666 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1895. 
THE KOYAL BOTANIC GARDENS , 
ADMINISTRATION REPORl ; 
TEA— COFFEE— CACAO— RUBBER— PALM V HAS, &C. 
Dr. Tkimen is always first with liis annual 
Administration Report and as it is one of the 
most generally interesting that conies to us from 
the Secretariat, we always endeavour — as on 
the present occasion — to give, through the 
courtesy of the Government Printer, the 
salient portions as a Supplement with the 
Tropical Agriculturist. The Director begins his 
story this time with a melancholy record. He 
has lost two old, faithful and capable public 
servants in Messrs. J. A. Ferdinandus and Amaru 
de Zoyza. The latter had identified himself with 
the Henaratgoda Gardens ; while to many old 
residents, Peradeniya Gardens will not seem the 
same place without big, worthy anil intelligent 
Mr. Ferdinandus who, however, was absent 
through illness for .1 long period before his 
death. Last year was everywhere in the island 
an unusually dry one ami one consequence at 
Peradeniya was that very nearly 40 plants 
flowered there for the first time! Dr. Trimen 
gives the list. As regards the rainfall) here are 
the returns summarized as far as the present 
information goes : — 
Bain/all lH'Ji. Average 10 yri, 
inches davs. inches days. 
Peradeniva .. t>7'26 168 .. 84-49 IH) 
Hakgalla' .. 74'34 1!U> .. 89 
Heneratgoda . . 72-;i."> 125 
Anuradhapma . . 45*56 
Badulla .. 52-28 120 
The Hakgalla Gardens continue to maintain 
their reputation and are visited by an increasing 
number every year ; the Henaratgoda Gardens 
are not so weibknown, but are useful and in 
good order ; the Anuradhapura Garden is in 
danger of being starved ; while the Badulla 
Gardens would also be the better of a little 
more money, although we hear they have become 
a great ornament to the town and are very attrac- 
tive in their outlook 
We now come to Dr. Trimen's "Notes on 
Economic Plants " always scanned with special 
interest by our planting and mercantile read- 
ers ; and in connection therewith would direct 
attention to what he says in the opening part 
of his general Report as to the new kind of 
"Scale-bug" dealt with by Mr. E. E. Green in 
the January number of the Tropical Agricul- 
turist. The experiment with "lady-birds" is 
recommended as well worth a trial, and in regard 
to insect enemies generally, Dr. Trimen hopes 
that the selection of Mr. E. E. Green as Ento- 
mologist "may yet meet with the approval of 
Government." In noticing our exports of tea, 
Dr. Trimen wonders at over loo,000 lb. going 
last year to "China." It should be known that 
although so entered, the tea is really meant for 
transhipment at Hongkong, to Vancouver or 
San Francisco — so that its true destination is 
"America." We do not see why it should 
not so be entered by our Chamber of 
Commerce, in place of "China"— or at any- 
rate let "Hongkong" be put down to make 
transhipment clear. In respect of "Coffee" the 
worthy Director does not see why a distinction 
should not be made between "Arabian" and 
"Liberian" coffee shipments, just as there is 
between " plantation" and " native" coffee. He is 
pisheartened by the apathy of the Sinhalese in res- 
dect of planting Liberian coffee ; but he will be glad 
to hear of a good deal of PSuropean attention this 
year to our old product, ancl grown with and 
under shade, as in Mysore, there is good reason 
to expect satisfactory returns. A new descrip- 
tion — Sierra Leone upland coffee— is lteing tried 
at Peradeniya. As regards Cacao, Dr. Trimen 
has to speak of enemies — tins time irrubs, which 
have been giving trouble — and the l>eetle-« of which 
must be caught and destroyed. Next we come 
to India-rubl-er — of which Dr. Trimen ha* so 
good a report to offer that we think there ought 
to be a considerable revival of interest in the 
cultivation, that is of the "Para" variety. 
That a (good deal is being done in a quiet 
way is evident from the fact that no less than 
86,'XM) seeds were distributed to planters in the 
lowcountry last year from Peradeniya. Then as 
regards results, Dr. Trimen shows that his tap- 
ping experiments on a selected tree have given 
in seven years (from I2tb to 19th year) as much 
as 10. J lb. of clean, lirst-class rubber without 
the tree suffering in any way. His bleeding has 
been once in two years, but lie believes the 
Para trees will bear to !>e tapped auniially, if a 
commencement is not made until they are at 
least ten years old. Therein lies the difficulty 
withEuropean planters in a haste for returns— 
"who is going to wait ten years r"— and yet 
it has to be done for coconuts and the Para 
rubber gives less trouble in its planting and cul- 
tivation. Our judgment is, therefore, that every 
lowcountry tea plantation ought to have a cer- 
tain number, or reserve, of Para rubber trees. 
As regards other minor products, not much is 
to be said just now : we must await for later 
reports of Guttapercha, Gam bier, Camphor, &c. : at 
the same time We rejoice in the success of Mr. 
Nock's experiments with English fruit trees and 
fruits at Hakgala and in that of Lucerne fodder 
introduced by Mr. Clark from Peru and of which 
Mr. A. Sinclair speaks in the highest way in 
his new Jjook. 
In conclusion we must back up the Director 
in the strongest way in his denunciation of the 
wanton destruction of young Palmyrah palms in 
order to obtain the bristle libre now so much 
in demand. We are surprised that the Govern- 
ment has not actively interfered long ago. The 
people concerned ought to be treated as thought- 
less children by a paternal Government and 
forbidden (by a special law if necessary) 
to destroy what Dr. Trimen describes as "the 
most valuable tree of our northern country " — 
a tree which is more to the Tamils than the 
coconut palm is to the Sinhalese — and the 
planting of which all through the Northern 
Province ought to be encouraged officially in 
every possible way. Let us quote the motto 
which will be found on the title-page of the 
late Wm. Ferguson's monograph of the "Pal- 
myra" : — 
(From Piobeits's Oriental Dlustrations of the 
Scriptures.) 
Deut. XX. 19. " Thou shaft not dcitro// the trees 
thereof hij forcing an a.re aaainst them : for thou moyent 
eat of them, and thou shah not cut them domi (for 
the tree of the feld is mans life,) " <tV. 
Can it be a matter of surprise that the Orientals 
have a great aversion to cut down any tree which 
bears fruit when it is known that they principally 
live upon vegetable productions ? Ask a man to cut 
down a Coconut or a Palmyrah Tree, and he will 
say (except when in want or to oblige some great 
Eerson,) — "What! destroy that which gives me food ? 
rom which I have thatch for my house to defend 
me from the sun and the rain ? which gives me oil 
for my lamp, a ladle for my kitchen, and charcoal 
for my fire ? from which I have sugar for my board, 
I baskets for my fruits, a bucket for my well, a mat 
for my bed, a pouch for my betel-leaf, leaves for my 
I books, a fence for my yard and a broom for my 
