May 1, 1901] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 
769 
" There are favourable openings for the invest- 
ment of capital iu the establishment of central 
wine factories and in further developing the silk 
industry. Silk of a high quality can be produced. 
There, is, I believe, also a profitable opening for 
capital in developing the sponge fisheries, and the 
Govern meat is now in a position to afford advan- 
tageous terms to any undertaking having ade- 
quate capital to work tiie ;sponge beds of Cyprus 
under proper regulations. 
' Aland bank or an agricultural bank working 
under a carefully-considered system could employ 
capital to jield a remunerative return, and such an 
institution is much wanted, as the usurious rates 
of interest now exacted for advances to tlie pro- 
ducers are a heavy weight on the industry of the 
island."— Daily Telerjraph, March 21. 
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY OP 
CEYLON. 
We take the following extract from an in- 
teresting review in Nature of work done 
under "The Tamnaii Mineralogical Endow- 
ment," by Dr. P. Grlinling, the well-known 
Assistant of Professor Groth of Strasburg :— 
The thirty-third volume of Groth's Zeitschrift 
ftir Kvystallographic unci Mineralogie is almost 
entirely occupied by the scientific work done upon 
the material which was brought back from Ceylon, 
and those who wish to see the excellent re&ults 
of a wise scientific endowment wisely adminis- 
tered cannot do better than glance over this pub- 
lication. Dr. Griinling brought back rich collec- 
tions, especially of the dolomite and the minerals 
which it contains, of the graphite and of the gem- 
stones ; among the latter the most remarkable are 
the tourmalines, which constitute a unique series 
of beautiful crystals. 
All these minerals have now been examined by 
various workers in Prof. Groth's laboratory. The 
graphite has been the subject of exhaustive study 
by Dr. Weinsclienk, the lecturer on petrology in 
the University of Munich, who has already pub- 
lished papers on the subject in the Zeitschrift 
fur Pralctischc Geologie and in the Ahhand- 
lungen of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The 
dolomite has been analysed by Dr. Schiffer, 
whose results have been given as an inaugural 
dissertation. And now has appeared this triple 
Heft of Gvotih's Zeitschrift, containing a general 
description of Ceylon and its minerals by Dr. 
Griinling, a research upon the chrysoberyl, the 
sillimanite and the blue spinel by Dr. Melczer, and 
a voluminous report upon the tourmaline crystals 
by Dr. Worobieii', whose memoir occupies nearly 
200 paces, and is in reality a crystallographie 
monograph of the mineral. 
The fact that so much has been achieved will sug- 
gest to the reader that the collection and scientific 
study of Ceylon minerals has been sadly neglected 
by our own countrymen. A perusal of Dr. Gilin- 
liiig's paper serves but to strengthen this conviction. 
With the exception of an interesting paper on the 
graphite and rocks of Ceylon, contributed last June 
to the Geological Society of London by Mr Cooma- 
ra-Swamy, but published too late to be alluded to 
by Dr Grunling, little has been c^one. Mr Cooma- 
ra-Swamy himself remarks, ''No geological survey 
is in prof>ress in Ceylon ; it is much to be hoped 
that the Government will soon realise the import- 
ance of instituting one. " 
To give a very brief survey of the scientific re- 
sults :— 
Dr Griinling makes it clear that the graphite 
always occurs in typical symmetrical veins, though 
these have been mucn crushed and altered by 
earth movements which have spent their energy 
upon thesoft graphite, andhaveconsequently spared 
the country rock (granulite). Dr Weinsschenk 
conies to the conclusion that the graphite is of 
volcanic, and certainly not of organic, origin, and is 
probably due to the action of vapours containing 
carbon ; he suggests that carbon dioxide and 
cyanogen compounds have played the chief part in 
its production. Among the associated minerals ifc 
is remarkable that, as at Passau, nontronite is one 
of the invariable decomposition products accom- 
panying the graphite. 
Dr Grunling is of opinion that the gemstones of 
the sands and gravels were derived from the dolo- 
mitic limestone which abounds in some narts of the 
island, for the spinel, which is certainly found ia 
the limestone, contains sapphire, phlogopite, &c., 
while the corundum contains phlogopite, rutile 
and spinel. A granular marble from Wattegama, 
on the Kandy railroad, proves to be a theoretically 
pure dolomite ; it contains, among other minerals, 
a remarkable blue apatite, which has been analysed 
by Dr Schiffer and is found to .be a fluor apatite 
containing 15 per cent of chlora-apatite. 
It is curious that Dr Griinling was unable t« 
obtain any information concerning the original 
locality of the tourmalines ; they are probably all 
derived from thecabook or laterite, and from some 
one place. 
Worobieff s crystallographie measurements relate 
to 110 crystals remarkably rich in faces, and have 
resulted in the establishment of no less than 131 
new forms? one crystal alone presented faces of 
fifty-nine forms ; the table of calculated angles fills 
forty-three pages. He finds that the symmetry 
of tourmaline is undoubtedly ditrigonaJ, and nol 
tetartohedral as has been supposed by some authors. 
The paper also contains numerous observations! 
upon the pyro-electric properties of tourmaline, and 
distinguishes between the faces of the analogous 
and of the autologous poles. 
Dr. Melczer's paper establishes beyond doubfc 
that the chrysoberyls of Ceylon, of Brazil and of 
the Urals (Alexandrite) possess the same axes, 
and that the twinning takes place parallel to (031), 
not to (Oil). His optical study of the spinel leads 
him to the conclusion that the refractive index 
of this mineral varies with the colour ; it is leas* 
in the most highly coloured parts. 
The whole series of investigations reflects much 
credit upon the administration of the Tamnau 
fund, upon those who have collected and studied 
the minerals, and upon Prof. Groth, in whose 
laboratory the investigations have been successfully 
carried out. 
The next award of this useful fund will be ex. 
pected with interest. H. A, MiERS. 
Rubber, from Ceara Trees,— Mr. P. E. 
Tringham brings us a very clean, superior 
sample of rubber, the result of tapping a 
single Ceara tree— four to five years old — 
on Pen-y-lan, Dolosbage. Trees giving so 
much for four hours' tapping are worth 
looking after and planting should be ex- 
tended. 
