Dec.  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
407 
SIR  WALTER  HELY-HUTCHINSON  ON  THE 
COCOA*  BEETLE. 
{The following  notice  has  been  published  in  Grenada.) 
The  attention  of  cultivators  of  cocoa  is  drawn  to 
the  fact  that  at  the  present  season  the  Cocoa  Beetle 
is  in  its  mature  state,  and  that  the  females  are 
depositing  their  eggs  on  the  cocoa  trees. 
The  female  beetles  are  capable  of  depositing  hun- 
dreds of  eggs. 
Each  egg,  thus  deposited,  may,  and  probably  will, 
produce  a grub  (worm). 
Each  grub  (worm)  is  capable  of  destroying  the  branch 
of  the  cocoa-tree  on  which  the  egg  is  laid. 
As  the  number  of  grubs  will  probably  be  consider- 
able, unless  steps  be  taken  to  check  the  laying  of  the 
eggs,  it  wil!  be  seen  that  the  present  is  the  time  to 
destroy  as  many  of  the  beetles  as  possible. 
There  is  no  cause  for  alarm,  for  the  remedy  is 
simple,  and  only  requires  united  action  to  ensure 
success. 
The  beetles  are  easily  captured,  especially  in  the 
early  morning,  when  they  may  be  caught  by  the  hand 
on  the  cocoa  trees. 
Cultivators  of  cocoa  are  therefore  strongly  urged 
to  examine  their  trees,  or  to  cause  them  to  be 
examined,  every  morning;  and  to  use  every  effort  to 
capture  and  destroy  the  beetles. 
The  beetles  may  be  easily  recognized.  The  female 
is  about  one  inch  long,  the  male  is  smaller.  The 
beetles  are  black,  with  faint  white  markings.  Orders 
have  been  given  for  the  public  exhibition  of  speci- 
ments  at  every  police  station  and  at  every  school 
house  in  the  island. 
In  addition  to  the  above  measures,  it  is  very  desir- 
able that  as  far  as  possible,  all  prunings,  and  rotten 
wood  of  every  description,  should  be  removed  from 
the  plantations  and  burnt. 
This  notice  has  been  drawn  up  after  consultation 
with,  and  with  the  advice  of,  Mr*  D Morris,  f.l.s., 
the  Assistant  Director  of  the  Royal  Gardens  at  Kew. 
Mr.  Morris  has  been  in  consultation  with  the  members 
of  the  Cocoa  Commission,  and  has  himself,  since 
he  has  been  in  Grenada,  been  studying  the  habits 
of  the  Beetle. 
VARIOUS  NOTES. 
Mr.  Clements  Markham  and  Cinchona. — 
In  reviewing  “ A History  of  Peru,”  by  Mr. 
Clements  Markham,  the  Allienceum  of  29th  Oct. 
says  : — 
In  1860  he  again  visited  the  interior  of  Peru,  for 
the  purpose  of  transporting  chinchona  plants  to 
India;  and  his  success  in  that  undertaking  is  shown 
by  the  rapid  increase  of  plantations  in  the  East, 
and  the  heavy  fall  in  the  price  of  quinine.  This 
result,  so  determental  to  the  trade  of  Peru  and 
Bolivia,  was  fully  anticipated  ; and  in  the  republic 
which  he  loves  so  well  the  expediency  of  his 
assassination  was  freely  discussed,  his  escape  being 
chiefly  due  to  the  indolence  of  the  natives  and  to 
the  fact  that  “ what’s  everybody’s  business  is  no- 
body’s business,”  as  the  Irish  peasant  said  of  the 
unpopular  landlord.  Seeing  that  the  British  Minis- 
ter had  recently  been  riddled  with  bullets  in  his 
own  house  at  Lima  and  in  broad  daylight,  with 
hardly  a protest  from  our  Government,  it  was  not 
likely  that  much  fuss  would  be  made  over  a mere 
traveller  ; and,  moreover,  open  violence  would  have 
been  superfluous,  for  a well-flavoured  picante , a glass 
of  chicha  or  a cup  of  excellent  Yungas  coffee  would 
have  sufficed. 
We  were  not  aware  before  that  Mr.  Markham  had 
so  incurred  the  anger  of  the  Peruvians.  Ceylon 
planters  ought  to  oberish  feelings  of  gratitude  to- 
wards Mr.  Msrkham  ; for  certainly  cinchona  was 
the  salvation  of  Ceylon  in  the  interregnum  between 
ooflee  and  tea.  But  the  grand  benefit  has  been 
to  suffering  humanity. 
* Evidently  not  the  palm  in  this  case  but  the 
chocolate  plant. — Ed.  T.A. 
Ceylon  Tea  and  Produce  Companies. — We 
publish  on  page  408  a list  of  Ceylon  tea  and 
other  produce  companies  registered  in  England, 
as  framed  by  Mr.  H.  K.  Rutherford.  Judged  by  divi- 
dends on  ordinary  shares,  the  most  prosperous  com- 
panies in  the  list  are  the  Scottish  Ceylon  with  18  per 
cent  against  it  and  the  Ceylon  Tea  Plantations  with 
15.  Then  come  three  companies  each  of  whioh 
divided  10  per  cent:  Ceylon  Lsnd  and  Produce  ; 
Standard  Tea,  and  the  Kclani  Valley  Tea  Asso- 
ciation. The  New  Dimbula  Company  divided  8 per 
cent.  A dividend  of  7i  per  cent  is  opposite  the 
Ceylon  Investment  Estates  Association,  and  6£ 
against  the  name  of  the  Dukwari  Ceylon  Tea, 
with  6 per  oent  in  the  case  of  the  Spring  Valley 
and  5 for  the  boottish  Trust  and  Loan  and  the 
Colombo  Commercial  Companies.  The  Uva  Coffee 
divided  3§  per  cent,  while  two  companies, 
the  Oriental  Bank  Estate  and  the  Lanka  Plantations, 
each  show  a dividend  of  2^  per  cent.  The  most 
important  Company  of  all  judged  by  the  amount  of 
its  property  (over  9,000  acres  in  tea  out  of  a total 
acreage  of  16,791)  gave  only  1£  per  oent  on  ordinary 
shares,  the  preference  shares  taking  5 per  oent. 
In  the  cess  of  the  Madulsima  Coffee  there  is  a 
Nil  opposite  ordinary  shares,  while  preference 
took  8 per  cent.  Opposite  the  Huuaegeria  Tea 
there  is  an  unqualified  Nil.  There  are  blanks 
opposite  five  new  companies.  Judged  by  acreage 
under  tea  the  Ceylon  Tea  Plantations  stands 
second  in  the  list  with  7,362  acres,  the  United 
Planters  ooming  next  with  5,193,  and  as  the  fourth 
in  rank,  the  Oriental  Bank  Estates  with  4,421 
acres.  For  other  interesting  details  we  refer  to 
the  tables. 
A Gorgeous  Flower  is  that  of  Brownea 
coccinea,  a specimen  of  whioh  was  lately  sent  from 
the  Peradeniya  Botanic  Gardens  to  a lady  in  Colombo 
who  had  purchased  a plant  and  had  written  to 
ask  what  the  flower  was  like.  The  one  in  question 
was  a huge  mass  of  brilliant  red  petals,  looking  at 
a little  distance  something  like  a gigantic 
rholenfolron.  The  Dictionary  of  Botany  gives  the 
following  information  : — 
Brownea.— A genus  of  small  evergreen  trees  belong- 
ing to  the  Lequminosce  and  to  that  section  having 
regular  corollas.  The  species  are  peculiar  to  Vene- 
zuela, New  Grenada,  and  some  portions  of  central 
America,  one  of  them  being  also  found  in  Trinidad. 
The  leaves  are  alternate,  equally  pinnate,  and  from 
one  to  one  and  a-half  foot  long,  with  from  four  to 
twelve  pairs  of  entire  leaflets.  The  flowers  are  rose- 
coloured  or  crimson,  and  disposed  in  dense  terminal 
or  axillary  sessile  heads.  The  pods  are  compressed 
scimitar-shaped,  often  covered  with  rusty  pubescence, 
and  contain  many  seeds.  It  would  be  difficult  to  point 
out  a more  beautiful  genus  of  stove-plants  than  this, 
and  few  tropical  plant-houses  of  any  pretensions  are 
without  some  of  them.  B.  yrandiceps  has  long  pinnate 
leaves  with  about  twelve  pairs  of  leaflets  and  axillary 
or  terminal  flower-heads  eight  inches  in  diameter; 
the  flowers  are  pink,  very  numerous,  and  arranged  in 
tiers  as  it  were  round  a conical  axis,  the  outer  ones 
expanding  first,  followed  by  the  others  until  all  are 
open,  when  the  flower-head  is  not  unlike  that  of  a 
Rhododendron.  The  leaves  droop  during  the  day  so  as 
almost  to  hide  the  flowers  from  view  ; bnt  they  have 
been  seen  to  rise  up  in  the  evening  and  remain  erect 
all  the  night ; the  flowers  are  thus  exposed  to  the 
falling  dew,  but  the  leaves  drooping  again  during  the 
day,  protect  the  flowers  from  the  heat  of  the  sun. 
This  species  is  a native  of  Venezuela,  where  it  is  called 
Rosa  del  Monte  or  Palo  de  Oruz,  and  was  introduced 
to  England  in  1828.  Altogether  there  are  six  species 
iu  cultivation,  some  of  them  with  bright  scarlet 
flowers,  as  in  B.  coccinea , which  was  the  first  known 
in  our  gardens.  The  genus  is  named  in  honour  of 
Patrick  Browne,  who  wrote  a history  of  Jamaica. 
