THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. i, 1894. 
appointing results; neither of these trees wou'd 
bleed freely ; aad tbe rubber contained in the Utter vtai 
proportionately very meagre, though when purified 
by Mr. Hooper it was said by him to be of au 
exceptionally fine qu -lity. The Castitloa oper»te«l 
upon is now over tweive yesrs old, an;' 'be Ceara 
over sixteen, and both large trees. It would be well if 
Government was to apply to the Chief Comiui sioner 
of Assam for the loan of the services of an expert 
rubber-tapper; as it would then be settled, ©pee I r 
all, whether, or no*, the want of (.usee's is due to 
the unskilfulness of the operator. If Governmeit 
Bsnotion this proposal, the best time for the ruboer- 
tsppar to be rent would be about the end of January, 
or the beginning of February. 
Bluegum Oil. — The distillatiou of this oil in the 
Government Gardens has almost ceased, as it is 
now manufactured by private persons in suffici' nt 
quantities to supply all tho demands of tbe M'- u- 
oal Stores D-parfments of Madras and Bombay 
and of private persons, and can be had wholesale from 
them at the rate of R2— 4-0 to 142—8—0 per lb. 
The ten pounds of bluegum oil manufactured by Mr. 
Wallace, and mentioned in tho la»t year's report as 
having been sent to the Imperial Institute, have jast 
bien reported upon by Sir Frederick Abel, whose 
letter upon tbe bubject is as follows: — I have tbe 
honour to inform you that tbe Enc il.i ptus oil (No. 
2924-93) prepared upon an expi rimental scale by 
the Government Botanist at Oocacimonl his been 
submitted to two well known Loudon firm? (Messrs. 
Allan and Hanbury of P.ough Oonrt, Lombard 
Street and Betbnal Green, and Messrs. Figgis 
'and Oo., of 44, Frenohureb Street, E C.) for exam- 
ination and report. The opinions of bi'th the ai/ove 
named firms are favorable to tbe quality of the oil, 
whioh is considered likely to compete success- 
fully with the many brands of oil from tbe Euca- 
lyptus gobulus, which are offered for pale in the 
London market. Messrs. Allan and Hanbury, however, 
notice the dark colour of tbe oil as being likely to 
effeot its sale unfavourably ; and I woul< 1 , therefore, 
suggest that the attention of the Government Bota- 
nist at Ootacamund should be drawn to the impor- 
tance of remedying that detect in fut ire consignments. 
The valae of the soil has boeu estimated by Messrs. 
Figgis and Oo. at Is 3d. to Is. 6d. per lb., or per- 
haps even a little more. 
Gaultheria FrAgranti«sima. — Io July list the pro- 
prietors of a distillery at South Arcot asked if they could 
be supplied from these hills with the flowers of th's 
p'ant, as they wished to distil the oil from them in 
order to mix it with their methylated spirit instead 
of oil distilled from rubber. The oil is not dist lied 
from the flowers but from the leave', of which an 
unlimited supply could be oollected on the Nilgiris ; 
hut the oil extracted from them would not take tbe 
place of that distilled from rubber, as instead of 
making the spirit nauseous, it would give it, if anything 
a pleasant flavour. 
Gum tragacanth and Gtjm ammoniacum.— A gen- 
tleman residing near Nedivatt im asked the Board 
of Rsveaue to procure him the ee:d of the plants 
whioh produoe the gum tragacanth and gum ammonia- 
cum from the Consuls, or other English officials iu 
Persis. The question as to whe'.her they would be 
likely to grow in th's region satisfactorily wai re- 
ferred by the Board to this depirtment. The gum 
ammoniacum is the product of two epeoies of Dorema 
and the gum tragacanth is collected from several 
species or astragali, all are lovers of hi^h elevations, 
where the olimate is hot and dry in summer and 
oold in winter! Nous of tbem would be lik-!y to 
prove profitable on the western fide of the Nilgiri 
plateaux, though they might possibly do better on the 
northern and eastern slopes. 
Ipecacuanha. — In last year's report, page 5, para- 
graph 11, it was stated that a packet of seel was 
sjnt by Mr, Malcolm of the Vellera Mullays, who 
had oollected it from the planti which had been sent 
jo him in 1888. Toe seed was sown in one of the 
n ot-house3 iu the Government Cirdeus, Ojt»o*mun d 
its germination was very slow, several months elapsing 
before ihe first see.iliug sbo«e' ii«rlf a' ov^ the soil. 
There are iu stock now 430 healthy joiLg plants, 
which are growing vigorously; tbe major i y w.li he' 
s. nt to Mr. Malcolm, who inteu a licrekeing Lit 
plan tat on. The reports sent iu by tbo>* to »hom 
p'»' t« bave teen sent are, as u-ual, very va.-)in^. 
Mr. Hs.firld, District Fore«t-om. or. NiUuimr, writes: 
"I hate the honour vo report that the Ipecacu • nba 
lant« are not doing well ilown he/e. The) fr. quently 
i>- do-»n and spring up again. There i.s ton ebi''g 
radically wrong with tfa-ui. There are only 186 that 
look fairly healthy, 20 are aickly a d 41 have died 
down, but may sprout up eg-in. ' "Mr. M-lcolm of 
the V alien MulJays writes that bis 'Ipecacuanha ' 
pi nts seem to Lave come to a etan still during the 
pist year, so perhaps it is time to take them up and 
see what ihe resn'ts will be." Mr. F. Mackenzie of 
Atgram Sjlhet write* that the Ipecacuanhas, which 
he had in January 1893 htve ooiue ..n so well, that 
he would ba greatly < bliged if 100 more could be sent 
to him. From Mr. Hadfield's report of 1892-93 it n il 
be >-eea that the IpecacuaiJia put out iu 1884 are frotl 
two to lime feet iu h«-iglt and are very thriving, from 
which it would appear that when grown io suita'jl .• 
places and under proper co ditioos, the cultivation of 
this plant may yet be expected ti prove successful. 
Ebvthroxylon Coca.— I i accordance with the orders 
coutaiued in G.O., No. 1,232, of 2lal Mareh 1894, 
Revenue, a id G.O., No. 1,73 i, dated tbe 2nd May 
1894, Revenue, fifty plants will be pot out during tbe 
forthcoming reason in the experimental gar > en at 
Gudalur ; about two thojta'id cult nga are now beit.g 
raised in the hot bouses io the Gov^rnmeut o -i >*. s 
at Oo'acamund, half of which may be exp oted to 
grow i t j plants fit for pla .ting out in July 1895. 
Tbe coca troit freely and can be grown readily trom 
cuttings, so tbat in a very i w years a la'ge ana 
en be pNced under cultivaliou. A present, it is 
not known to be atttrke 1 by any disease. Mr. BLooper 
sunn years ago made a small qu-ntity of tbe b>- 
drochloratc of oooaine, and reported that it c jnld ba 
easily manufactured in tbe Medic 1 Stores Depart- 
ment, Msdras; a sample of tbe chlorate, whiob be 
niadf, was 6ent to Dr. Dr ike-Brockn-ian, formerly 
Sup riutendeut of the Ophthal uio Hodpi'al, Madras, 
who reported up in it favorably. There cau be 
no doubt bat that tbe En/throxylon coca can be grown 
in abundance on tbe Nilgiris; but it is not likely 
tbat it would prove remunerative to phv.tera (i) 
because so liitle of the drug Cocaine is used, and (2) 
beoause suob an enormous number of tbe leaves (which 
have to be very carefully prepared) are required for 
the extraction of one pound (thrae to four hundred 
pounds of dried leaf being needed to produce oise 
pound of Cocaine. 
Jalap Ipomoea purya.— In May last two thousand 
pounds of dried jalap tuber were supplied to the 
Madras Medical Stores Department for Kl,510, or at 
the rate of twelve annas per pound, the London 
market rate, at tbe period, being one shilling und 
six pence, or ut the then rate of exchange one 
rupee three annas and four pies. The ground 
under cultivation was too rnnall to yield so heavy a 
crop, and the result is tbat this year only fire 
bundle 1 pounds of tbe dry tuber have been lifted. 
No ring disease, such as that mentionel by Mr. W. 
Gollan, Superintendent, Botanical Gardens, Sahran- 
pjre in his report for the year 1892-93 has as yet 
been observed in any of the tubers, a. 'hough it i* 
too freqneutly met with in potatoes grown on Und 
on all ti Jes. Tbe chief 6nemy to jalap, ao far, has 
be^n the common earth-rat. 
Radix Taraxaci. — 195 lb. of D/indeLon root was 
supplied to the Bombay Medical Stores Department 
for B84-7 0 or at tbe rate of six annas a pound. 
The Bomb >y Medical Department asked for 224 lb. 
but the extra 29 could not be p^ooured. The roots 
were collected fro-n wiid plants, this year half an 
acre or thereibouts on the land adjoiniug ths Orewe 
Hall estate has b^an broken up and will be planted 
daring the present seaso a with s'e liings, whioh have 
been raised in the Government Gardens. 
