Sept 1, 1899.] Supplement to the " Tropical AgrindUinst." 
'2-21 
used, so long as they aie clear and free from a 
putrid smell. Thin, light, yellow biles should also 
be rejected. 
All the galls extracted at one time should be 
mixed together, after standing separately for 
twelve to eighteen hours, so as to render them 
uniform in strength and immucisiiig properties. 
Pure bile should be used on the second day after 
being drawn, unless it is kept in an ice chest, 
when it may be kept sweet much longer. But if 
pure bile is used as a second inoculation only as 
•above directed, it is not desirable to keep it longer 
than twenty-four hours. 
■Glycerinated bile is made by adding one part of 
glyceiiive to two parts of bile, stirring the mixture 
well, then mix all the biles taken at one time, and 
allow them to stand for eight days. But if there 
is urgency, the glycerinated brie may be used forty- 
eight hours after it is mixed. 
Cleanliness and all antiseptic precautions for- 
merly published, and with which the public are 
familiar, must be carried out in extractinle the 
bile and inoculating the catte. 
TAGASASTE. 
Very full information respecting the useful 
fodder plant known in the Canary Islands as 
Tao-asaste has been given in the Kew Eeports, 
1879, p. 18; 1880, p. 16; 1881, p. i3 ; 1882, 
p. 1->, and in the Xew Bulletin 1891, p. 239. This 
plant was brought into notice by the late Dr. 
Victor Perez of Orotava, Teneriffe, and it was 
entirely through the personal exertions of this 
estimable gentleman that so much information 
has been obtained respecting it, and that seed of 
60 useful a plant has been placed at the dif^posal 
of persons in various parts of the world for 
experimental purposes. Dr. Perez sent many 
supplies direct to E.ew with results that have 
already been recorded. During a visit to Teneriffe 
in the early part of this year I had many oppor- 
tunities of seeing the Tagasaste growing and of 
realising how valuable it proved in dry localities 
unsuited to the growth of any other kind of 
herbage plant. This note is to be regarded as supple- 
menting in a few particulars the general infor- 
mation already given in the K(?w Bulletin. The 
-ordinary Cptisus proliferus, Linn, f., or "Silky 
Cytisus " is a plant widely distributed in Teneriffe. 
It is known locally as "Escabon." It was 
observed growing plentifully at elevations of 
3,000 to 6,000 feet. According to specimens in the 
Kew Herbarium it is found also in Grand Canary, 
but probably to a much less extent than in 
Teneriffe. It is not infrequently seen as a culti- 
vated plant in English greenhouse? where its 
silky leaves and abundant white flowers render 
it a very attractive object. In Teneriffe it forms 
a large bush or tree with a stout woody stem 
sometimes attaining a height of 8 to 10 feet. The 
branches are of a slender drooping habit plenti- 
fully eovered with ternate leases on short petioles. 
The leaflets are oval-lanceolate pointed at both 
ends and clothed on the underside by copious 
silky adpressed hairs. These hairs are generally 
white, but in some cases they are fuloons or even 
of a rich brown colour. The flowers (also silky 
in bud), are snow white when fully expanded 
and attached in loosely packed umbels on the 
sides of the branches. The pedicels are of a rosy 
colour. After flowering the bud in the centre 
of each umbel usually grovvs out into a branch, 
an appearance of proliferation which has suggest- 
ed the specific name. The pods are slightly 
narrowed at the base and produced abundantly. 
They are sismous, oblong pointed and densely 
pilose in the young state. This is tlie typical 
plant known as " Escabon," ordinarily met with 
in tne mountanious parts in Teneriffe. There are 
several forms differing slightly in the size of the 
leaves and the colours of the flowers. 
None of them, however, possess any special 
merit as fodder plants. The Escabon itself is seldom 
browsed upon by animals unless pressed by 
hunger, and it probably contains cytisiiie — an 
active poisonous principle known to exist in the 
common laburnum and other members of this 
genus. The tagasaste on the other hand evidently 
contains little cytisiue, for it is readily eaten by 
animals and especially those that have become 
accustomed to it when young. The tagasaste is 
known in the wild state only from the island of 
Palma wheie it grew originally on the hills above 
the celebrated chapel of our Lady de las Nieves 
at an elevation of about 1,000 feet above the level 
of the sea. It acquired considerable reputation 
locally, and it was gradually distributed by cul- 
tivation all over Palma. The first person who 
carefully studied the tagasaste and wrote about it 
WHS Dr. Victor Perez. He introduced it into 
cultivation at Teneriffe and published a pamphlet 
on its merits as a fodder plant nearly SO years 
ago. The plant was quoted in Dr. Victor Perez's 
writings simply as an unnamed variety of Cytisus 
proliferus. Although in botanical characters it 
differs only in a slight degree from the type, it has 
nevertheless deserved to be regarded as a distinct 
variety and to bear a distinguishing name. The 
name that might very appropriately have been 
associated with it was that of Dr. Victor Perez. 
As the matter now stands, however, the tagasaste 
has been described by Dr. H. Christ in Spicileyium 
Canariense published in Engler's " Botaui.-,he 
Jahrbuches," IX. 120, as Gytisus proliferus oar. 
palmensis. This name therefore distinguishes the 
Palma Tagasaste from the ordinary Teneriffe plant 
Escabon. Cytisus proliferus, hinn.,f.var. palmen- 
sis differs from the type by its more robust 
growth and a laxer habit. It often attains a 
height of 12 to 15 feet in good soils, and all parts 
of the stem and branches are enveloped in leaves. 
In fact its very leafy character is one of the 
marked features of the plant. The leaflets are 
ovate oblong, somewhat obtuse and dark green in 
colour. The young growths, as may be seen in 
growing specimens at Kew, are almost entirely 
destitute of the silky hairs so abundant on the 
species. Dr. Christ's Palma specimens were 
obtained on the margin of woods above Barranco 
Carmen and at Dolores in March 1884. It only 
remains to add a few words respecting the eco- 
nomic value and the uses of tagasaste for fodder 
purposes. Like all Canary plants it sends its 
very long tap roots deep into the ground, and it 
is tlius enabled to bear prolonged periods of 
drought without injury. In many instances taga- 
saste was the only plant that throve in loose 
volcanic scoria and ash. Bushes of it more thaa 
