312 
■THE : TROPICAL AGEIGULTURIST. iNov. 1,1 902. 
when fully ripe, dries well and becomes quite hard. It 
has a brown, pitted, or rough surface, surrounded 
with a smooth, darker band, Divided in half, 
hpllowed out ; liinged and mounted with a gold or 
silver rim, these seeds make excsllent appendages 
for watch-chains, or varioasly treated with similar 
mountings, they would form quite attractive 
bracelets. Similar results might be obtained with 
nicker beans (Cossalpinia bonducclla) There are also 
the produce of a leguminous plant, two or thi-ee 
seeds being contained in e»ch pod, which is of a 
chocolate-brown colour, and studied with stiff woody 
spines. The seeds are about the size of a large 
Barcelona nut, irregularly globular, very hard, with 
a shiny surface, mostly of a greyish-slate colour, 
but sometimes yellow, orange nearly black, or even 
white. They are commonly used by the natives for 
making necklaces, bracelets, and rosaries. In India, 
where the plant is common, the kernel of the seeds 
is said to possess medicinal properties. The smaller 
seeds of the nicker, properly mounted and provided 
With a shank, might well be made into waistcoit 
buttons or ornamental buttons for ladies' dresses, as 
was at one time done in England with the soap berry 
seed. These are the produce of Sapindvs saponaria, 
a small tree, the fruits of which are fleshy and 
about the size of a cherry, containing one hard, 
intensely black seed. The pulpy portion of the 
fruit shrivels in drying and becomes horny ; it contains 
a large proportion of saponin, which ia readily ex- 
tracted by soaking in water, and is thus much used 
by the people for washing fabrics, as a lather is 
very quickly produced. The hard, round seeds are 
used for making necklaces, bracelets, buttons, and 
rosaries, and it is said that many years ago buttons 
were made of them, and used in England, chiefly 
for waistcoats. The absence of any figure or colour 
in the seeds, being a dull uniform blick, does not 
recommend them for general purposes, but with 
silver mounts they would be particularly suited for 
mourning use. The intensely hard seeds of the Gru 
Gru palms, for the name is applied to at leist two 
distinct West Indian palms, namely Acroconiia sclera- 
carpa and Astrocari/um imlgare are like the soap 
berries, black. They grow, however to the size of 
a walnut, and the centre being occupied with soft 
oily seeds, they can readily be hollowed in the form 
of boxes, or cut into buttons of different shapes and 
sizes, and as they take a fine polish should find some 
general application. 
Amongst the brighter coloured seeds which should 
find a use amongst jewellers 'may be mentioned 
crabs eyes, furnished by a common tropical climbing 
leguminous plant (Alrus precalorius). The seeds are 
abundantly produced in small pods, and aie 
themselves quite small, of a bright soarlet colour, 
with a black spot. They are very uniform in size 
and weight, the average weight being 1"75 grainp. 
Wherever the plant is grown these very ornamental 
seeds are used for necklaces, ear oruaments, and 
personal adornment of all kinds, as well as for 
rosaries, and for decorating boxes, baskets, &c. Dr. 
Watt says the plant with its open withered 
fruits exposing the scarlet seeds is twisted round 
leafy boughs to simulate the holly at Christmas time 
at English stations in India. 
0 It may bo worth while saying that the seeds in 
■the fresh state contains a poisoaous property which is 
dissipated by boiling. Experimenting with the seeds 
of Abrus Dr. Warden is reported to have found that 
half a seed rubbed down with a small quantity of 
water and injected into the thigh of a full grown 
cat produced fatal effects in twenty-four hours. A seed 
almost identical in appearance, namely a bright 
scarlet with a black blotch but much larger in size, 
is that known as the Jumbi and produced by an allied 
leguminous plant, Ormosia dasycarpa. These seeds 
might well be used as a substitute for coral especially 
for necklaces and for mounting in brooches, as might 
also those of the coral tree {Erythrina) which are of 
coral red without the black spot. A still brighter 
seed also without the black mark is that furnished in 
India by Adenanthera paconina, a large leguminouis 
tree of Bengal, South India, and Burma. It is 
gengraily known as the Andaman redwood tree but 
sometimes as red sandal wood, in consequence of its 
ri5e a3 a dye in substitution for the true red sandal 
wood or red sanders wood. The seeds are nearly half 
an inch in <3iameter somewhat lens shaped, that is 
convex on both sides and of the brightest shining 
red. In India they are often strung and made into 
necklaces, bracelets, and other articles of personal 
adornment. They are also used as weights in conse- 
quence of their uniformly weighing four grains. Their 
bright colour', hardens aad uniform size caused them to 
attract the attention, a year or two ago, of a London 
West-end jeweller, who contemplated using them for 
brooches, pins, rings, &a. 
That maiy of the seeds here enumerated, as well 
as others, are capable of extended utilisation cannot 
be doubted. Job's tears, the seeds of Coix lachryma- 
jdbi, are by no means uncommon in the windows of 
fancy jewellers, made np into chains or bracelets, 
and there is no reason why there should not be a 
much greater variety of vegetable curios to choose 
from. Even with the job's tears, th^re are several 
varieties used iu India that are still unknown in 
English commerce, and are only seen on native 
dresses, being used by certain tribes on account of 
their ornamental character. So long ago as the 
Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886, these seeds 
attracted much attention ; and Dr. Watt, referring 
to thera in his "Dictionary of the Economic Products 
of India," says, '' They seem to stand a good chance 
of coming into use in Europe in the construction of 
artificial flowers, laces, bugle trimmings, and other 
such purposes for which glass beads are now used, and 
possibly aho in Cj.tholic countries, for the manufacture 
of rosary beads. If found capable of being dyed a 
deep black [or even brighter colours] there miKht be 
an extensive demand for them, since they would be 
much more durable than glass " so far a'? we are 
aware this anticipation has not been fulfilled, so- 
that there is still an opportunity to establish a trade 
with these and other seeds, as for instance the so- 
called velvet seed-i of British Guiana, referred to in 
the West Indian Agricultural News*, which would 
make a good and novel trimming for ladies' dresses. 
— Journal of the Society of Arts. 
Coffee. — " Fertilizers and Coffee Cnltivation. 
Addresses delivered before the United Planters' 
Association of Southern India, by Dr. Adolf 
Lehmann, Agricultural Chemist to the Govern- 
ment of Mysore, 1899-1902 "—is the title of a 
useful pamphlet to hand today, published by 
Messrs Higgenbotham & Co, Madras. Coffee is, 
of course, a thino of the past in Ceylon ; but from 
India over 200,000 cwt are still exported. 
Flax in Ireland. — The Flax Supply Association 
report respecting 1901, that there was a substantial 
increase of one- sixth. The increased acreage under 
Flax in Ireland, as compared with 1900, is coupled 
with a very large yield of fibre per acre, the largest 
yield registered for forty-seven years, viz., very nearly 
37 stone per acre. It appears that the Ulster returns 
were very satisfactory all round ; whilst of Conuaught 
it is stated that the 300 acres there grown gave the 
splendid crop of 49 9-10 stone per acre, larger than 
that of any foreign country. It is therefore to te 
hoped .that the average may steadily increase from 
year to year. The total yield of the 55,000 acres 
under culture was close upon 13,000 tons, a larger 
produce than any of the previous five years, and 
about equal to that of 1895. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 
* The London agents for the publications of the 
Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West 
Indies are Messrs. Dulan and Co,, 37, Soho-square. 
