Oct.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
249 
the  Lantana  camars,  L.,  or  Vieilles-filles  of  Mauritius 
and  the  Corbeilles-d’or,  of  Reunion  ; this  plant,  intro- 
duced but  lately,  has  spread  with  an  extraordinary 
rapidity.  The  Blicres  are  shaded  by  the  same  tree, 
Oasuarina  f quisetifolia,  Forst.,  or  Filoa  , and  where 
the  ooast-liue  is  sandy,  there  grows  the  Ipomcei  pes- 
caprre,  Roth.  (Batatrant,  or  Batate  a Durand,  of 
the  Creoles),  which  covers  the  sand  with  its  creeping 
stalks,  with  leaves  of  a bright  green,  mingled  with 
blossoms  of  a violet-rose  tint. 
“ In  short,  we  know  that  agriculture  utilises  the 
same  plmta  in  the  two  islands,  and  if  Reunion  occu- 
pies heree’f  more  especially  with  some  products  which 
Mauritius  does  not  manufacture,  it  is  solely  because 
certain  lauds  in  the  French  colony  do  not  off-r  the 
same  facilities  for  cane  culture  by  reason  of  tha  diffi- 
culty of  communication  along  the  coast,  the  conse- 
quence of  the  orography. 
11  All  that  remains  of  the  primitive  forest,  nearly 
destroyed,  now  especially  in  Mauritius,  has  the  same 
character;  mossy  trunks  covered  with  Orchids,  nu- 
merous Ferns,  climbing  plants  running  from  tree  to 
tree,  the  Rnbiscere,  Mjrtactse,  Sapiudacece  several, 
Terebinthacete  Palms,  Pandani,  &c.,  form  the  princi- 
pal characteristic  forest  habitants. 
“Reverting  now  to  the  flora  of  Mr.  Baker,  this 
au  hor  describes  1,058  plants,  indigenous  to  Mauritius, 
Rodriguez  and  the  Seychelles,  of  which  860  are  spon- 
taneous at  Mauritius.  A little  more  than  a third, 
about  267  Fpec  es,  are  quoted  by  him  as  likewise 
existing  at  Reunion.  [With  regard  t>  these  numbers 
of  Bpeoies  common  to  the  two  islands,  Mr.  J.  G. 
Biker  writes ‘ This  figure  of  287  is  quite  delusive. 
It  does  not  include  the  cosmopolitan  weeds,  most  of 
which  grow  in  Mauritius,  and  occur  al.-o  in  BourboD.’ 
And  again  he  explains  that  the  above  figure  conveys 
an  utterly  . wrong  idea: — ‘In  the  Flora  of  Mauritius, 
the  extra-Mauritian  distribution  of  every  species  not 
endemic  is  given.  He  [Jariiu]  has  counted  only  the 
species  where  Bourbon  is  expressly  mentioned  not  the 
plants  of  wide  distribution,  such  as  the  cosmopo  itan 
weeds,  like  Solauum  nigrum  and  Bidens  pilosa.  Of 
course  the  widely-spread  weeds  that  are  found  in 
Mauritius  are  nearly  all  found  also  in  BourboD.  The 
species  common  to  the  two  islands^  must  be  nearer 
600  than  287.’] 
“Nevertheless,  Mr.  Baker  has  not  attempted  to 
search  all  the  available  documents  oa  the  flora  ot 
Rdunion — this  was  not  within  the  scope  of  his  work 
— we  notice,  for  instance,  quoting  at  hazard  from 
recollection,  several  Solanum  (S.  nigrum,  L , S.  auri- 
culatum,  Ait.),  the  Ipomcea  pes-capr;e,  Roth.,  the 
Siegesbeckia  orientalis,  L.,  and  the  Bidens  pilo-a,  L , &c., 
which  he  dees  pot  indicate  as  existing  at  Reunion, 
and  which  are  nevertheless  very  common  in  this 
island. 
“The  families,  best  studied  in  the  two  islands,  as 
the  Orchids  and  the  Ferns,  are  those  which  present 
the  largest  number  of  types  common  to  botli  islands, 
according  to  Baker’s  Flora  of  Mauritius  ; thua,  out  of 
seventy -four  species  of  Orchidacere,  considered  as  spon- 
taneous at  Mauritius,  forty-three  are  quoted  by  the 
author  as  existing  also  at  Reunion  ; among  144  species 
of  Ferns  indigenous  to  Mauritius,  sixty  are  also  fouud 
in  Reunion. 
“ We  fancy  that  a flora  of  the  island  of  Reunion 
would  augment  in  notable  proportions  the  number  of 
species  common  to  tha  two  islands,  without  altrge'her 
showing  a perfect  similitude  in  the  vegetation  of  the 
Ma-carems.  Besides  this,  at  Mauritius  itself,  it  can 
be  pointed  out  that  certain  species  are  confined  to 
the  small  islets  situated  to  the  north  of  the  island 
without  havir  g representatives  in  Mauritius ; such  are 
the  Latania  Loddigesii,  Mart.,  or  Latania  of  Round 
Island  ; the  Hvophorbe  amaricaulis,  Mart.,  or  Paimiste 
gargoulette  (Water-bottle  Pa'miste,  from  its  bulbous 
trunk),  the  PaiuUuus  Vand< rmeerchii,  Balfour  fil.,  or 
Sea  Vacua— Vacoa  de  mer,  which  are  confiued  to  the 
so-called  Gunner’s  Cuin  Island,  and  to  Round  and  flat 
Islands  three  small  rocky  islets  seperated  from  Mau- 
ritius bv  insignificant  arms  of  the  sea. 
“Another  reason  seems  to  confirm  this  idea,  and 
that  is  the  similarity  of  the  fauna  of  the  two  islands: 
no  large  carnivore,  no  venomous  reptile  [ou  Serpent 
32 
eland  there  are  poisonous  snakes];  on  the  contrary, 
large  birds  of  different  varieties  which  have  now  dis- 
appeared, as  the  dodo  (Dolus  ineptus),  the  Aphanap- 
teryx  (A.  Broecki),  the  Mauritius  parrot  (Poittacus 
mauritiaim- ),  &e.  . . , All  this  seems  to  give  us 
reason  to  believe  that  Mauritius  and  Reunion  formed 
one  whole  country,  divided  by  some  ancient  disloci- 
tioD,  causing  minor  variations  in  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  the  two  islands,  which  preserve,  however,  in  their 
broad  lines,  the  tame  essential  character. 
“ It  soems  to  us,  thon,  that  if  Mauritius  and  Reunion 
have  nearly  the  same  fieri;  the  bot-ny  of  these  two 
islands  differs  c n-dderably  more  from  that  cf  Mada- 
gascar than  that  of  Mauritius  differs  from  that  of 
Reunion. 
“These  reserves  being  ma  m,  it  retrains  to  us  to 
note,  after  the  important  work  of  Mr.  Baker,  that, 
out  of  869  species  spontaneous  to  the  isiai  d of  Mau- 
ritius, the  dicotyledons  ii  elude  460  epeedes,  ihe  mono- 
cotyledons 245,  and  the  va  cular  cryptogams  164 
species. 
“The  families  represented  by  the  largest  number  of 
species  are  in  decreasing  order,  the  Ferns,  the  Orchids, 
the  Gras  es,  the  Oypcraceie,  the  Euphorbias,  the 
Composites,  the  Rubiac  ce,  the  Leguminosce,  the  Myr- 
ticere,  and  the  PandaDi;  this  is  very  nearly  the  domi- 
nant order  usual  throughout  all  tropical  countries. 
If  instead  of  enumerating  the  number  of  species,  we 
consider  those  species  most  common,  and  c’assify  them 
in  order  of  thtir  frequency,  it  would  give  a far  better 
idea  of  the  physiognomy  of  the  country,  and  then 
we  should  be  far  more  struck  with  the  resemblam-i  s 
than  by  the  differences  between  the  two  islands,  wbiiii 
iu  spite  of  human  treaties  made  on  paper,  will 
ever  remain  the  sister  islands.”  S.  PasjieUl  Oliver, 
Moray  House , Ant/lese u Gosport.— Gardeners’  Chronicle , 
June  4th  and  July  16th. 
NOTES  FROM  OUR  LONDON  LETTER." 
London,  Aug.  12. 
THE  CHINESE  METHOD  OE  PREPARING  TEA  LEAD. 
The  American  Manufacturer  gives  us  gome  curious 
particulars  as  to  the  method  by  which  the  Chinese 
prepare  the  lead  with  which  iheir  tea  chests  are 
lined.  It  is  well-known  that  this  lead  i3  con- 
sider! to  be  the  purest  that  can  be  obtained, 
and  it  is  eagerly  bought  up  here  from  the  grocers 
lor  several  purposes.  It  makes  the  very 
best  kind  of  solder,  and  is  also  valued  for  several 
other  purposes.  Now  it  occurs  to  me  whether,  after 
all,  it  may  not  be  better  worth  the  while  of  your 
planters  to  use  lead,  always  provided  that  some 
extra  prices  can  be  obtained  to  compensate  for 
the  cost  of  it.  For  when  all  is  sud  and  done  it 
is  doubtful  whether  any  of  the  modern  substitutes 
used  instead  of  tea-lead — and  numerous  such  sub- 
titutes  have  been  discussed  in  your  oolumns— equal 
in  efficiency  this  time-honored  method  of  packing 
tea.  This  is  a point,  however,  on  which  there 
is  oertain  to  bo  great  diversity  of  opinion  ; and  it 
is  more  than  doubtful,  of  course,  if  the  planter 
could  by  any  means  recoup  for  himself  the  extra 
cost  of  employing  lead.  The  means  by  which 
this  is  prepared  in  China  seems  to  be  of  the 
crudest  and  most  simple  desoription,  but  it  is 
probable  that  more  scientific  methods  would  not 
be  more  efficient  and  in  a country  where  labour  is 
so  cheap  as  it  is  in  China  it  is  scarcely  likely 
that  more  scientific  methods  of  preparation  would 
effect  any  sensible  economy.  According  to  the 
American  Manufacturer,  the  oourse  of  procedure  is 
to  provide  a large  brick  the  size  of  the  sheets 
to  be  prepared,  this  being  covered  with  two  or 
three  sheets  of  paper.  On  these  the  molten  lead 
is  poured,  and  another  brick  is  placed  on  the 
top,  which  flattens  the  lead  out  to  the  required 
size  and  thickness.  The  sheets  are  then  soldered 
