trees are yonne. 
It is, also, like the other, remarkable for having its 
flowers and its cottony pods on when the tree is 
bare of leaves. The flowers are generally white, and 
when in young bud they are a favourite food of 
the flying-foxes, Pteropus Edwardsii, which infest the 
trees in the evening. The Sinhalese name of this 
tree is 'pulun (silk-cotton) imbul-gaha,' and it is tl e 
cotton from this tree which is so much used in 
Colombo and on the coast of Ceylou for stuffing 
pillows, mattresses, &c. It is to be had in Colombo 
for 12 to 16 cents a lb., but not quite free of 
seeds. The contents of one good ripe dry capsule 
of this tree when opened out will till a beaver hat. 
The two trees produc 3 silk- cotton, the staple of whieh 
is too short to be woven, but I think this one 
should be called the cotton tree in preference to the 
other. I am away from my books and do not know 
the meaning of the Sinhalese word ' pulun' always 
used for the cotton from the tree, but it is never 
confounded with the ' kapu,' the produce of a species 
of Gossypium, none of which is indigenous to Ceylon. 
I do not think the * pulun imbul ' tree is indigenous, 
as I never saw one truly wild. 
In Fl. Brit, hid., 1, p. 350, the following names 
and synonyms for this tree are given :—Er\odmdrjM 
anfractuosmn and A. orientate, Bombax pentandrum 
and B. orientate, and Ceiba peniandru. 
From all I know about this tree, I think it is 
likely to have been introduced into India and Ceylon 
from the West Indies. W. F. 
Mr. Storck and Coffee Leae-Disease. — We shall not 
fail to call Mr. Storek's attention to the letter of Mr. 
W. Sabonadiere, which appears on the previous page : the 
latest reference we have seen to the subject is contained 
in the foUowing paragraph in the Madras Mail, in which 
a quoation occurs we had not seen before : — 
Mr. J. R. Storke, a coffee planter in Fiji, has been ex- 
perimenting with coffee leaf-disease hemileia vastatrix. He 
makes two important announcements — first, that the disease 
may be contracted, under certain conditions, by the Li'ie- 
rian coffee plant; and second, that he has < iscovered a 
means of " infecting a tree, a run, a plantation, or a 
whole province, and of curing it again at will." He gives 
no details < f his method of cure, but iuvites personal 
investigation on his estate at Upper Rewa, Fiji. 
Fibre. — A Report has been issued on the mate- 
rials in India, suitable for the manufacture of paper. 
Several fibre-yielding plants are mentioned; amongst 
others, various species of the plantain or banana 
tribe. Trade returns show a large and continually 
increasing delivery of hemp from the Philippine Islands. 
The quantity is estimated at 20,000 tons, valued at 
half a million sterling. M. Leotard says there is no 
doubt that the Manilla hemp plant, M 11 sa text His, grows 
as well in British India as other species of the plan- 
tain or banana tribe. Further British India could, 
in a space of two years, supply London market with I 
all that it could take of hemp fibre. — Madras Mail. 
