April i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
853 
Thin is amply proved l>y t In- »/» , ««• eondit ion in u hich ten 
has beou delivered here, as can bo ascertained on refer- 
ence to any of the leading London brokers, who have sold 
teas so packed, both privately and at public auction, where 
the prices ol>f aim-i I are a i i| >|i 1 1 ■ a n-m a' I o a n\ inipntat ion 
as to any deleterious effect on tea packed in our boxes. 
We trust therefore you will give us your assurance that you 
wrote inadvertently and in ignorance of the merits of our 
boxes as compared with the ordinary tin sometimes used in 
making up boxes for tea. 
A writer in the Home and Colonial Mail says with 
regard to the adverse remarks of the editor of the 
Indian Tea Gazette : — 
He appears to think that tin gives to tea packed in it 
" a metalic flavour," and that the tea, if at all damp, is 
" bound to corrode the tin eventually." Ho further remarks 
that "it is a matter of question, whether, even if tea be 
lhoronif/1/1/ dry when packed, 1 he chemical con si it uents con- 
tained in it will not in some way combine (choinirall\ i with 
the tin, and the ten imbibe I hereby smn. kind of lain!," and 
concludes with the suggestion— although he somewhat doubts 
its value— that the tin boxes might be lined with thin paper. 
It surely needs not to bo said that all these fears arc 
chimerical. Tin is one of the purest metals, and is on that 
very account largely used in the manufacture of vessels for 
containing or preparing food. Tin canisters, too, as recept- 
acles for tea have been in use for many years, and, indeed, 
are in daily use by many thousands. The suggestion that the 
"chemical constituents" of the tea may combine "chemic- 
cally" with the tin and thus acquire "some kind of taint" 's 
too vague for serious notice. Of thin paper it may be said 
briefly that a worse material for enclosing tea could hardly be 
discovered, and for the simple reason that, so far from being 
a repellent of damp, it very readily attracts and absorbs it. 
That tin boxes made of impure metal, or tinned boxes im- 
properly manufactured, would injure tea — or, for the matter 
of that, anything else — is no doubt true, but of this there 
appears to be no fear in the boxes which wc saw in the offices 
of Messrs. Harvey Brothers and Tyler. 
He then describes the boxes, and sets forth their 
advantages as compared with wooden chests. We need 
not repeat these, as they have already been given in our 
columns. The writer concludes by saying : — 
On the whole, then, there should seem to be no room for 
doubt that the tin boxes of which we have spoken, so far 
from being undesirable packages for tea, are a distinct boon 
to Indian planters. The} are handsome, and would thus 
promote the sale of the tea, and at the same time command 
better prices for it; they are convenient; they would tend to 
ensure purity of the tea; and they would, above all, by giving 
uniformity of tare, effect a considerable saving in the usual 
loss at the Custom House, with the authorities of which, wc 
may remark incidentally, they already found great favour. 
The manufacturers are of opinion that the inherent merits 
and attendant advantages of these tin boxes are as real and 
apparent as the fears expressed by the writer in the /ml,,,,, 
'/'../ Qa ette on the use of tin are groundless and vague. 
Candidly, we quite agree with them. 
In the face of such testimony the editor of the 
Indian Tea Gazette confesses that he was wrongly 
informed regarding these tin boxes. Ceylon tea plant- 
ers may therefore feel asm red that by using Messr». 
Harvey Brothers & Tyler'e boxes they will not run 
the risk of their teas being deteriorated, but on the 
contrary that the value will be enhanced.— Ed. 
MANIHOT UTILISSIMA, Pohl. 
Tapioca, Manioc, ok Cassava Plant, wiihn ash hy 
whom Introduced to Ceylon. 
Colombo, 22nd February 1S82. 
Dkak Siks, — lit your article beaded " Tropical Agri- 
culture in Ceylon: Low country Prod note," in your isauo 
of the JCth, occur-, the follow ing pas-aji ar d ■.trictL 
wo cannot include the manioc or oaesava plant, with 
which experiment* have been tried since the .lays of 
Bennett, if not from an earlier period," which reminded 
010 of the following addition made by mo under the 
4th line of page 17 of the " Table of Events " in your 
Handbook for Ceylon for 18 8 0-l:— " 1786 7. The Ma- 
nihot or Cassava plant introduced to Ceylon from Mau- 
ritius, by Governor Van tier Graaf "; which information 
will be found in the " Materia Medica of Hindoostan" 
&c, by Whitelaw Ainslie, Madras, 1813, in a footnote to 
an article on "Tapioca, Jatropha Manihot Lin.," p. 47, as 
follows :— " Whither [to Ceylon] it was brought from 
the Isle of Franco in 178(5 or 1787, by Governor Van do 
Graaf. See Asiatic Annual Register for 1805. vol. 7th, 
p. 87." As far as I know I do not believe that an- 
library in Colombo has got a copy of the latter work.— In 
Ainslie's articlo he says that ho attempted to make 
tapioca from the roots of the manihot in 1813-14, 
and perfectly succeeded, and ho believed that this 
was the first that was made in our Indian domini- 
ons. In Ainslie's "Materia Indica," 1820, which is a 
second edition of the older work he hat a longer 
notice of the tapioca, which I consider worth public- 
ation in your Tropical Agriculturist. Moon's cata- 
logue having been published in 1824, Dr., afterwards 
Sir W. Ainslie was able to add : — " Three species [of 
Jatropha]) grow in Ceylon, where our article is called 
mangyokJca (Cyng.)." About the introduction to India 
of the Cashew-nut, which is a native of tropical Am- 
erica, the following tantalizing bit of information is 
given in a book on Indian botany : — " Native of Brazil, 
now common in Goa and Warree country, also in 
S uthern Coucan and Salsftto, is now naturalized, 
and affords rather a valuable resource as food. Ac- 
cording to Garcias ab Orta, it was first planted at 
Santa Cruz (?) in Malabar, where only three trees 
existed in his timo." Some chapters of a work by 
Garcias ab Orta are quoted and commented on in a work 
by Clusius, dated 1605, but I see no date given for the 
work quoted. I think it not improbable that the 
Portuguese introduced the cashew-nut tree to India 
about a hundred years before Clusius wrote in 1605, 
but this is conjecture. It is most likely there are 
authentic records of its introduction in the earlier 
Portuguese works. 
The Pineapple must have also been introduced to India 
at an early period of the Portuguese rule. " It's not 
being a native of India is supported by i's vermicular 
names, evidently derived from ananas, as well as there 
being no Sanscrit name for so remarkable a plant. 
A thing which could scarcely have happened if it had 
been a native of the Eust Indies." — Eox. Fl. Ind., 1, 
116.— Yours, W. F. 
NEW PRODUCTS IN OLD KUIIUNEGALA 
DISTRICT. 
Madawalatenna, 23rd Feb. 1SS2. 
Dkak Sib,— The next time the Matale planter, who 
bas only recently paid a visit to the Polgahawela 
district, is desirous of seeing most of the lowcountry 
products in a flourishing condition, he might 
drive from Kandy to Kurunegala, and on the route 
he will be amply paid for his trouble by seeing 
lino plantations of cocoa (second to none in the 
island for it* age), Liberian ooffee (that in bearing 
loaded with crop), cardamoms and rubitcr. Kurunegala 
will yet bo able to hold its own with the aid of these 
" new product?," which are being planted on all the 
old estates. The new plantations, Uelgolla, Dyncvor, 
Dikova and Dnnira, are well worth seeing. I hear 
that both on Udapolla and Liberia estates good crops 
arc expected, and now that Arabian roffeo is not as 
nourishing as we could wish, more attention will no 
doubt bo paid to the planting of old estates, and, where 
the locality is not raited to cocoa, with Liberian coffee, 
for 4 owt. an acre from 4 year old troes is uot to 
be despised nowadays. C. II, \V, 
