i04 
tttU TROPICAL AaRiCULTURiST. 
[Aug. 1, 1901. 
much as the rest of the world put together— its 
position is financially HOiind'. The tendency coiitiouea 
for business to come into tho hands ef the large special- 
lists, whether Dealers, Blenders, or Distributors, who, 
by absorption or purchase, seem to be getting the 
trade under their control at the expense of the smaller 
vendors. If this entails risk of possible corn;^iuation 
of bnj'ers ugainst seilors, it finds some compeusntion 
in the larger financial resources they command aud 
their greater power of holdint; stocks. 
It is of importance to growers that those who buy 
and pay for their produce should be fimincifilly strong 
and doing a profitable business ; and we believe the 
Trade have had a good year, thnugh just now they 
are overstocked. Retailers having raised their prices 
to the exti-nt of the rise in duty a yt-ar ago, and 
having bought the crops for about Id. per lb. less 
than before, it might be thought th>it they had 
made Id. per lb. more profit on all they have 
Fold to the public : but th>-y have not done i hat, for 
although their quotations may be 21. higher the aver- 
age of their sales is not. A great number of consum- 
ers pay no more now than when the duly was 4d., and 
it is owin.! to this . hat the increased tax has injured 
the growers ; consumers in the aggreg ate are only 
paying a portion of it and producers are paying the 
rest; the middlemen are untouched while those of 
them who took the 40 million lb. out of bond 
before- the Budget last year and have filled their 
stores with free sugar have made additional 
profits. 
Our Export Trade is also healthy and growing ; it is 
larger, indeed, than it has been for many years, 
notwithstanding that we have lost so much of the 
China trade that used to pass throueh London, but 
is now done direct. Nine years ago the total was 
about 37 million lb., of which only 7 million lb. were 
Indian or Caylon ; in the interval the volnine of busi- 
ness has been KraJr.ally contracting but during the 
past season it has risen to 4;-5 million lb., millions 
of this being Hiitish-grown tea. 
We have said thei • is encouragement for producers 
even in the statistics of such nf bad season as the last 
has been : we find it in the fact that the world is now 
largely dependent upon India and Ceylon and in the 
evidence that the use of our tea is increasing. It is, 
therefore, not an exaggeration to say that Planters 
hold the key to the position, and by combined action, 
resolutely followed on the lines indicated, have it in 
their power to recover a considerable degree of 
prosperity. 
PARASITIC PLANTS. 
A LECTURE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTIOX. 
Al; the Koyal Institution, on Satuiday 
Profes.soi" J B Farmer gave tlie ficst of two 
lectures on the " Biological Cliaracter.s of 
Epiphytic Plants." Epiphyte.'!, he explained, 
differed from parasites in demanding only lodging 
from their host, without also e.xacting a food 
supply. Permanent humidity was necessary for 
them, and they were found at their beat in tropical 
forests. From their modeot life ti»ey derived the 
advantages that they were raisedup to the light and 
were enabled to occupy a space which every kind 
of plant was tiot qualified to fill ; the great dis- 
advantage was the preeaiiousness of the water 
supply. Plants could only manufacture food when 
the light was sulKoiently strong and their cells 
were turgiit. If the water-.supply was scanty orinter- 
niittent they could either expose le.ss green foliage 
and HO le.ssen transpiration, or store water, or in 
rare cases endure being (piite dried up. In ote 
cactufe (Phipsalin) there were no leaves, the green 
Rtcims taking on their functions. In Peperomia 
the leaves were fleshy, with a water-jacket on the 
upper surface. The band of green ti-ssue was thin, 
aud above it were iiumeroiw rows of water- holding 
cells ; as the water was used these collap<ied and 
the leaf became thinner, thus pieveniing the 
entrance of air. Many orchils had two kinds of 
loots, one for attachment, tl e other for the stoi- 
age of water. The latter were covered with a coat 
of strong- walled eel's which Would so.-ik up water 
like a spontie, P^eudobullls, i. e., thickenings 
at the base of the stem and leaves, contained 
niucilagiiious cells, which a'so retllin^d water. 
When Myrmerodia was discovered in Java it was 
thought to be an ant's nest which had turned 
into a vegetable. Its tuberou.-i ba>e was chan- 
nelled with galleries inhabited by ants, wliicli were 
supposed to protect tlie plant from enemies. This 
theory, however, would not hold, for seeds grown 
at Kew developed plants with galleries and 
openings to the exterior, although no ants were 
present. The real use of the'galleries was to 
aid res|)iration. Another oicliid had fleshy 
leaves, some slimy inside and others modified iiilo 
pitchers wliich caught the drops of water falling 
from ilie boughs on which tiie plant grew. By 
means of a root, running from the base of efteh 
leaf into this p'tcher, the plant could utilise the 
Wileria times of drought — London Times, Jane 3. 
THE MANIA FOR CHE.\P PRODUCTION 
OF TEA. 
WUKRt: THE LONDON AGKNT.S AND DlRECXOflS 
DO HARM. 
This wild mania for cheap production swamps 
everything, without looking at ulterior results. 
What does it matter what it costs a manager fco 
turn out his teas, so long as he gives a profit? 
Why look to cheapness if it is obtained at a loss 
in the price realized ? It is this incessant desk 
work of irresponsible Directors without experience 
that has ruined half the big companies in India, 
and brought some to the verge of bankruptcy ; 
and, unless stopped, will bring more. The 
manager of an estate is the best judge of how much 
money he should require, and, as long as it reveals 
a decent profit on overturn, should not be inter- 
fered with, unless in a fair honest way ; in fact, 
as a rule, should require little or no criticism. 
What does it matter if A's tea cost 5 annas to 
nialce, if it realises 6, whilst B's costing 4 annas, 
sells for 3i? Some of our readers may quibble 
at our remarks, but let them follow the result 
of gardens last year, and they will find every 
word we have written verified. In the case of 
one company, which paid a dividend upon the 
prospective prices of the remainder of its crop, 
and afterwards revealed a loss, the Directors make 
as an excuse the exceedingly bad prices realised, 
the fault, they say, of tlie unfortunate manager, 
entirely forgetting that they had told him plainly 
how much tea lie had to make, not asking 
him. If any one will mark the changes in the 
Directorate of many of our leading companies 
during the last year or two, a noticeable feature, 
they will find, will be the eager way in 
■ which old, retired and successful planters are 
pounced upon as a panacea for the present 
troubles ; and in many cases, no doubt, they have 
done an immensity of good in restraining the 
spirit of government by mandate, which has of 
late years but too much made itself evident in the 
instructions communicated by London Boards te 
the local management. Of course there are excep- 
tions to this, as in everything else j but we speak 
