262 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. fOcr. r, 1894. 
had been Bdequately brought to (lie notice of the 
European purchaser. The course of the trade shows 
that wherever Indian teas obtain a foothold they 
make their way. But it also shows that tbey are 
still scarcely k< own in the European mark' t. The 
re-expcrts of China teas from Great Britain to 
the Continent and America continue ten times 
greater thai) the re-exports of Indian tea«. It is 
no longer entirely a question of tea verms c> flee 
for the upper classes in Holland, Belgium, and 
Germany are beginning to use tea more freely, and 
medical men have raised the question whether the 
excessive consumption of coff e has not something: to 
do with the obesity and failure ot nerve force which 
is so common among middle-aged Germans. Curiously 
enough, it would appear that, next to Amer ca, the 
largest pnrohaser of Iadian teas from Great Britain 
is Turkey, which, according to the returns, took in 
1893, nearly lialt-a milliou pounds. As we pointed 
out some time ego with regard to America, so also in 
Europe, the struggle is developing into o e between 
the British capitali-t and the Chinese peas-mt for the 
tea trade of the world. The Koreaa war, if sufficiently 
prolonged, will give the Indian and Oeylon planters 
another opportunity which tbey are not likely to let 
sl ; p. 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
A Dye From Vine-leaves.— Schuuk, Kneoht, and 
Marohleweki, three German ohemutH, as reported in 
the Journal of the Chemical Society, have obtained 
from brown vine-leaves gathered in autumn, a dye 
that colours wool mordanted with chrome and tin 
respectively brown and yellow. The Eubstanoe was 
obtained primarily as a browDish-ye,low, partially 
crystalline glucodd. When boiled with sulphuric 
aoid this yields sugar and the colouring matter, 
which is obtained as a reddish-brown powder.— 
Public Opinion. 
Grevillia Seedlings.— A wiiter in the Madras 
Mail gives his experience regardiog casuariDa seeds. 
Ho says :— I planted about half a pound of seeds, 
and ouly one or two seedhegs came up. I planted 
some more, and watched results. Squirrels came 
and carefully removed all those on the surface. 
Streams of ants appeared from every direction, acd 
eaoh ant a3 he departed took away a seed. I 
afterwards succeeded by planting in large pots, 
setting them in water, acd covering them with a 
wire netting. 
Tea Leaves and Insects. — A few days ago 
we received specimens of withered and eouad leaves 
from the same tea-trees, about 10 years old and 
about 7 mi nths from last pruning. The tea in 
question is at about 4,000 ft. elevation. Dr. 
Trimen to whom we submitted the specimens has 
kindly favoured us with the following :— The brown 
and dry patches on the older leaves are probably 
due to the attacks of a mite, either "Rad-spicer" 
or one of its allies. There are no inseots now on 
the leaves, but their cast skins can be still seen 
on the dead patches. 
A Curious Grass. — In the eighth number of the 
first volume of Contributions from the United State 
National Herbarium, Washington, is described and 
figured a curious grass, Uhloris longifolia, Vasey, 
which produces branching panicles on or beneath the 
surface of the ground. The flowers borne on these 
subterranean branches are larger than those borne on 
the ordinary panicles, and are ienaale only. They 
cannot, therefore, be considered as cleistogamic, and 
must be fertilised by pollen from other flowers. 
Amphicarpum is mentioned as a grass with similar 
habit. It may be that this is a provision against the 
ill-effects of drought.— Gardeners' Chronicle, 
Effect of Raik on Plants.-Wc learn from 
Salure of January 11, lb94. that: "Professor J. 
Wiesner, who has recently been studying the in- 
fluence of artinca! rain upon European and exotic 
plants, gave an account ot his results at a recent 
meeting of the Vienna Academy, borne of the- plants, 
called by Profess. r Wiesner " ombrophobe, "can only 
for a short time stand continuous rain, and 6oon 
shed their leaves and decay. Others, called " oui- 
bropbil," can stand it for months toge her. Plants 
rowing in dry places are, as a rule, ombrophobe, 
ut the reverse cannot be s.id of plants growing 
under wet surroundings. Leaves appear to ga.u in 
power of resisting rain as they develop, and to reach 
a climax in this respect at the pi-nod of their 
greatest vital activity, after which they loose much 
of that power. Leaves which can bj wetted by 
water are usually ombrophil. those which cannot 
are usually ombrophobe, but in cases where leaves 
are both ombrophobe and easily wetted, they are 
extremely sensitive to raio. Professor Wiesner thinks 
that ombropbo' e leavee are enabled to resist the putre- 
factive action of water, especially at high temperatures, 
by certain antiseptic substances which they contain. 
The same may be said of hydrophil roots and submer- 
ged parts of aquatic plants."— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
The Pafaw Thee.— A correspondent sends us the 
following paragraph taken from a foreign contem- 
porary :—" Some thirteen years ago we planted a 
large number of papaw trees at our station at Masasi 
in the Jttovurno district. As these began to grow 
many proved to be males, and not wishing to 
occupy our plantation with what we considered to 
be useless trees, we prooeeded to root up and throw 
away the male trees. Our native deacon who bad 
lived many years in Zanzibar asked us why we 
did this, since if we wished it, be said we could 
probably obtain fruit from all or moet of the 
trees we were dtstroying. Asked how that was 
to be done he replied, ' By breaking off all the 
upper part of the tree, and allowing tbe tree to 
sprout again from the bare trunk.' We were 
incredulous, but be persisted that it was a thing 
commonly done in Zanzibar on tbe Arab plantations, 
and induced us at length to make the experiment, 
it was quite successful. We broke off the entire 
upper part of all the male trees at a point below 
all the leaves and flowers. In due time they 
sprouted again, when we discovered that many of 
them, though by no means all, put forth this 
time the characteristic female flower, tbe ' squat 
blossom growing close to the trunk of tbe tree,' 
which in oourse of time set, and then the fruit 
formed in the ordinary manner, and was developed, 
in no way differing from that of a tree that is, so 
to speak, a born female. With regard to the 
others that sprouted again with male flowers, we 
broke them off again, when a proportion of them 
on the seoond oocasion would turn out females. 
Others we tried three or four times in the same 
way without succeeding in changing the sex. In 
all cases where male trees changed into female in 
this way, female trees were growing in oloae proxi- 
mity to them. We would like to ask experts 
whether what we are now deeoribing is known 
to them, and in what way it i3 to be accounted 
for. So little did we see a good reason for the tree 
on being broken off, sprouting again of the opposite 
sax, thit until the phenomenon really occurred 
we felt that we were behaving in a manner wcrthy 
of the pork-butcher, who, noticing that the Asters 
in his garden were more than usually streaky, 
attributed the fact to his having buried a side of 
bacon in their vicinity the year before. Aftar all 
though, and for at gat we know, it may be as 
well known to naturalists as to others, that by 
the means we have been describing papaw trees 
may be induced to change their sex,"— Journal of 
Horticulture. 
