622 
THS TKGPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March 1, 1900. 
was appointed Saperintendeni; of the first Botanic 
Garden in Ceylon. Formerly Jonville was "clerk* 
tor Natural History and Agriculture ; " being a 
versatile man and an artist, he made a 
valuable collection of plants, wiih drawings, wliicU 
is now in the Jiritisii Museum. In 1810 the 
Botanic Garden was transferred to Slave I.--land, 
the site being named Kew (by which name it 
is still known), in honour of the well-known 
London eelablisliment of that name. 
To give tiie new institution a practical as well 
as scientific character, it was in 1812 put under 
the charge of a qualified " Resident Snperinrend- 
eiit and Head Gardener," viz : Mr. v\'illiam Kerr 
— a shrewd Scotchman and a pioneer of Botany 
in the East — who was transferred from an appoint- 
ment in China. Kerr brought with iiini, it is 
said, a number of Chinese and Japanese plants, 
though obviously but few if any of these could 
have thriven in a climate like thai of Colomi)o. 
He, however, introduced successfully into Euroiie 
several interesting plants from the Far East, and 
his name is commemorated in the beautiful sluub 
Kerria Japonica. In pursuance of his love of 
exploration, Kerr was the first botanist, if not the 
first white man, to ascend our famous Adam's 
Peak. At that time, over a great area of what 
is now cultivated and domesticated, the jungle 
held sway in 
Savage pride and dignity, 
Proclaiming right of native liberty, 
so that malarial fever was rampant, and Kerr 
succumbed to it ia 1814, after a residence here 
of only two years. During his short regime the 
honorific title of Royal Botanic Gardens was he- 
stowed on this department, and in 1813, the site 
in Slave Island being found too limited in extent 
and liable to floods, lie secured the transfei-eiice 
of the botanical establishment to Kalutara, the 
situation chosen this time being a sugar estate 
of 60J acres, which also proved unsuitable for a 
Botanic Garden. X. Y. 
THE CEVLON ANACOMDA. 
Dear Sir, — Could you kindly inform me as to 
what part ot Ceylon is the Anaconda snake found. 
Dr. Annandale's English Dictionary (1886) says 
of Anaconda: "The popular name of two of the 
largest species of the serpent tribe, namely a 
Ceylonese species and a South American species, 
both growing to a length of over 30 ft." — Yours 
truly, PYTHON. 
[The Ciy'on Python or Rock Snake is thus 
referred to in " Tennent's " Matural History : — 
The Python.~The great python* (the .' boa," as it 
is commonly designated by Europeans, the "anaconda" 
of Eastern story), which is supposed to crush the 
bones ot an elephant, and to swallow the tiger, ia 
found, though not of such portentous dimensions, in 
the cionaraon gardens within a mila of the fort of 
Colombo, where it feeds on hog-deer, and other 
smaller animals. 
The niitiv^s oooasioaaUy take it alive, and securing 
it to a pole expose it for sale as «, curiosity. One that 
was brought to m© tied in this way naeasuved seventeen 
fei;t with a proportionate thickapsn : but one more 
fully erown, whinh crossed my pa'h on a coffee estate 
on the Peacock Mountain at I'usilavva. considerably 
exceeded those dimensions. Another which i watched 
* Python retioulafeuB, Grctff. 
in the gard*n at Elie Honse, near Oolombo, Burprised 
me by the ease with which it erected itself almost 
perpendicularly in order to scale a wall upwards of 
ten feet high. 
The Sinhalese assert that when it has swallowed a 
deer, or any animal of similarly inconvenient bulk, the 
python draws itself through the narrow aperture 
between two trees, in order to crush the bones and 
assist in the process of deglutition. 
— Ed. T.A.] 
CEYLON FISHING CLUB. 
TWO INTERESTING LETTERS. 
The following two letters were read at the 
meeting of the Fishing Club held on Tuesday, 
at the Hill Club, Nuwara Eliya :— 
Calsay, Nanuoya. 
The Hon. Secretary, Ceylon Fishing Club, 
Nuwara Eliya. 
Dear Siii,— I emptied my Eainbow trout pond, 
and turned 1-i into Ambawela stream yesterday. 
A few I have kept iu a pond at this Bungalow. This 
is a disappointing result out of 76 fry put iu on the 
27th of April last. The trout were in good condition, 
and were from 5 to 7 inches. — Yours faithfnly, 
G. G. ROSS CLARKE. 
North Cove, Dec. 22, 1899. 
The Hon. Secretary,; Ceylon iEiahing Club, 
Nuwara Eliya. 
Deab Sie,— On Dee. 11th, I emptied the large 
stewpond on the Horton Plains, and captured 13G 
fish, ranging in size from 2 to 64 iuchee. Thirty 
were turned into the river close by and 100 were 
carried down to the lower water and turned into 
Tryers' Pool and adjacent water. They were all 
strong fish. I have reason to believe that some of 
the fry escaped from the pond shortly after they 
arrived and I have seen young fish in the stream 
below the pond that would correspond with the size 
they should have reached. I shall be obliged if you 
will send me a cheque for K23'75 being the amonnt 
I paid for shrimps and food for the fry. — Yours truly, 
(Signed) T. FARR. 
A Ceylon Tea Report for 1899 has 
just reached us from Messrs. Tarrant, Hen- 
derson & Co. We quote one paragraph :— 
Taking the year as a whole, it has been afayour- 
able one for producers. The average price 
throughout for tea has been good. The unfortu- 
nate element, however, in connection with the 
industry, is the fact that demand has niOre and 
more continued to run upon lower grade teas. 
The craze in every part of the world appears to 
be for " Teas for Price," to tne neglect of better 
grades. This is extremely unfortunate from both 
a producer's and a consumer's point of view, and 
is due very largely to the large distributin? and 
advertising firms competing with one another and 
advertising blends at very low prices. This is 
much to be regretted, as the larger proportion of 
lower grades of Indian. Ceylon and China teas 
are quite characterless, and can give but little 
satisi'actiou to the consumer, whUe the better 
classes of tea, as a rule have a distinctive charac* 
ter and flavour, and people who have once tried 
them do not care to go nack to the rubbish put 
before them by the trad e. We may say withont 
hesitation, that the difference between teas sel- 
ling at Id a lb. and 9d a lb. in Mincing Lane, 
in point of intrinsic value at present, is quite 6d 
per lb, so that it is unfortunate that the public 
do not realise that by paying a little more for 
their tea they would get so much better ralue. 
