Tune r, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
1071 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
AN ENQUIRY ABOUT L1BERIAN COFFEE. 
Deah 8m, — Can any one tell me at wh;it rate the 
Liberian coffee trees are bearing, planted on Mausawa 
estate, Galagedara ? They should now be five or six 
yoars of age, and would, therefore, be a good criterion 
of what Liberian could do in this island. 
ENQUIRER. 
[Wo hope the proprietors of Mausawa will comply 
with this request, the subject being one of public and 
important interest. — Ed.] 
Mi;. GAMM IE OK DARJEELINO OX CINCHONA 
PUI5ESCENS OF HOWARD : IS IT A 
HYBRID OR SPECIES ? 
Darjeeling, 8th April 18S2. 
Dkar Sir, — Writers on the .above subject are about 
equally divided, one halt holding that this puhescens 
is a hybrid and the other half that it is a species ; 
but neitber party has brought forward anything 
stronger in the way of argument in support of their 
particular views than mere assertion. In your article 
in the Observer of the 4th March on hybridity of cin- 
chonas, you quote the statement of Hooker & Thom- 
son, to the effect that in nature hybridity is exceed- 
ingly rare. That this is true, not one observer in a 
thousand will question. Run your mind over all the 
species of plants and animals you know in Ceylon, 
in a state of nature, and I venture to say that you 
will not think of a single plan' or animal that can 
bo suspected of hybrid origin. It is but fair to assume 
that the same 
state of affairs obtaii 
s in the South 
American cincl 
oua regions, and, if i 
I can be shown 
that the C. p 
ibesceus of Howard is 
neither of Ceylon 
nor of Indian 
)ngin, but that it w 
is originrdly in- 
troduced direct 
r, r-i x Vni 
assume that it 
is u true species an 
I may menti 
)0 that what I refer t 
o as C. pubesoens 
is the hairy ' 
Pata-do-Oalliuazo," at 
d that I did not 
know what waa known in Ceylon an 
I Southern India 
iliom the 
II ever re- 
teem for his 
under that name until Colonel l>dd( 
to tli9 Sikkini plantations. He saw oui 
plant of it, and, as it is so very d 
there can be no manner of doubt as 
ation ; and there is absolutely no doubt 
whore we got it from. It appeared 
tluee of a packet of C. officinalis s 
JaUUlU^ in lS(i6" from Dr. Thwaites, 
oldei officers ol the Sikkini plautatio 
tain a lively sense of gratitude and 
kindly assistance and advice at a time when those 
plantations were in their infancy an<l much in need 
of h ip. Wo always had a large . share of the lirut 
seods lie had lo spare, and, as he did not Bend us 
any of C. succirubra till 1S(>{>, the probability is that 
thai Bpeoiee did not tlower in Ceylon till I NIT, ami, 
if it did not, the flowers of 0. officinalis, which yielded 
the seed sent us in January 18G(>, could not have 
been crossed by it. Had there been only C. officinalis 
in (lower, so decidedly different a plant asC. puboseens 
could scarcely have been produced. My idea is that 
there was au unnoticed seed-bearing plant of £ 
pubescous then among the Hakgala C. officinalis, and 
that it was an accidental introduction from South 
America. 1 can nardly be yvrong in aiHUmiug chat 
('. offiointtlil trees bearing seed so early as 1805 ( 0 d 
not po siMy have been raised ir mi other than direct 
Sootl) American stock, either plant - or BOed li Dr, 
Ihwait' swill kindly mid to tho heavy obligation* 
cinchona culture already owes hi ID, oy telling OJ tbjB 
earliest date of lloweriug of C. otlieinali- and I . | i 
rubra in Ceylon, and their previous history and 
origin, we shall bo at least one step nearer the solu- 
tion of the vexed question, is C. pubescens of Howard 
a species or hybrid? JAS. A. GAMMIE. 
[We hope to hear, in reply, not only from Dr. 
Thwaites, but from Mr. Wm. Cameron who, we be- 
lieve, raised tho first cinchona seed in Ceylon. — 
Ed.] 
MR. WM. SMITH OF MATT A KELLY, ON 
GRAFTING CINCHONAS IN THE OPEN 
AIR AND ON THE HYBRIDITY 
QUESTION. 
G. 0. H., Colombo, 20th April 1882. 
My dhar Sir,— As promised, I now send you a 
few crude ideas on the grafting of cinchonas, and their 
" non-hyhridity," as found in my experience. 
The operation of outdoor grafting is so new to us 
all, I shall simply state my own experience. 
On 25th of last October, being the coolies' " Tee- 
valie," I along yvith my assistants took advantage 
of the clay to commence grafting Ledgeriana shoots 
on to succirubra stocks. 
We selected strong healthy plants of the succirubra 
just as they were, growing in convenient position 
along the roadside, being from 12 to 18 months old. 
As grafts of the Ledgeriana. yve took suckers from 
trees, which had been coppiced 12 or 14 months 
previously. 
We simply followed the plan generally adopted 
by nurserymen in Scotland, when grafting the com- 
moner fruit-trees out-of-doors ; the grafts being put on 
as near the bottom of the stock as the operator finds 
convenient. After making incisions in stock and graft, 
as ordinarily practised, they are brought into contact, 
and carefully secured in position by being bound 
round with common white tape, and immediately aft- 
erwards enveloped in a mass of plastic clay which 
is made to embrace both stock and graft ; hermeti- 
cally shutting both up for the time beim;, excepting 
md, which 
intruding 
nound of e 
I 1 1 
ing up th 
to save it 
Wo afterv 
lire l>a^L' I 
opening pa 
projected 
exposed for about an inch 
ho clay ? We then drew a small 
uud the stem of the tree, cover- 
hich enveloped the yvhole, in order 
sking by the alternations of weather, 
verted worn -out, bottomless mnn- 
lie mound of earth, and shaded the 
y pieces of eunny bag. 
mention I do not intend in my 
s of i he present season to use either 
baskets or shading, as I do not consider either neeess- 
sary, particularly at this season of the year. 
1 found the graft* begin to show signs of life in about 
20 days, by the buds getting turgid ; and before a 
month many of the buds had burst and were pushing 
out leaves ou healthy shoots. 
At abont 5 weeks after <tho grafts had been put on, 
an impartial friend along with me examined the 
first put-on lot, of somewhat over 100, and found less 
than 5 per cent, either dead or doubtful, 8> proportion 
of which grew afterwan s. Some failures were found 
to arise from causes w hich were preventive, such as 
putting mi what I call blind gralta t. c grafts, which, 
altl ougll they apparently had eyes, had not the gt nils 
of a bud in them. Strango to say many of them united 
to the stock firmly, and a few have been loft, and are 
still living, but have not put out a shoot yet. It is 
interesting to watch them, now that the active season of 
life has arrived ; I am hopeful they may yet push nut 
a shoot. 
A dry tract of weathei c.iim early >n I 'eecml i r. and 
the clay got cracked, for the mill of attention during my 
| absence from borne. A few sin limited from thatcause ; 
