1072 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June i t 1882. 
still those now growing show a most encouraging 
aspect, many of the grafts being from 18 to 24 
inches high, having from 2 to 3 shoots on them, 
growing with a vigour exceeding Ledgeriana on its 
own stem. 
I conclude, from what I now see, that the oper- 
ation of grafting out-of-doors may become a ready 
and easy means in the hands of intelligent planters of 
their being able to convert their free-growing succi- 
rubra into valuable Ledgeriana. 1 consider the oper- 
ation of grafting very simple and inexpensive, 
causing no harm to the stock operated on, should 
the graft fail, as the plant in my opinion should 
not be cut down until there are certain signs the 
graft has taken a firm and vigorous hold. This 
would be exceptional in old trees, say of 4 to 5 
years old ; as the grafts could only be put on after 
the tree had been coppiced, and then 3 or 4 grafts 
might be put on one stock, there being plenty space 
and vigour in a healthy 4 or 5 year old tree. It 
will, however, be most obvious " to all" that grafting can 
only be valuable, when used as a means of improv- 
ing the tree operated on, by using grafts taken 
from Ledger trees, of ascertained commercial value, 
or from plants raised from seed, carefully taken from 
valuable trees oj known analysis : then it will be re- 
duced to a certainty, and too much care and atten- 
tion cannot be bestowed on such an easy means of 
improving the value of property. 
So far as I am able to judge, I look on grafting 
as ultimately becoming one of our ordinary indus- 
trial planting operations, and men will be repaid in 
proportion, according to the attention and application 
they give to it. Coolies can readily be taught, and 
take a keen interest in it, as I experienced in my 
small beginning. I may mention I put Ledger grafts 
on pubescens stocks, also on officinalis, and found 
them grow as readily as on succirubra. 
I used shoots partially ripe, as well as fully matured ; 
also branches cut out of the centre of trees, with- 
out the sign of buds, and all have succeeded well. 
The operation of grafting cinchonas in hot-houses 
has been long practised in Java, and also here for 
some time by an enterprizing few, and with great 
success ; but not having any practical experience of 
it, I decline to offer an opinion. Grafting in-doors and 
out-doors, each has its advantages and disadvantages, 
and time and attention only can decide which is 
mo3t suitable. I am putting in no claim as being 
the first out-door grafter. Budding, as a means to- 
wards the same end, is being practised, and I have 
no doubt will have its success as great as grafting. 
There are many other points connected with this 
interesting operation which might be noticed, but 
let this suffice meantime; and, as men turn iheir atten- 
tion to it, each point will arise in its place, and no 
doubt receive the attention it deserves. 
The other matter, viz., hybridity or non-hybridity, I 
confess I approach with tear and trembling, well 
knowing how I shall get scoffed at, for my " unbelief" 
inanow, Imay say, "universal theoretical adoption." 
Well sir, I will be plain. I am a notorious "un- 
believer " in the hybridity theory ; it is repugnant 
to my every tense, moral and material. I have been 
very anxiously looking around me for now IS months, 
and have failed even to see a trace of such an agency 
at work nmong our cinchonas. I see varying forms 
among the recognized species, but no more than I 
see among plants of any other genera, or among men 
or animals, and, unless you call all created things 
hybrids, I most emphatically protest against your 
right I') select the cinchona family as an excep- 
tion ; more particularly at this time, when men's 
minds are earnestly turned to cinchona as a means 
<ii again restoring the lost prosperity of the island : 
jt baa caneed doubts and uncertainties, as to the 
fitness of cinchona growing, arising out of the hybridity 
heory. 
It would be out of place for me to enter into a 
theoretical discussion as to " what hybridity is." Let 
us be contented meantime with the facts before us, 
and accept some of the best-known hybrid forms. 
For example let us take the cinchona known as 
" the hybrid " all over the country, with all its 
other aliases, paid de gallinazo, pubescens, and now 
recently re-baptized robusta. 
I have known this form of cinchona growing in 
Ceylon for over 17 years ; I am able to trace its 
descent from seed for seven generations. During that 
period indeed I can prove its co-existence with 
the succirubra, side by side, before our cinchonas were 
raised from seed in the country, being only propag- 
ated by cuttings ; I still find it the same beautiful 
graceful tree, never varying, " the most elegant of all 
our cinchonas'': and yet according to the popular 
theory, I am asked to accept it as a "modern hy- 
brid creation." 
All the seed I have sown of the various forms of 
cinchona have come true to type. 
Men have told me they have sown seed of one 
tree, and it has come up an entirely different form 
from the parent. In each case, however, when pressed to 
say if tney gathered the seed with their own hands, and 
sowed it also, I have been told it came from India or 
.Tava or elsewhere. Without intending any imputation 
to anyone, I must decline such as evidence of a hybrid 
tendency. 
Another common error, you often see and hear made, 
tending to foster the hybrid theory : men look possibly 
on plants in the seed-bed or nursery and form opin- 
ions out of the disparity existing between young and 
old forms, as, for instance, a six-year old pubescens 
with its beautiful pendulous branches and small— al- 
most glabrous — leaves, having given seed which pro- 
duces plants of a strong, coarse habit, with bristly 
leaves even up to the time they are 12 months old, 
and from that period until the tree begins to give seed 
and assume its mature, graceful form there is great 
disparity. 
1 trust, you, sir, will allow me an early opportunity 
"matured you a chance of distinguishing the 
of giving micrantha " from the common succirubra, 
as, had you known the great similarity, you would 
have been less severe on Mr. Cross for failing 
to do so when drawings were used only ! 
A greater dissimilarity can scarcely exist between a 
parent and progeny than between matured micrantha 
and the young plant, grown from seed taken from the 
tree ; yet in from six to ten years both will be alike. 
This holds good more or less through all the species 
I know of the cinchona. Who that had not seen it 
could believe the very pretty Ledger seedling, with pink- 
veined, soft, velvety leaf, could ever degenerate into 
the small-leaved uninteresting rigid pyramidal tree, 
we find it at six years old ? 
Time only can ever settle this theory. Men must 
educate themselves to know young and old forms as 
they are, and this can only be attained by years of 
observation on each stage of the growth and life of 
cinchona plants. 
Mutilation by cutting off lower branches has done 
a great deal in destroying natural beauty in the cin- 
chona family and rendering their distinction more 
difficult. 
The theory of hybridity can only be believed for 
a very short period longer, for, when men see plants, 
as they grow up, asuming the form of the parent, and 
no new hybrids being produced, the truth will be 
forced on them and hybridity will perish. 
I make no pretension of having more knowledge of 
this subject than many men I know, among whom 
are some of my oldest and most esteemed friends ; 
