78 
THE TROPICAL AGRICrLTURIST. 
[Jak. 2, 189d. 
MliRYTA SINCLAIRI. 
(THE PUKA TREE.) 
In reference to the very interesting letter of 
Mr. Loscaweu's iu our last issue, we may now 
cite the following passage from Kirk's Fvrtnl 
I'lora of jS'eii! /.ealand : — " This noble species is 
one of the rarest plants in the world, being 
restricted to a few individuals growing on one or 
two small islands near the northern extieniity of 
the colony ; its leaves are larger than those of any 
other plant with entire leaves in the New Zealand 
flora. It does not oocui. on any part of the main- 
land, lu IBtil) Professor iluaoii and m^ae.f viiiter, 
the larauga It.laud<<, wheie wc had the good foitnue 
to find a few trees which had loiig heen known to 
the idaoris, when a description was published in the 
'I'vaHnactions oj the Xcio Zealand laslUutc' The plants 
found at that visit were confined to old Pala3ozoic 
rocks on one of the small islands of the group. Mr. 
Robert Mair has recently discovered a few plants on 
another island ; and T. F Oheeseinan has found a 
single plant on the largest island, which is entirely 
volcanic. The plant forms a small tree from I'J 
feet to 25 feet high, with stout branches ; it is charged 
with a peculiar resin in all its pans, and the bark 
is easily wounded, producing large callosities aa it 
heals. The leaves are alternate, crowded near the 
extremities of the branches, and carried on long leaf- 
stalk, which vary fro m •! mches to 11 mchea in length, 
the blades being from 9 inches to 20 inches long, many 
of the leaves were 30 inches long, including the leaf- 
stalk, and from 4 inches to 10 inches bioad, equuUy 
rounded at botii cuds, or slightly contracted below 
the middle, with the margins slightly waved, and 
strengthened by -a remarkably atout marginal nerve. 
They are of a thick tex'ure and bright-green colour. 
The male and female flowers are deV' loped on -e- 
parate trees, and sre arranged in panicles f ( m 8 
inches to 16 inches long at the extremities of the 
branches. Meryta Sinclairi is of great value as an or- 
namental tree, and is easily cultivated iu Auckland, 
Taranaki, and Hawke's Bay, but is unable to resist 
the light frosts experienced at Wellington. It is 
easily propagated from seeds, and, under cultivation, 
makes a handsome symmetrical tree, very different 
in habit from the somewhat naked irregulaily-branched 
trees on the Taranga Islands. The finest cultivated 
specimen is one raised by Mr. Justice Gillies from a 
cutting brought from the Taranga Islands in 1869. 
Its present height is 2.5 feet, the trunk is 4 feet 8 
inches in circumference, and the spread of its branches 
28 feet. Meryta Sinclairi is only known with certainty 
to be found on two or three islands of the Taranga 
gronp, opposite the entrance of Whangarei Harbour, 
in the province of Auckland district. It is reported to 
"row on th(, Poor Knights, further to the north, and 
may possibly occur on one of the Three Kings Islands, 
about thirty miles from the North Cape." A specimen 
of the tree, 3 feet in height, is irowin the Temperate 
House at K.&vi.—G-ardeners' Chronide, Nov. 19. 
THE KOLA-NUT IN THE CENTRAL 
SOUDAN. 
f From " Haumhind'" hi/ C. H. Robinson.) 
To pass on, ther, to the import trade of Kano, 
there is one article scarcely known even by name 
in Europe, which far and away surpasses )n im- 
portance every other article of commerce through- 
out the whole of the Western and Central Soudan. 
Thoin^h not found originally in any part of the 
HiUisa States, theie is nevertheless no village or 
himlel. however small or remote, in w!ach u is not 
constantly used. The avtick-. to which I is ibe 
kola mU.. It is the profluct of a tice ..-ailea " -^.er- 
ouli-> -icuminala," which is found in ^rextest perfection 
in the couni-rv to the. back of the Gold Coa^t C .dony. 
It is also found as fiw eaft as the nver Gambia, and, 
with more or less frequency, in all the intervening 
country. The fruit resembles a large sized chestnut, 
" • Trns. N: ■Z..Inst.> vol. ii., p. 101. 
Bud is encaaed in long podE, each containing fou 
to six nuts. It grows like cbesnate, in buncbea 
of three or four on the tiee. Kouud the kolanat 
there is ueuallay black hue, soraeiiiueB two, at which 
it can be d vided or subdivided. The colour ie' 
generally biick red, though in some cou.jtrieb, e-peci- 
ally in the fjr west, tliere ere all surtt oi m'.feiiiiomttta 
shades betw -en red and wh ti-. In the c-un^rv of 
the Baniburra tribe the kulHUutu pinvb a^j impuriant 
part in private and public lift; the c^dtur iu (Lis 
case has a special Bignihcanct- : a vth'te koln is alu-t ya 
a sigL of friendship and hospitulity ; piopoiuls of inaii- 
age, accept'iucet cr refn-ale, deu^tiot.", dudcra'-njii.-' '>t 
w:'.), etc., arc conveyed i.y the i 'liug o*. « U '.in' or of 
kola^j of the preaciibed colour. T' e k jla from '-unrija, 
whi;h i-. of a uniformly red colour, ib the one most 
ff> qutntly brought to Kano, as it keeps better than 
any other. The most minute care and attention ou 
the part of the merchant is necessary in order that 
the kola-! may reach ihe market in good saku'jle con- 
dition. They are carried for the most part iuKaoo- 
made baekels, each of which contHius ihree or foor 
thuasaiiiis kolas, while two of tbcm form a donkey- 
load If treated with the utmost care, the nuta may 
bo preserved fresh two or even three years, bnt in 
order to secure this they must be ke|jt conetautly 
damp. If exposed to tiie air and allowed to dry, the 
kola opens along the black line mentioned above 
wrinkles and becomes as hard as wood. In this 
condition it has lost ninety per cent of its value. 
During the march the nuts are parked in basket and 
covered with fresh green leaves. Every four or five 
days they ought to be repacked, in order that the 
leaves may be renewed, and tha' the nuts which are 
touched with mildew may be removed. The large 
profits obt linable on the sale of those wh ch r^nch 
the various markets in good conditii'U cuiiifi»i.- ■ 
for she risk and trouble of their carriage. A O" j 
the Kveriige nut costs five cowries ; &t Say, on i e 
middle Niger, seventy to eighty ; at 8okoio, « hun- 
dred ; at Kruo, a hundred and for y to two hundred 
and fifty ; at Euka, on Lake Tchad, two hundred and 
fifty to three hundred. 
What, then, one may naturally ask, are the peculiar 
virtues of ibis fruit, which forms -by far he most 
important article of commerce in the Central Sondan f 
The fact that for generations past it. has been eagerly 
sought after by rich ard poor alike, and that men 
will constantly spend the last fowries they poasesa 
in buying one to chew, seems clearly to show that 
it is something more than a mere luxury. The 
scientific analysis of the nut shows the exi"tence of a 
large quanit y of ta- niu and of an alkaloid analogous 
to theime and caffeine. The natives believe that it 
keeps off the pangs of hunger and enables them to 
work for long periods ■without food. As a stimulant, 
it takes the place which tea aijd coffee occupy with 
us, both of these being here practically unKnown. 
Owing to its extremely bitter and u'jpleasant taste 
we were prevened from giving the 8us*aining 
properties of the kola a fair trial. On the occasions 
when, through lack of food, we would gladly have made 
the experiment, we were unable to obtain the nut. 
Whatever its real virtues may be, it is certain that the 
commercial power of Kano is to a very large extent 
dependent upon the millions of kolas which its market 
contains.* 
If a railway to Uganda be necessary in order to 
check the slave trade there, one to Kano is tenfold 
more necessary for the same reason. If it be 
necessary there in order to secui-e the establishment 
and maintenance of order, how much more is it 
needed here for the Ram« obic^" ! La^tlv, ifaraii- 
■way to Uganda can rea-.nably <■ c'vp^cted to pay 
a dividend, passing as i^ will onriug a great part 
of its length, through districts the natural pro- 
ducts of which are almost valueless, how much safer 
an investment would be offi-ied by one which would 
* For several of the .ihove details in reg.ard 
to the kolannts I am indebted to Colonel Monteira 
ecently published; ' St, Loiiia a Tripoli par 
le Tchad,' 
