Oct.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
247 
same,  in  Reunion  especially,  we  have  seen  Vanilla 
plantations  of  great  importance,  having  the  Orchid 
supported  on  one  of  the  trees  common  to  the  country, 
the  Casuarina  equisetifolia,  Forst.,  called  Filao.  [The 
translator  remembers  seeing  Vanilla  grown  on  the 
stems  of  Palmistes,  in  Mauritius.!  This  climber  also 
succeeds  on  the  Pandanus  utilis,  Bory.,  or  Vacoa,  a 
most  useful  tree  in  sugar-producing  colonies,  for  its 
leaves  are  largely  required  to  make  sacks  for  the  outer 
covering  of  the  sugar-bags.  Besides  the  particular 
care  which  the  plantations  of  Vanilla  require,  we  must 
not  omit  to  mention  the  operation  of  fertilisation. 
As  usual  in  all  the  Orchideas,  the  fertilisation  of  the 
seed  rarely  take  place  without  external  intervention  ; 
in  order  to  insure  a good  crop,  the  cultivator  must 
impregnate  each  blossom  which  he  wishes  to  produce 
a pod.  It  is  an  easy  operation,  however,  consisting 
merely  of  pressing  the  pollen  on  the  stigma. 
“ Vanilla,  Aloes  fibre,  sugar,  are  the  industries 
common  to  the  Mascarene  Islands  ; all  the  rest  of 
which  we  now  proceed  to  speak  are  limited  almost 
exclusively  to  Reunion. 
“Coffee  has  been  fora  longtime  a source  of  riches  in 
Reunion  ; unfortunately  a fungus  (Hemileia  vastatrix) 
allied  to  mildew,  has  within  the  last  few  years  attacked 
the  leaf  of  the  coffee  tree.  The  attack  of  this 
Earasite  first  shows  in  a minute  yellow  point,  enlarging 
y degrees  till  the  whole  leaf  is  yellow,  when  it 
tumbles  off  and  brings  about  the  destruction  of  the 
tree.  The  agriculturists  seem  little  disposed  to  meet 
this  pest  by  the  scientific  means  which  succeed  so  well 
against  mildew.  Imbued  by  preconceived  ideas,  they 
prefer  to  give  greater  vigour  to  the  plant  by  means  of 
liberal  supplies  of  manure,  and  they  allege  that  good 
results  are  obtained.  It  is  well-known  that  efforts  of 
the  same  kind  tried  in  France  to  resist  the  disease  on 
the  Vines  have  only  retarded  the  death  of  the  plant. 
The  Hemileia  is  a terrible  disease  ; at  Ceylon,  for 
instance,  where  it  is  called  the  ‘leaf-disease’  (maladie 
de  la  feuille),  all  the  coffee  plantations  have  been  de- 
vastated to  such  an  extent  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Ceylon  have  nearly  altogether  abandoned  the  cultiva- 
tion of  coffee  for  that  of  tea;  so  vast  a change  of  cul- 
tivation cannot  possibly  occur  without  suffering 
enormous  losses. 
“ The  Cassava  meal  or  starch  industry  ( Industrie 
feculiire) , also  gives  very  good  results  at  Reunion. 
‘ The  development  which  the  starch  industry  admits 
of  in  this  islands,  is  such  that  we  do  not  hesitate 
to  class  it  as  second  in  rank  in  the  order  of  im- 
portance,’ so  writes  M.  Ed.  du  Boussion  in  his  Agri- 
cultural Industry  of  Reunion.  Starch  and  tapioca 
are  extracted  from  the  Manioc,  manihot  utilissima, 
Pohl.  This  industry  already  employs  two  very  im- 
portant mills  in  Reunion.  They  extract  the  fecula 
from  the  root,  which  contains  about  20  per  cent 
of  its  weight  of  this  article  of  commerce.  Its 
cultivation  is  very  easy,  and  the  amount  of  the 
yield  is  calculated  at  42,100  kilogrammes  of  fecula 
per  hectare. 
“ The  Manihot  utilissima,  or  Manioc,  is  one  of  the 
Euphorbiaceae  which  seems  to  be  a native  of  oriental 
and  intertropical  Brazil.  M.  Alphonse  de  Candolle, 
to  whom  it  is  always  safe  to  refer,  for  the  origin 
of  cultivated  plants,  says:  — ‘If  we  were  unwilling 
to  accept  this  origin  in  oriental,  intertropical  Brazil, 
we  must  have  recourse  to  two  hypotheses  : either 
the  cultivated  Maniocs  proceed  from  one  of  the 
wild  species  modified  by  cultivation,  or  they  are 
forms  which  exist  solely  by  the  action  of  man,  after 
the  disappearance  of  their  kindred  forms  of  spon- 
taneous vegetation.’”  (Alph.  de  Candolle,  L’origine 
des  Plantes  Cultivees,  p.  50.) 
“ However  this  may  be,  it  was  on  August  14,  1741, 
that  Mahd  de  Labourdonnais,  the  great  benefactor 
of  the  Mascarene  Islands,  then  Governor  of  the  Isle 
of  France,  introduced  the  Manioc  into  that  French 
colony.  This  plant  met  with  a very  bad  reception. 
He  (Mah6  de  Labourdonnais)  brought  from  Brazil 
the  plants  of  Manioc,  which  he  distributed  to  the 
inhabitants  and  it  succeeded  wonderfully.  But  some 
black  people  who  had  stolen  the  roots  of  this  plant, 
having  eaten  them  without  duly  cooking  them  under 
the  ashes,  died  from  their  poisonous  effect.  Labour- 
donnais, naturally  much  alarmed,  selected  M.  de 
Reine  to  manufacture  some  flour  from  the  Manioc 
and  Cassava.  He  sent  to  him,  together  with  the 
memoirs  of  Pere  Labat,  a root  of  Manioc,  a basin,  and 
a plate,  and  ordered  him  to  make  some  cakes  of 
Manioc  flour.  M.  de  Reine  succeeded  completely. 
Labourdonnais  then  invited  to  Mon-Plaisir  (his  resi- 
dence) a large  number  of  colonists,  ate  the  Manioc 
cakes  in  their  presence,  and  made  them  eat  some 
too.  This  celebrated  repast  took  place  on  the  day 
following  the  Christmas  Day,  1741.  Labourdonais, 
as  well  as  Messieurs  Bouloc,  Hache,  Bernage,  De 
Ponsy,  and  others,  embraced  M.  de  Reine  in  their 
transports  of  delight.  Labourdonnais  gave  orders  to 
have  these  Cassava  cakes  distributed  gratis  every 
morning  at  the  bazaar,  or  market,  and,  by  degrees, 
after  a little  time  the  colonists  and  blacks  became 
accustomed  to  use  them. 
“ At  the  present  day  the  Manioc  is  completely 
naturalised  ; its  roots  serve  for  nourishment  to  man 
and  beast,  and  the  fe'culeri  (starch)  industry  at 
Reunion  is  on  the  way  to  complete  prosperity. 
“ The  manufacture  of  perfumes,  although  only 
started  for  a short  time,  is  already  considerable.  Prin- 
cipally, it  is  confined  to  the  essences  of  Geranium, 
Patchouly,  and  V^tiver. 
f‘  The  essential  oil  of  Geranium  is  incontestably  that 
of  which  most  is  manufactured.  It  is  extracted  from 
the  leaves  of  Pelargonium  odoratisaimum,  a plant  which 
grows  and  thrives  very  well  at  all  altitudes  in  this 
climate.  [It  is  doubtful  whether  M.  Jadin  forgets 
that  the  Piton  des  Nciges  in  Reunion  exoeeds  10,000 
feet  altitude,  wht  re  only  alpine  plants  are  to  be  found?] 
The  altitudes  comprised  between  400  and  600  metres, 
i.e.,  between  1,400  and  2,000  feet  are  most  favourable 
for  its  production  ; and  here  three  crops  are  gathered 
within  tourteen  months.  The  yield  from  March  to 
October  exclusively  is  the  most  abundant,  a period  of 
lesser  growth  is  that  from  October  15th  to  January  15  h. 
“ Calculating  at  40,000  feet  to  the  hectare,  each  cut- 
ting gives  about  14,700  kilogrammes  for  each  crop. 
This  weight  of  the  yield  (with  the  leaf  a oertain  quan- 
tity of  woody  stalk  is  gathered  whiob,  while  augment- 
ing the  weight,  diminishes  the  yield),  gives  from  10  to 
12  li:res  of  essence.  A kilogramme  of  essence  is 
worth,  generally,  about  60  francs,  whioh  gives  an  annual 
return  of  1,750  francs  (£70)  per  hectare. 
“ The  essence  of  Patchouly,  which  is  extracted  from 
the  leaves  of  one  of  the  Labiatse,  Pogostemon  Patch- 
ouly, gives  a still  better  yield  with  more  advantageous 
results  ; 50  kilogrammes  of  its  leaves  give  875  gram- 
mes of  essence,  or  thereab  uts.  This  plant  also  thrives 
very  well  in  these  climates. 
“ Lastly,  the  essence  of  Vetiver  is  extracted  from  the 
roots  of  a grass — Andropogou  muricatus.  The  plant 
is  very  common  in  the  Mascarenes  ; it  often  borders 
the  fields  of  sugar-cane,  and  does  not  require  the  least 
care  for  its  cultivation.  Of  this  essence  400  or  500 
grammes  are  furnished  by  50  kilogrammes  of  roots  ; 
but  the  difficulty  of  extraction  has  not  hitherto  en- 
abled the  planters  of  Reunion  to  export  this  production 
with  the  requisite  purity  for  the  market. 
“ Of  these  three  essences,  that  of  the  Geranium  is 
most  in  favour  in  our  colony.  [It  is  needless  to  remark 
that  black  people  are  extravagantly  fond  of  using  strong 
perfumes,  for  very  obvious  reasons.] 
“ During  the  last  few  years,  several  large  plantations 
of  quinine  have  been  formed  at  Reunion,  Dr.  Auguste 
Vinson,*  the  authoi  of  a valuable  work  on  the  spiders, 
Arachnids;,  of  Reunion),  succeeded  in  obtaining  some 
Cinchona  plants  from  seed  received  from  Monsieur 
Decaisne,  through  the  kind  services  of  General  Morin. 
In  1888,  s me  31.700  seeds  planted  by  the  Colonial 
Forests’ Department  had  proved  successful,  and  from 
this  source  the  Department  has  distribute.!  to  a cum- 
ber of  proprieiors  4,150  plants.  The  nurseries  of  the 
Government  ( service  dominal)  contain  some  16,500 
plants  of  Cinobona.  These  plantations  sncc-’ed  well 
between  500  and  1,000  rue’res  (1,700  and  3,500  feet) 
altitude.  ‘ The  sloping  sides  of  small  ravines  or  de- 
press ons  facing  the  leeward  si  le  of  the  mountains  are 
* Dr.  Auguste  Vinson  was  in  the  Mission  to  Radama 
II.,  Imerina,  in  1862,  where  the  translator  had  the  plea-* 
gate  of  making  his  acquaintance.  S,  P.  O. 
