466 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. r, 1895. 
used. By a special process of his own he retained 
the tea and crushes it into a minute powder. It is 
worked up into small tabloids, and he is able, by 
means of these tabloids, to give the consumer eight 
good cups of tea for the popular price of one penny. 
By experiments conducted in the presence of our re- 
presentative it was found that tea which weighed the 
same as four of his tabloids did not produce so good 
a cup of tea after infusion as was the case when 
only two tabloids were used — in other words, the 
two tabloids weighed only half the weight of the tea 
as originally used. The tabloids are packed up 
in tastefully decorated boxes, one size containing 
100 tabloids and sold at 6d, another containing 200 
tabloids and double the price. The 6d boxes will 
make 50 cups of tea, which should be contrasted with 
one pound of ordinary tea, which will cost on the 
average 2s, and which will only make 80 cups. Owing 
to the very small surface that is exposed to the air 
the keeping properties of tbese tabloids are very 
superior to that of the ordinary tea, and even when 
packed in paper they have been known to lose very 
little natural aroma even for two or three years. As 
a matter of convenience the advantage is obvious. 
Travellers on the Continent can take with them in 
a space no greater than that usually occupied by the 
indispensable soap-box enough tabloids to give them 
100 cups of tea. For hospital use they should also 
be generally adopted, and we can strongly recom- 
mend them to the attention of the salvation army or 
other philanthropic bodies who attempt to provide for 
the needs of the destitute by the erection of shelters, 
or what are more popularly known as doss-houses. 
In this latter purpose the penny packet of 10 tabloids 
will probably be found most popular. — London, Nov. 
22nd. 
STRANGE TROPICAL PLANTS. 
DR. MORRIS LECTURE AT THE LONDON INSTITUTION. 
Up till quite recently travellers' tales as to the 
curiosities of tropical vegetation have been taken very 
guardedly. It would appear, however, that the later 
investigations of science by no means give support to 
the cheap scepticism with which hitherto some of 
these tales of wonder have been received. Mr. Morris, 
the assistant-director at Kew Gardens, who has spent 
many years in the tropics, lectured at the London 
Institution last night on some vegetable curiosities 
that he or other botanists have tested and found to 
be genuine. There is, for instance, the coconut pearl. 
More than a century ago an old Dutch botanist de- 
scribed large pearls which he asserted were found in 
the milk of the coco-nut. But the statement was de- 
rided at the time and ultimately forgotten. The pearls, 
however, are what our American cousins would call 
a solid fact. The coco palm has a fondness for 
taking up lime salts in its sap, and occasionally 
seizes, the opportunity to deposit some of the min- 
eral in the milk cavity of the fruit precisely as 
does the oyster within his muscular coat. The 
coconut pearls are a little duller than the mussel 
pearls, but otherwise their composition is identical. 
Pearls are reputed by ancient writers out of the 
buds of the jasmin and magnolia, but there is no 
confirmation of !bis yet. Concerning that indus- 
trious reed, the bamboo, Mr. Morris had a good 
deal to say. One of its eccentricities is that it de- 
posits true opals in its joints. These vegetable opals 
are much prized by the natives of the Celebes for 
charms against disease. Other trees deposit their 
mineral matter in rougher and less elegant fashion. 
Sir P. Abel found a tree in India with a slab of 
naturally deposited limestone in its trunk 8ft. in 
length. A good deal of the Indian teak which comes 
to this country has to be rejected on account of the 
stony matter it contains, which plays sad havoc with 
saw blades and edge tools. There are many tropical 
shrubs and herbaceous plants which possess medi- 
cinal and chemical properties that are still 
a puzzle to science. "What, for instance, can 
be made of the Gymonemia or li taste spoil- 
ing" plant of Southern India ? If you chew the 
leaves there is a slightly sweet taste in the mouth. 
But the next moment you find that the palate has 
become absolutely dead to the taste of sugar or other 
sweet substances, while quinine tastes like chalk. 
Then there is what we may call a" taste improver" in 
West Africa (Sideronglia). a second cousin to the 
gutta percha family, which heightens the sensitive- 
ness of the palate, especially to acid fruits, for 
several hours. In tropical America, at a certain 
season of the year, the natives turn a bright yellow 
all over. This means that they have been drinking 
of the vintage of the Moritia palm, which ia 
obtained from the pulpy fruit, and constitutes the 
principal native drink for the whole of the fruiting 
season. The wild tamarind of Jamaica, which is largely 
browsed by horses, has the startling effect of causing 
their manes to drop off and their tails to become 
barren of hair. But the natives take no notice of 
the scarecrow appearance of the horses, to whom this 
novel feed is otherwise quite nutritious. Jelly making 
plants are common in the tropics. The leaves of 
cycloa if placed in water speedily convert the fluid 
into a solid jelly. They abound in " pectose " — a 
sort of mucilage. But one of the most serious characters 
is the Pisonia of New Zealand, which is shockingly 
carnivorous. It hangs out seed pods covered with 
a sort of bird lime, which first attracts flies to their 
doom, and then fixes the birds which come after the 
flies. It may be remarked that cats are fond of 
studying the phenomena here presented. These are 
only a few other curious facts Mr. Morris vouched 
for in his lecture last night. — l)aily Chronicle, Nov. 16. 
THE AMSTERDAM COFFEE PLANTING 
COMPANY. 
The report of the Amsterdam Coffee Planting 
Company, presented at the meeting of the share- 
holders in Amsterdam the other day, stated that 
the company's coffee crop (in Netherlands India) 
for 1893 proved very unfavourable. The total 
loss was 34,902 florins, and deducting the re- 
serve profits from the previous year, a deficit of 
8,700 norins appears. The prospects for the 1894 
crop are also said to be unfavourable, the blos- 
som having been damaged by rain. — H. <k C Mail. 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA MARKET. 
London, December 6th 
Our correspondent writes from Amsterdam, on Decem- 
ber 5th :— All the analyses for our cinchona-bark sales 
on December 13th have been published. The manufactur- 
ing bark contains about 32J tons sulphate of quinine, or 
5 DC per cent on the average :— About 4} tons contain 1 
to 2 per cent sulphate of quinine ; 37} tons, 2 to 3 per 
cent ; 104 tons, 3 to 4 per cent ; 215 tons, 4 to 5 per cent ; 
134 tons, 5 to 6 per cent; 68J tons, 6 to 7 per cent; 54 » 
tons, 7 to 8 per cent ; 14 tons, 8 to 9 per cent ; 8} tons, 9 
to 10 per cent ; 2 tons, 11 to 12 per cent.— Chemitt and 
Druggist. 
TEA TABLOIDS. 
We are indebted to the Colombo Apothecaries' 
Company for a sample box of the "Pure Tea 
Tabloids prepared by Messrs. Burroughs Wellcome 
& Co." with all the neatness and finish for which 
that firm of world-wide-fame is distinguished. 
The tiny brass case contains some 10 tabloids ; 
it is faced with glass underneath which are full 
instructions for use clearly printed and yet the 
whole is only the size of a tiny Geneva geld watch. 
Mr. John Rogers formerly of Ambagamuwa and 
the Kelani Valley, seems to be regularly en- 
gaged in the preparation of the tabloids for the 
big London Firm. 
Planting Pioneers. — In commencing this 
series, we made it a rule to include no living 
colonist, and our only exception was to be Mr. 
George Wall, in view of what we regarded as 
his final farewell to Ceylon. But our rule was 
not to be broken ; for, sad to say, death claimed 
Mr. Wall just as our biography left the press ! 
