Feb. 1, 1899.j THE TROPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 
569 
January afternoon of 1899. We have seen a finer 
lloial ilis|iliiy on certain previous occasions under 
Mr. Muck's care, and we are pained to see some 
valuable introductions looking drooping and 
sickly. The explanation we got is the blighting 
drought of the past year, the sliort water supply, 
and ihe want of means to tight the drought by 
suoplenienting the watering from the abundance 
not far oil'. This seems very hard — a tienny-wise 
and pound-foolish policy on ihepartof the author- 
ities whoever they may be ; for, of course, in a 
matter of this kind, the old adage is true that 
"a stitch in time saves nine." NVe strongly 
advi-je the Superintendent that the ne.Kt time a 
severe, drought occuis, he should try and com- 
pass a visit hoiu the Governor, or at least some 
leading member of the Executive. How much 
can a liberal-minded CJovernor not do in respect of 
a public resort and institution, such as the Hak- 
gala Gardens—" a boon and a blessing " to all 
visitors to, and denizens in, the Sanatarinm and 
neighbourhood— and yet kept up at how little 
cost! An addition of 500 or at most of 1,000 
ni[)ees to his usual vote would, we verily believe, 
be regarded as a little fortune to Mr. Nock. 
Question him as to the Governor who, in his 
tin>e, has manifested most interest in Hakgala, 
and he frankly names Sir Arthur Gordon ; bub 
he adds, — we owe protection for our plants and 
flowers from hare and other enemies, to that 
admirable wire fence and netting granted through 
the direct personal interest of oui- present (gov- 
ernor Sir West Kidgeway. His Excellency 
deserves special thanks from the growing number 
of visitors to Hakgala ; and we trust he will see 
before he leaves that the Gardens ave provided 
with a permanent, well-distributed water supply 
— :i work of comparatively trifling expense — from 
the stream or spring not far off on the mountain- 
side. 
What have the Gardens to shew us on the 
present occasion ? We are most struck with the 
wonderful growth of some of the introduced 
timber trees, and what planter, forester, Govern- 
ment Agent or intelligent colonist and native 
in the island will not be interested to learn that 
a Cnpressus macrocar/a (a Californian tree) 
recently cut down gave no less than 828 superficial 
feet of one-inch boarding of very considerable 
width —specimens of which may be seen in a rustic 
" arbour" recently erected by Mr. ISock at a 
delightful vantage-point opposite a little lake 
where one of the water-plant.s in flower smells 
exactly like English hawthorn. This arbour 
with its shingled spire as well as roof ; its peeled 
rhododendron tiny Inanches serving for the ornate 
rnslic work in the sides and its convenient seats 
and table of the Macrocarpn, is a model to be 
co()ieil, as far as possible, in estate and villa 
gardens for thirty miles round. Bur if Mr. Nock 
had to fell one giant tree, he has many still 
remaining. Another Macromrpa that towers up, 
spire like to a great height would proViably 
yield over 1,000 feet of .similar boarding. Then 
there are the '^ia,x\d Auracarias— a. " Monlczuina" 
(Mexican) exceedingly line, and yet not more 
altiactiNft than its brethren of the Far East and 
Soul h— the Moreton Hay pine which we recall 
admiring thirty years ago in its native (^tueens- 
land, anil the still liner Norfolk Island jiine. 
Some line specimens of Cu/Jirssus torulum, 
Cri/jilutinrvi japonira and Ccdrclu toona 
attra't attention, and still more a magnilioent 
Piiitis loriijifulin ; while we always stop at some 
of the "gums" — the peppermint and lemon- 
scented, and still more one whose bark is covered 
with a red jjowder which the natives have 
already turned to medicinal account, linding it 
useful in dysenteric attacks. Mr. Nock — who 
fortunately is able to spare half-an hour, making 
the visit doubly interesting — points out the Chilian 
(fan) palm with its wax-covered leaves from which 
in South America as much as 201b of wax for candles 
are gathered from a single tree in South America. 
Next to the giant and ornamental trees in inter- 
est, come the fcree-ferns. Who ever tires of look- 
ing at the graceful feathery fronds of the finest 
of Ceylon, as it is the most beautiful of Asiatic 
(if not of world-existing) ferns, the Alsophila 
crinita which may be seen in th« jungle along 
the Nanuoya and Hakgala roadsides as well as 
in the Gardens. It is intlecd the (^aeen of tree- 
fern.=s and bears camparison with the most in- 
teresting of introductions. One of these, a For- 
mosan tree-fern, wa? given to the Gardens by the 
colonist who, of all others, took most interest ia 
them, the late Capt. Bayley, P. & 0. Agent, 
while two specimens of Dicksonia anartica 
presented by Mr. W. H. Wriglik, the veteran 
planter and horticulturist, must have come from 
Australia by his friend, Capt. Murray, Commander 
in the same service. How much has the good 
old P. & 0. Company done one way or other 
for Ceylon — directly or indirectly— in carrying 
Wardian cases of plants, or in presenting rare 
specimens through its otticers and agents: let u« 
not be ungrateful ! The Elkhorn-fern and the 
New Zealand silver tree-fern are always interest- 
ing, as also the "John Crow-bush" of Jamaica, 
now freely seen in Nuwara Eliya Gardens, which 
reminds us that the finest specimen of the "Soap- 
tree" (whose scientific name escapes us) is not 
in Hakgala, but in the grounds of Naseby Cot- 
tage, a great handsome tree 30 to 40 feet high 
with silvery birch-like stem and leaves, whose 
bark offers a capital substitute for soap ! Thit 
recalls another economic product in wliich Mr. 
Nock is much interested — Camphor from the well- 
known Formosan tree which flourishes well in the 
Gardens and from the leaves of which camphor 
has been readily distilled by Mr. Owen of Ein- 
dula ; while tlie range of tlie tree is so great 
that Mr. Nock believes the finest group in the 
island i.s that reported by Mr. Corrie on the 
property of the Udagama Tea and Timber 
Company in the Galle district. Among minor 
products, camphor should not be despised and 
we may yet see it more freely patronised by 
Ceylon planters than even rubber, considering its 
ready growth at all elevations and the handsome 
attractive (cinnamon-like) cliaracter of the tree. 
Another group of economic plants in the Gardens 
are the Agaves (although they niay grow more 
luxuriously lower down) and we are interested 
in Arjavc Morrisii recently called after Dr. Morris, 
of whose labours in the West Indies, so much is now 
expected. The huge Abyssinian banana with 
leaves 10 to 12 feet long, set off by scarlet mid- 
ribs, oilers a striking contrast to the tiny China 
variety with its pretty flower. The tree fuschia 
often mistaken for lilac, leads us to the balsams, 
one of the finest of the latter being called after 
the t;randfather of Mr. Ciiajjuian Walker of 
Colombo, Impnfit'H^ Wulkerii, Colone' and Mrp. 
Walker being among the most accomplished 
botanists who ever resided in Ceylon. Str.mgely 
enough, their son. Colonel Walker who uame 
here in command of the 2nd-25th (K (). B.) in 
the " sixties," was also a botaniit who niucli 
enjoyed talks with the late W. Ferguson, K.L..S. 
