Oct.  x,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
2 75 
—and  in  this  instance  the  kinship  displays 
itself.  It  is  enough,  we  read,  “ to  touch  the  flesh 
leaves  for  the  fingers  to  remain  impregnated  with 
the  aroma,”  which  remains  when  the  leaves  are  dried. 
This  process  is  as  simple  as  could  be,  apparently. 
No  heat  is  applied,  no  colouring  matter.  Describ- 
ing samples  ast  Kew,  the  Bulletin  observes  that  they 
are  uushrivelled  and  as  “flat  as  we  should  find  them 
in  any  herbarium.”  And  the  decoction  is  equally 
simple.  You  just  lay  the  leaves  and  stalks  in  cold 
water,  about  one  gramme  to  a tea-cup — more  or  less 
according  to  taste — close  the  vessel  tight  and  boil 
for  tea  minutes.  It  may  be  sweetened ; milk  and 
rum  bring  out  the  flavour  of  the  vanilla  more  strongly. 
It  is  as  good  cold  as  hot  and  may  be  warmed  up 
without  deterioration.  Finally,  we  are  told  that 
material  enough  for  fifty  cups  is  sold  iu  Paris  for 
2 fr.  50c.,  105  cups  5 fr.  It  is  called  Faham,  as  iu 
Mauritius. 
The  uses  of  orchids  make  an  interesting  theme  for 
speculation.  The  list  of  those  identified  by  European 
scieDoe  is  strangely  brief  at  present.  No  large  family 
of  plants  has  so  few  members  which  serve  a visible 
purpose;  and  if  we  regard  the  question  propor- 
tionately this  uselessness  becomes  far  more  striking. 
Not  fewer  thin  lOfl.'OO  speoies  of  orchids  are  known 
among  which  only  twenty  at  the  outside  are  credited 
with  any  virtue  besides  beauty.  Some  people  hold  in 
truth  that  this  is  all-sufficient.  The  enthusiast  who 
thanked  God — prematurely— that  “ those  fiends  the 
hybridizers”  could  do  nothing  with  orchids,  would 
ask  no  other  merit.  But  a larger  view  may  tempt 
one  to  suspect  that  flowers  so  conspicuous,  so  fitted 
in  every  way  to  draw  attention,  have  more  significance 
in  nature’s  scheme,  It  is  to  be  observed  that  Europe 
was  not  so  much  as  acquainted  by  sight  with  any 
epiphytal  orchid  a hundred  years  ago.  Sixty  years 
ago  one  could  count  the  species  grown  upon  one’s 
fingers.  Has  any  savant,  chemist,  or  doctor  made  a 
study  of  these  plants?  "We  never  heard  of  his 
labours.  Out  of  three  thousand  species  or  so  in  cul- 
tivation have  so  much  as  a score  been  analyzed  ? 
It  is  suggestive  to  remark  that  the  commonest  of 
those  which  are  found  in  the  Temperate  Zone— our 
field  varieties  of  orchis — are  highly  esteemed  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ; more  than  that,  the  root  of  a 
North  American  species,  one  of  the  Hahenaria,  which 
proves  to  have  very  nearly  the  same  constituents, 
was  and  is  equally  esteemed  among  the  Indians.  Our 
own  forefathers  reckoned  Orchis  mascula  as  one 
of  their  most  important  drugs.  We  have  for- 
gotten it  ; but  from  Poland  to  the  Bosphorus,  and 
again  to  the  China  Seas,  it  is  still  a panacea.  Those 
who  have  visited  Constantinople  do  not  forget  the 
droning  cry  “ Saleep — saleep  !”  which  pedlars  of  that 
milky  substance  raise  the  whole  day  through.  If, 
discarding  the  tropic  species,  we  take  those  plants  of 
which  our  forefathers  learned  the  use  during  countless 
generations,  tho  great  orchid  family  holds  its  own 
with  any  of  them.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that  the 
natives  of  India,  aDd  more  especially  of  Afrioa  and 
tropical  America,  could  tell  our  scientific  men  some 
properties  of  orchids  which  would  astonish  them.  But 
no  or  e asks  ; perhaps  he  would  not  learn  much  if  he 
did.  There  are  so  many  ugly  teorets  in  native  medicine 
that  the  professors  do  not  willingly  communioate 
their  lore. 
Orchid  tea  is  not  accredited  with  vigorous  properties 
of  any  kind.  In  Mauritius  and  Bourbon  they  esteem 
it  as  a digestive,  and  it  is  prescribed  in  diseases  of 
the  organs  of  respiration.  Vanilla  has  the  same  mevi  s 
iu  a higher  degree,  and  many  more.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  restoratives  known  iu  cases  of  weakened 
vitality,  when  a large  dose  is  given.  South  America 
in  general  shows  a much  slighter  tendency  to  madness 
than  any  of  the  countries  whioh  may  be  called  civilized. 
Statistical  authorities  attribute  this  fact  to  the  ignorance 
and  thoughtlessness  of  the  population,  but  they  them- 
selves give  the  credit  to  vanilla.  At  the  first  sign  of 
mental  disturbar.ee  they  ply  the  sufferer  therewith. 
We  ate  afraid  to  daunt  the  reader  with  a string  of 
sesquipedalian  names  if  we  go  further  into  a most 
interesting  subject,  the  importance  of  which  will  bo 
recognized  one  day.  But  for  that  consideration  it  1 
would  be  easy  to  name  the  species  of  orchid  which 
are  admitted  to  the  pharmacopceia,  though  rarely,  if 
ever,  used  in  Europe.  It  would  occupy  but  little  space. 
Briefly,  however,  to  cite  the  most  conspicuous,  a 
Goodysra  is  used  iD  cases  of  scrofula,  an  Epipactis 
for  inflammation  of  the  joints,  a Gymnadenia  for 
dysentery,  an  Arethusa  for  toothache,  a Cypripedium 
(American)  for  spasms.  We  venture  to  prediot  that 
when,  if  ever,  the  medical  uses  of  orchids  are  in- 
vestigated, this  list  will  be  prolonged  indefinitely.  And 
the  additions  will  be  startling. — St.  James's  Budget 
Aug.  26. 
TEA— COFFEE— CHICORY— TOBACCO  IM- 
PORTED TO  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM. 
The  Commissioners  of  Custc  ms  ^present  a report 
for  the  past  financial  year  which  is  satisfactory, 
if  not  indicative  of  exuberant  national  prosperity; 
The  gross  receipts  for  1891-2  show  an  inorease  of 
£343,257,  which  might  have  been  acoounted  con- 
siderable had  not  publio  opinion  been  habituated 
to  leaps  and  bounds  in  revenue.  Of  late,  how- 
ever, British  trade  has  manifestly  not  been  in  a 
condition  to  justify  anticipations  of  indefinite  fiscal 
expansion.  The  wonder  rather,  is  after  the  melan- 
choly tone  adopted  by  many  representatives  of 
national  industry,  that  the  oountry  has  been  able 
to  consume  goods  liable  to  duty  to  the  enormous 
amount  implied  in  the  reoeipt  by  the  Custom- 
house of  more  than  twenty  million  sterling.  To 
a oertain  extent,  no  doubt,  the  payment  in  a 
particular  year  of  vast  sums  in  Customs  does  not 
prove  tho  existenoe  of  the  industrial  aotivity  whioh 
means  that  the  kingdom  is  maintaining  its  anoient 
rank  in  the  world.  Men  will  not  consent  to  starve, 
so  long  as  they  have  a reserve  of  savings.  Though 
British  trade  were  afflicted  with  sudden  deorepitude, 
the  gross  receipts  of  the  Custom-house  would  con- 
tinue for  some  time  to  be  large.  At  present  it  is 
possible  that  the  working  classes,  whioh  contribute 
very  much  to  the  revenue  from  Customs  as  from 
Exoise,  may,  out  of  their  wages,  have  kept  it  at 
a level  beyond  that  it  oould  have  preserved  had 
it  been  dependent  on  the  profits  of  capital.  Wages 
are  slower  to  feel  the  effects  of  a dwindling  com- 
meroe  than  capital,  and  might  go  on  feeding  the 
revenue  after  oaptial  had  lost  not  a little  of  its 
vitality.  At  the  same  time,  that  is  merely  a matter 
of  a year  or  two  at  most.  Within  no  long  period 
wages  could  not  but  obey  the  downward  impulse; 
if  it  were  of  a permanent  and  serious  character. 
The  interval  has  been  more  than  enough,  since 
lamentations  for  depression  in  trade  began  to 
be  heard,  for  the  effect  to  bo  very  visible  in 
the  reoeipts  from  Customs  all  around.  The 
oountry  has  a right  to  infer,  from  the  testimony 
of  the  Commissioners  of  Her  Majesty’s  Customs 
to  the  persistency,  and  even  inorease,  of  the 
revenue  from  imports,  that  the  spending  capacity 
of  the  people  cannot  have  as  yet  diminished. 
Practically  this  signifies  that  industry  remains 
positively  fruitful,  though,  it  may  be,  not  profitable 
at  some  former  rate  of  increase. 
One  fact  in  the  history  of  the  past  financial  year 
the  Commissioners  mention  as  a reason,  it  seems, 
why  the  period  does  not  oall  for  exceptional  attention 
which  in  reality  distinguishes  it  emphatically.  “No 
alteration,”  they  record,  “ was  made  in  the  Tariff.” 
Probably  in  not  one  of  the  thirty-five  previous 
reports  of  the  Department  can  such  an  assertion 
be  found.  That  the  statement  is  made  now  says 
much  for  the  diBoretion  of  the  outgoing  Chanoellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  and  much  also  for  the  simplicity 
to  which  the  Tariff  has  been  reduoed.  Fisoal 
changes  which  are  not  necessary  are  noxious.  Whon 
publicly  aud  commercially  beneficial  they  are  syra 
