June 1, 1901.] 
Supplement to the "Tropical Agriculturist." 
873 
in an absolutely arid country, or in a country 
subjected at irregular intervals to long periods of 
drought. It is said by many travellers to make exist 
ence possible in districts otherwise uninhabitable. 
The Ceylon Veterinary Department is slowly 
and steadily growing, and we are inclined to think 
Mr. Sturgess, our Colonial Veterinary Surgeon, 
is wisely cautious in adopting for his motto 
"festma lente," in a country such as ours : and with 
a stubbornly conservative people to deal with, it 
would have been a waste of time and money to 
attempt to rush the scientific treatment of cattle 
on those who have for generations past pinned 
their faith to the epiricism of the native cattle 
doctor. The scientist from the West has 
much to learn and much to teach, and to expect 
to effect an immediate exchange of old-lamps for 
new is an idle dream that the practical man of 
sound common sense does not indulge in. 
At present we have the following staff compos- 
ing the newly-formed Department : — Colonial 
Veterinary Surgeon, G- W. Sturgess, M.E.C.V.S.; 
Assistant at Kandy, B. T. Hoole, G.B.V.C. Stock; 
Inspectors at Colombo, E. W. Jayatilleke and 
p. C. Fernando ; at Ratnapura, M. D. Wijayanay- 
ake ; at Kurunegala, A- M. Fernando ; at Jaffna, 
T, Mahamoot ; at Anuradhapura, D. L. Dias. 
We take over from that excellent publication, 
Tke Queensland Agncultural Journal, for April 
last, the first of a series of papers entitled " First 
Steps in Agriculture," written in a popular style 
and intended for " young boys and girls in the 
country." These papers should prove useful for 
village schools, and we commend them to the notice 
of teachers to whom they should serve as ready- 
made lessons on Agriculture to occupy the attention 
of themselves and their pupils during an occasional 
spare hour. In the present lesson it is only 
necessary to substitute local crops, weeds &c., 
to bring it home to the children who are being 
taught. 
The alleged cures for snake bite and hydrophobia 
are legion, but their virtues rest more or less on 
tradition and have not the testimony of the 
medical faculty to recommend them. Some 
time ago Mr. J. Wimalasurendra, Mudaliyar, 
the well-known worker in metal, addressed a 
letter to the press in which he claimed to be 
able to cure snake bite by means of an unfailing 
remedy — the juice of certain seeds. The juice 
was to be taken internally in certain doses, 
and it was mentioned that the so-called snake 
stone had no virtue unless it had previously soaked 
up some of this juice. Dr. Andrew Wilson, 
referring to this communication, expressed his 
scepticism as to the genuienness of the remedy in 
view of the seeds being nameless in the letter 
referred to. We have ourselves failed to elicit 
further information concerning the identity of the 
seeds, the name of which, we are assured by the 
Mudaliyar, he has sworn never to reveal. It is to 
be hoped, however, that he will not allow the 
secret to die with him, but will at least impart it 
to his next of kin, so that the power to save will 
remain evan in the possession of one individual. 
In a courteous letter, Mr. Wimalasurendra asks 
that any case of snake bite should be sent to him 
without delay, so that he may make use of the 
knowledge he possesses and apply his unfailing 
remedy. 
The Indian Agriculturist is responsible for the 
following: — "The leaf of a variety of Acacia, 
known in the Deccan (where it grows wild) by the 
Hindustani name of -De?mwa 6a6oo^, is declared to 
possess properties which make it a safe cure for 
hydrophobia. The leaves are simply ground up, and 
the juice extracted from them is given to the 
patient to drink as soon as possible after he has 
been bitten. It is a nauseating drink, but this 
need not cause alarm. The decoction should be 
administered for three mornings in succession, the 
diet during this period being restricted to plain 
unleavened bread or boiled rice and curds. The 
remedy is said to have been tried in a number of 
cases with unvarying success. Four individuals, 
who had been bitten by dogs which were unmis- 
takably rabid, and which subsequently bit other 
men and animals who developed hydrophobia and 
died, were treated with this decoction, and are still 
alive and well." Unfortunately a local name of the 
tree is given. It would have been more satisfactory 
if the scientific name could have been added as well 
The following are a few Errata in Trimen's 
Flora : — Plantineae at head of page 388, Part III. 
should be Plantagineae. On page 268, Part IV., 
in the botanical description of Amaryllidaceae 
" ovary superior '' should be " ovary inferior." 
The second part of the Sinhalese names of the 
two species of Curculigo mentioned on page 369 
Part IV., should be bintal and not biutal. On 
page 858, Part V., line 6, Dimorphocalx should 
be Dimorphocalyx, and on the previous page, 
7 lines from the bottom, Crateeva should be 
Crataeva. 
Andropogon citratus, lemon grass, should not be 
confused with A. schoenanthus, variously known 
as geranium oil grass, anise-scented grass, &c. It is 
hardly correct to say that the latter is abundant 
about Colombo, as FergUson is quoted by Trimen 
to have said, Specimens of this grass sent to us by 
the Government Agent of Jaffna some years ago 
were identified by Dr. Trimen as of the variety 
versicolor and called anise-scented grass. When 
crushed the leaves emit an odour of fennel. The 
grass is said to be common on the Island of Delft. 
In the Ceylon Flora, Part V., under A. Citratus, 
the sentence "He {i.e., Dr. Watt) adds that it is called 
&c." makes it appear that lemon grass is used for 
scenting tea in Ceylon, whereas in his Dictionary 
Watt's remark as to the use of the grass is made 
without any reference to Ceylon. If used for 
flavouring tea, it must be in India. The following 
quotation from the Agricultural Magazine for June, 
1893, occurs in the contribution to its pages by a 
correspondent from Bombay : "More than once I 
was told by ignorant natives that the tea plant was 
to be seen growing in the vicinity of this city, and 
some innocently enquired how the leaf vvas prepared 
so nicely in Ceylon. The description of the plant 
they gave me was very unlike the tea bush. At 
last I had an opportunity of inspecting the so-called 
