702 
THE TtiOPlCAl- AGRICULTURIST. 
[Apkil 1, 18S»9. 
The expenditure catimated oa capital account is 
1119,911 for the upkeep of aoreagi not yei, ia bi «i-.rii4 
and for adaaioii w ihe withering accommodation on 
BaitewarlLe. 
In terms of the arti -.leB of Asi ir;iatio!i M'. W. 
G Gii b .n letiies from tiie Bjard, iia: i« elifjibie for 
re-eiirctiun. 
The II (ji>ointmeiit ol an AuiJitor f-ir 'lie oinrent 
y«ar will leat with the m leting.— liy o.u»r of the 
Dir«olor8, 
Whittall A' Co., Aq»nt« and Secretaries. 
BOTANICAL NAMHS. 
Writes an upcountrv correspondent It 
ie not a little aimisin!?, not to s.-iv ri>licu 
lous, to read in I kIiv's lo.-al 'Tim;-:-;' its 
bold attempt at corroetinj^ liotanical names. 
Or is it an endeavour to coin a new ^en^ri 
name? If the latter, why not intjicatc the 
author by affixing 'Times of Ce>-lon Other- 
wise surely reference to the Peradeniya au- 
thorities would leave no excuse for in' >t ikin;,? 
the familiar generic name Agave, which appa- 
rently is what is meant by ,lr/r/)Y/, thelatte 
never being heard of until its birth today. 
[The auuising part is that the botanical 
names referred to were quite correctly given 
in the Ceylon Obaenwr, ami buTiglerl in being 
taken over.— Ed. T.A.] 
REAUIXG INDIA-RUIBi'.EK PbANTS IN 
DEllKA DUN. 
I received about 4 lb. of Assam India ruljbei- 
seed from the Director, half of which wan sown 
in nursery beds, which were specially prepared 
with one "part jiieces of bricks, one part charcoal 
and oiie part dried covvdung well ground, on the 
23rd April, 1898. This did not germinate till the 
end of the fii-st week of June, 181)8, i.e., it did 
not geruiiiiate till the rains had commenced, 
although the nursery beds were well-watered and 
kept uioist. Of the remainder of the seed, li lb. 
were sown in nursery Iseds on the 7th July, 1898. 
The first lot of the seeds sown germinated well 
but the seedlings being very small and not able 
to catch hold of the soil, were washed away 
when the heavy monsoon rains came. The 
second lots of seed began to germinate five day.s 
after sowing, but the seed Avas so light, that 
much of it was washed away. The remaining f lb. 
of the seed was sown on the 7th July, 1898, in 
16 boxes and flower pots, and the boxes and 
flower pots were kept in the pottine sheds, where 
they could get little light, in the School compound 
and fruit garden. The following was the compost 
in which the seed was sown in boxes and pots ; 
one part, half-inch or smaller pieces of bricks, 
one part charcoal, half-inch pieces, and one part 
leaf mould with a little dried cowdung well ground 
for top dressing. The seed begau to germinate 
five days after sowing and continued to germinate 
till the 15th August, 1898. 
From the nursery beds I got 108 plants of 
India-rubber; the remainder of the plants and 
seeds were destroyed or washed away in 
the monsoon rains, though carefully protected 
with thatch. From the 16 boxes and pots I 
f ot about 1,600 plants, out of which about one 
housand plants have been potted and basketed 
and about QOO plants, being very small are still 
in the boxes. 
From the above experiment I conclude, that 
India-rubber seed requires for its germination 
that the atmosphere snould be well charged with 
moisture, so that the dry season is unsuitable. 
The best time, therefore, to sow India-rubber 
seed at Dehra is during the early part of July ; 
It also germinates in Auguct, but it is alxuoat 
too late, IIS the whole of llic seed wii! not be 
able to geiminati- b<ffor<' tlie atmosphert- begins 
to cool, and alsfi the >ouny; sei-dlingK hi.ve not 
Rulficient time t<j grow before (lie cold season 
begins. Tlie sow ing of llie Iu<lia-rubl>er M.-ed iu 
the open is objectionable ttecanse the rain, either 
directly or indirectly, when tatti(-s are ]iut over 
tlie mu-.^crv beds, destroys and waslies away the 
young seedlings and f.eed. The beiit wa> to grow 
India-rubber seed is to sow the seed In Ixtxea 
and large floMxr jwts in the compost meutloiwd 
above, and place them in potting sheds or 
verandahs, v>here they can receive a little 
light, snd never to allow the toxts and 
iMjts to get dry. The watering should 
be carefully managed, so tliat the seedlings axe 
not routed out and the seed is not washed away. 
HiKBAI.. 
Thk (Jrowth ok tmk .SKKiji.i.N(i. Ai lirsi a jMiir 
of cotyledonary.' leave.'< appear, which are, about 
oiie tenili inch in di.-imeter. orbieularovate. ejnar- 
Kinate, dull gioi-n, iiiiautely |>elioled. AImjvc thebc 
come out a pair of oni>osite leaven. These are 
stipulate (u- .ire also all Micceedinp leaves*, slightlr 
crenale, distinctly emar^-inate, nicmbrnnoiis, with 
faint indications (if arcuate ucr\esu( the ninusea 
of an iutramarjiin.il vein, very shiniiiff )i1mi\ c unt il 
superseded by tlu' next leaf ; one of ilic two 
leaves is somewhat larger (ban i lie other. Alx»ve 
these the leaves are siib-opposite when tliey a|i- 
pear, but soon liecome distinctly alternate bj 
the elongation of the stem, each succeeding one 
larger in size th.in the one next below. ,iiid much 
brighter esiK'cially when fully gro\\ n. Tlie fourth 
leave aljove the cotyledons is altout 1 by "fi in., 
ovate, <lislinctly creimte, emHr>;ina.te. The next 
two leavew. (he .")tliand <>(lt, are oblong, 2 to 3'a 
in. long, still eniar;;ijiate. but the crenations are 
very shallow in the last leaf; lateral nerves 4 
to C pairs, slightly arcuate. Then comes out the 
7th leaf, all liy itself, 3 by 1'2 in., oblong, with 
6 to H i)airs of par.illel nerves and */ to '■\ in- 
termediate ones between, no longer emarKiimtc, 
but acute and almost entire, with a row of white 
glandular <lots along the margins. This is the 
lirst leaf that reveals the identity of the plant 
beyond this the leaves become thicker and thicker, 
the 11th being about as thick as a normal India- 
rubber leivf. By the time the .'jlh leaf appeani, 
a swelling is noticed below the root-col lu-u, which 
Koes on increasing in size, as is seen in Fig. 3. 
Neither hengulensis nor F. religiosa seedling 
has any swelling of this kind. 
Upexdkanath Kanjilal. 
—Indian Forester for March. 
INDIAN TEA. 
(From Baintt *t Co.'s Market Report.) 
Calcutta, Feb. 2S. 
By the conrtesy ©f the Indin Tea Association, 
we are enabled to give th« f illowiog figures shovriog 
tha actaal crop for 1898 : — 
Actual 
Original 
Crop. 
Estimated. 
lb. 
lb. 
As;ani 
62.172,660 
63,851,592 
Carhar 
20,303,496 
22,181.980 
Sylhet 
24.455,496 
26,630.540 
Darjeeling 
7,6.)4,467 
8,144,520 
Terai 
3,424,385 
3.101,600 
Doosrs 
25,717,446 
25.795,480 
Chittaeong 
887,263 
982.000 
Chota Nagpora . . 
155 020 
193,600 
Kangra 
2,070,000 
1,800,000 
Dehra Dun and 
Kumaon(E3timata) 
2.000,000 
2,000,000 
Privata and Native 
Gardens (Estimata) 
4,000,^00 
4,000 000 
152,900,233 
158,«81,.3l? 
