June 1, 1900] Supplemeni to the "Tropical AgriculturisL" 
865 
were particularly pleased with the quality of the 
honey in the samples of comb we sent for their 
inspecliou. 
Mr. Alexis Teysloff, a Eussiau gentleman, who 
lately called here with tlie Director of the Colombo 
Museum, was particularly interested in our ex- 
periment, and carried away specimens of the 
typical inhabitants of the hive which were 
asphixiated of means of the Cyanide bottle." 
We have forwarded to Mr. Teysloff the papers on 
bee-culture, together with desciiptions of the 
different types of Ceylon bees, which have 
appeared in this Magazine. 
Our latest venture in apiculture is of a novel 
character, viz., an attempt to domesticate Ajn'sjiorea 
(the na.tive Dandmvef). Tliis bee is described by the 
late Mudaliyar Jayatilleke (^who may be considered 
the pioneer in Ceylon apiculture) in a paper read 
befoie the jRoyol Asiatic Society as an unprofitable 
bee, producing very little honey, though the honey 
is much esteemed by the natives as being cooling 
and delicious in flavour. Mr. Jayatilleke thus did 
not consider the bee adopted for rearing purposes. 
Another authority, however (Mr. Benton, an 
American apiarist, who visited Ceylon and studied 
our native bees in 1881), gave it as his opinion 
that it should be possible under favourable circum- 
stances to induse Apis fiorea to build parallel 
combs. 
Observing a swarm of these little bees on the 
branch of a cacao tree near our office, and remindful 
of Mr. Benton's authoritative opinion as regards the 
possibility of domesticating them, we lost no 
time in securing the lot with the help of Mr. J. A. 
Eodrigo, Manager of the Government Dairy (who, 
by the way, is getting quite au fait in the handling 
of bees) and inserting them in a box hive. At 
present the little bees are still under imprisonment, 
being artificially fed, and we shall look forward 
with interest to the result of our attempt to 
domesticate them. So far as we are aware this is 
the first attempt to rear Apis fiorea under modern 
conditions. Mr. Benton, himself, is said to have 
carried some of these bees as far as Cyprus, but as 
he reports '"an accident ha])pened soon after to the 
queen of my little bees, and now they are no more." 
Let us hope our experiment will be attended with 
less disappointing results. 
^ 
SEEDLESS PLANTS. 
Much interest has always attached to the fact 
that sugar cane is practically a seedless plant. 
Notwithstanding the fact that it arrows in the 
tropics, throwing up a long tassel or panicle, 
bearing seeds, these as a rule are imperfect and 
■will not reproduce the cane plant. The rare ex- 
ceptions that ai'e now engaging scientific attention 
in some quarters of the tropical world are matters 
of great interest, but do not materially affect our 
main proposition. "We |are led to these remarks 
from the fact that the U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture has been making some experiments with 
seedless plants, and below we give the following 
; ■ remarks tliereon of the Nexo York Sun, which 
• bring out very clearly these singular qualities in 
some of our well-lcnown plants, A careful reading 
' of the same will be of value to those interested iu 
the sugar industry, giving them a better compre- 
hension of the whole subject matter : — 
" Under modern methods of cultivation the seeds 
of our best varieties of fruits can easily be dis- 
pensed with, as they are of little practical value. 
Seedling stock, raised from the wild or common 
varieties, answer the purpose as well as the rare 
or choice trees, and their usual combinations of 
hardiness and virility influences the budded scions 
for good. Nature has already anticipated horti- 
culturists in dispensing with the seeds and de- 
peiuling upon other methods of propagation. The 
banana, for instance, is a seedless fruit which 
Nature has apparently changed through some 
peculiar process. Rudimentary .'^eeds are to be 
fouiid in the fruit to-diiy. By slitting the banana 
down lengthwise rows of the rudimentary seeds 
will be exposed to view. Undoubtedly at one time, 
in its primitive wild state, the banana propagated 
itself by means of seeds, but the use of suckers for 
this purpose gradually made the seeds of less and 
less value. Following out the law of Nature, 
tl'.e seeds, becoming useless organs, degenerated. 
Occasionally a banana is found that does propagate 
itself by means of its seeds, or at least perfect seeds 
are produced in the fruit which can germinate. If 
for any reason the suckers of this plant should fail 
to do the work intrusted to them, it is not un- 
likely that Nature would reinstate the seed organs 
and develope tliem gradually to their really res- 
ponsible position. 
"The pineapple and cauliflower are two other 
common illustrations of how Nature occasionally 
dispenses with seeds. The pineapple is almost 
seedlese, and, like the banana, its propagation is 
entirely by suckers. The seeds are in a low, rudi- 
mentary condition, but at one time they must 
have had their function to perform in life, and 
they aie capable, under stress of circumstances, to 
reriew their vitiility. The type would not be ex- 
terminated if the suckers should fail to perpetuate 
the plants. All the resources of the plants would 
go to the assistance of the seeds to develop and 
vitalize them once more. -This has been found 
possible by experiment. By selecting the pine- 
apple with the most promising seeds, and pro- 
pagating them by the usual process the seed 
organs have gradually been developed until they 
are able to reproduce their kind. 
"The egg-plant is more interesting than either 
the banana or pineapple. There we have a fruit 
which is only occasionally seedless. That the 
seeds are really immaterial to the welfare of the 
X)laut is evidenced by the fact that perfect fruits 
are 'often developed whether the blossoms are 
fertilized or not. In the hands of the horticul- 
turists it would be an easy matter to produce egg- 
plants that would have only the slightest trace of 
rudimentary seed organs, or vice versa, it would 
be impossible to develop a class of fruits that 
would be supplied with an abundance of large 
full-grown seeds. 
"Nature's hints, thus supplied in a few isolated 
cases, have been the opportunities of man to raise 
a class of seedless fruits. Sometimes it is merely 
a freak of nature that happens only ouee or twice 
in a generation, and if the opportunity is missed 
the loss is great. To this origin we owe our fine 
California navel orange (Bahia) which is generally 
