616 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March 1, 1900. 
A NEW KUBBEK. 
THE HANCOKNIA OF ST. PAUL. BRAZIL. 
{Circular of Messrs. L. P. barretto and Son, of 
Piritura, iiaint Paul, specially translated.) 
Tlie ruljbei furnished by ilie laiex of these 
trees is a piodncf of the lirstonier equalled only 
by the Hevea of tlie Para. 
In eveiy reppect, the Hancornia should be pre- 
ferred for ex ensive culture. While the Heavta, 
like the Maiiihot Ghtziovii, cannot go far Iroiu the 
tropica, under penalty of peris-hinji, or of giving 
poor results, the Hancornia stretches from the 
equator to the 36Mi parallel South : it braves (lie 
tropical sun as well as the frost of our cold tem- 
perate zone. 
Tlie Hevea require soil rich in humus and m 
water. They have aquatic roots three quarters of 
the year. The Hancornia, on the contrary, require 
poor, dry soil : prolonged damp kills them. 
TJnfortunately, the germinative faculty of Han- 
cornia seeds is very short: it fails after 12 or 15 
days, and is impossible to send them to Europe. 
We have striven to find some means of conserving 
them. 
Another difficulty has hitherto hindered the 
transport of these plants to other regions, namely 
the nature of the ])hysiological role of their 
sucker," an essential organ of nutrition during 
the first age. The least disturbance of this " pivot" 
or sucker during the first stages or in potting would 
kill the plants. But we have succeeded, after count- 
less experiments, in overcoming this difficulty, 
and can de iver thoasands of plants in Europe 
prepared and packed so that they can continue 
their journey to Africa or Asia. Three kinds are 
available : 1st, Haneornia speciosa, a kind known 
for some time, giving frum 1 to 5 kilo per foot and 
per year. Good edible fruit ; 2ud. Hancornia 
with a globular fruit, new, from the coldest 
zone of the State St. Paul, and giving from 5 
to 10 kilo, good fruit. 3rd Hancornia with (pyri- 
form)cone-shaped fruits (Hancornia Barrettoi, Is'an- 
(lin) recently discovered, frcjni our warmest zone, 
rejoicing in soil neither too dry, nor too nrid. It is 
the king of rubber trees giving up to 15 kilo of 
the finest rubber with one incision. Delicious 
fniit. Plants should be despatched between 
April and September. 
THE ABYSSINIA BANANA MUSA 
ENSETE. 
We are iuciebted to the Director of Kew for the 
photograph of a bunch of fruits of Musa Ensete. 
Flowering examples may now and then be seen in the 
houses at Kew. The bunch of frnits now figured was 
forwarded to Kew by a Oovent Garden agent, who 
had received it from the Azores as a "peculiar Palm 
truit, which might be obtained in quantity from that 
inland." The diamefier of the bunch was 12 inches. 
The fruits were not mature, consequently they did 
not .."ontain the large seeds which this specii s gene- 
rally produces abundantly. In this respuct, and also 
in the fiuit bciiif; ooriaceousdry, and inedible, M. 
Ensete differs from the Banana proper, M. sapieutiim. 
The soft inside of the "stem" (really the foluing 
bases of the leaves), is, according to the traveller Bruce 
the best ot all vegetables. When boiled, it has the 
taste of the best new Wheat-bread not fully baked. 
Only the white " heart" of the stem is eaien ; this is 
v.'fll boiled, eaten wii,h milk or butter, and it is whole- 
some, nourishing, and easily digested. M. Ensete ie a 
native of Abvssinia and equatorial Africa, but it is 
now widely distrilxited in the tropics. Young plants 
of it are u^ed for summer effect in the London pavka. 
According to the Kew Bulletin, the total weight of a 
single plant grown in the tropics is about a quarter of a 
j/Sn, — Ourdcnera' CItronicle, Feb. 3. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
InteW'R Tka Chests. — Grocrs rot infrequently 
complain of the bad coucli ion of the tea chesis they 
receive. This is a strong argument in favour of the 
use of patent tea chents. The grievance was made 
the subject of a resolution at the Grocers Association 
to be sent to tea importers. At a General Purposes 
Committee of the Federation of Grocers' Associations, 
held at Birmingbim last week, Mr. Pitts proposed 
the following resolution on beh^ilf of the North- 
ampton A-sociation : " That the members of 
this Association desire to bring before the 
General Purposes Committee the condition of 
tea chests as now used (more especially those 
containing Ceylon tea), green sappy wood being em- 
ployed in their manufacture, thereby depreciating the 
value of the tea, and would urge upon the General 
Purposes Committee the desirability of making ad- 
vances in the proper quarter with a view of obtaining 
a remedy." Since the matter was brought to his 
notice, be said he had made inquiries, and he fonnd 
that ,there was a tendency to pack tea in chests made 
of green sappy wood. The grievance was due to 
unsuitable timber being used in the manufacture of 
the tea chests for the Indian and Ceylon plantations. 
The remedies suggested were that the planters mutt 
more carefully select and dry the timber from which 
they made the chests. The members of his o:vn as- 
sociation were «f opinion thtt thex'e was just cause 
for serious comp'aint, as there was considerable loss 
sustained by the tea dealers and retailers. If 
this was a grievance theti it was their duty to find a 
remedy for it. They might add to that another griev- 
ance — and that was in regard to charges for wrappers 
on chests and packages. They were charged at the 
rate of Is for a chest, and 9d for half a chest, and he 
held it to be a most unjust charge. It did not cost the 
importers anything like that amount, and why they 
should want to make a profit out of the traders in that 
matter was unaccountable. For his own part he never 
paid these charges, and he always deducted half the 
char'ge, though some members paid the full amount. 
Mr. James seconded the resolution, remarking that Mr. 
Pitt's statement, that he only paid half the amount 
for the wrappers, was a lesson to him, because he 
always paid in full, and he certainly thought 
it a most exorbitant charge, and one that 
should be considerably reduced. Councillor 
Gower suggested, as a representative of a tiuplate 
district, that BIr. Pitts should advocate the use of tin 
chests instead of wood. Jlr. .Jump said he had not 
Eersonally had experience of any of the bad chests, 
ut he had noticed that some of the Ceylon chests 
broke up very easily. The wood seemed to have 
contracted, and in some cases the tea was slightly 
damaged. He would suggest that thty should bring 
the matter before the attention of the Indian and 
Ceylon tea importers in London, and he had no doubt 
that it would be productive of beneficial results. Mr. 
Pitts agreed that the resolution should be sent to the 
various associations of tea importers, and the resolu- 
tion was carried unanimously. 
The Vioeeoy's Visit to Assam.— ,If, as cabled from 
India, the Viceroy is to pay a visit to Aesam next 
month it will be a historic occasion, no previous 
Viceroy having visited the province. His Excellency, 
it is said, is going right into the interior, to Gowhatty, 
for the purpose of seeing the actual condition of the 
tea plantations.— .B. ^ C. Mail, Feb. 9. 
TO TEST IVORY FOR GENUINENESS. 
As ivory is extensively emt>loyed, and costs 
about si,\ shillings per pound, it has been attemp- 
ted to substitute a cheaper snbstaTice having the 
same appearance. For about forty yeais an article 
has been in use in this industry which has its 
origin in the vegetable kingdom, being derived 
from the nut of a palm-like shrub called PhyteU- 
phas niacrocarpa, whose fruit ha» a very white 
