November 2, iSgi.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
351 
to four feet long and one to two in widtli, forming 
a rather compact head of dark green color, and the 
stem is quite stout in proportion to its length. M. 
Cavendish ii is also propagated by means of suckers, 
the latter being thrown up at the time of fruiting, 
and frequently before this occurs. 
M. cocciiiea is another highly ornamental species, 
and was introduced from Cochin China many years 
ago. This species is of comparatively slender growth, 
and has bright green leaves about three feet long 
and six inches wide, the entire height of the plant 
being from four to six feet. The most striking 
feature of M. cocvinea is the flower-cluster, which is 
terminal and about one foot long, and covered with 
spathes of bright scarlet, making it the most showy 
member of the genus in this respect. It may be 
well grown as a pot plant if it be not convenient to 
plant it out, by giving it a little extra stimulation 
in the form of liquid manure from time to time. 
The Abyssinian Banana, M. Knuele, is now well 
known as a plant for decorative .use, either in-doors 
or out, and is grown from seeds in quite large 
quantities in some connuercial establishments. This 
is probably the largest species of this genus, the stem 
sometimes reaching a height of twenty feet, while 
the leaves are truly immense. The latter are bright 
green in color, with a red midrib and stem, and stand 
out boldly in a si uii-erect manner. The fruit of this 
species is of no value except to furnish seeds, these 
forming the only means of propagation, as M. KiiKele 
does not produce suckers. M. .s H^A z /ya is also a strong- 
growing species, and bears some resemblance to the 
preceding, though possibly more compact in habit, 
and is a native of India. The two last-mentioned 
are the best species to use out-of doors, their leaves 
being tougher than those of most of the others, though 
M. Cavciidishu may also be used in this manner 
if it has not been grown in a close, warm house 
just )'revious to removal outside. M. ^xhrina, also 
from India, is another handsome foliaged species, 
the leaves of which are oblong in shape, and dark 
green in color, irregularly blotched with bronzy red 
and purple. The stem of 31. zehiina is slender, and 
the plant seldom exceeds ten feet in height. Its pe- 
culiar coloring makes it an admirable contrast when 
grown in company with M. tSapie'itum rittata. 
There are some eighteen species in all, but those 
specially referred to are the most useful for deco- 
rative pur^joses, and are all worthy of more extended 
cultivation. 
Holmesburg, Pa. W. H. Taplin. 
— Garden and Foi'est. 
CoppEU Sulphate as a Fungicide. — " The various 
compounds of copper offer efficient protection to 
many cultivated crops against the exceedingly des- 
tructive ravages of fungous parasites. Without treat- 
ment these rots, rusts, mildews, and blights, frequent- 
ly destroy a large proportion of, or even the entire 
products of field and fruit plantations- The applica- 
tions, in the shape of watery sprays, are made so 
readily, and with so little expense in money and 
labour, that everyone intere-ted should at once un- 
dertake the work. The practical results already 
attained, constitue the greatest advance made in recent 
times in the application of science to horticulture. 
A little well-directed effort may be confidently ex- 
pected to return a hundred, or a thousand times its 
cost. Still there is need for much vigilance and 
careful attention to every detail. Mistakes may be 
made even then, and sometimes failures may occur, 
for which existing knowledge may offer no explana- 
tion. But we should persevere, gain all possible 
information upon the subject, and watch well the 
effects in every test. In this way, every one may 
hope to conquer, practically, these insidious and, 
heretofore, invicible, foes." Such are the conclusions, 
after numerous exnerinients, made by Dr. Burrill 
of the Illinois Agricultural Station, and they are in 
conforaiily with general experience in Americaand 
in Franco. When u-ill our poople wake up ? — Oardciurt' 
C'/irouicle. 
BERMUDA IN MAY. 
To the Editor of Garden and Forent. 
Sir,--It is not surprising that the genial climate of 
Bermuda should attract so many winter visitors from 
our northern states. A sea-voyage of less than three 
days, and one which a fast steamer might easily 
make within forty-eight hours, suffices to bring tliem 
to shores that are green the year through, and yet 
an air so equable that the fervors of the summer sun 
are rarely oppressive or enervating, because the heat 
IS so constantly tempered by breezes from the sea. 
The change in the political and social atmosphere 
is quite a,s striking, for the American citizen will 
suddenly find himself in a loyal English colony where 
even the negroes— perhaps the most active and in- 
telligent specimens of their race to be found in all 
the world— speak with a perfect English accent where 
fleet or fortress is forever in sight to manifest the' 
imperial power of Britain, and where a large propor- 
tion of the men one meets on the street wear the 
uniform of her army or navy. 
The great mass of those who flee to Bermuda to 
escape the rigors of winter return in April, so that 
the impressions one receives from a flying visit in late 
May may be worth recording. The islands are not at 
their best until June, it is said, and, perhaps, the 
time is not far away when this will be a fa- 
vorite haunt for the summer tourist from New York 
who could hardly find elsewhere a week or a fortnight 
of rest and change so perfect and so convenient as 
that furnished by a trip over cool seas to these breezy 
islands. 
One need not expect any touch of the sublime in 
the landscapes here, for it would not be possible to 
crowd many natural objects which inspire awe by 
their vastness or sublimity within a long and narrow 
chain of islands containing altogether an area of 
some twenty square miles. But the land, what there 
is of it, is pleasantly diversified in surface, risin"- at 
one point to an altitude of some 200 feet; and the 
ever-present sea of itself suffices to insure every wide 
prospect against the charge of being tame or com- 
monplace. One charm of the sea, by the way, is its 
marvellous and indescribable color, for the water over 
these coral reefs outrivals the azure of the sky in the 
richness and depth of its blue. There are occasional 
inland views where, in happy valleys, the sea is shut 
out of sight by encirchng hills, and here, at times 
one is reminded of New England, with roads winding 
along Pine-woods with an undergrowth of Ferns No 
Pines are here, it is true, but the Bermuda Cedar, 
at a little distance, constantly suggests the Pine 
and on a nearer view it shows so close a relation 
to our common Red Cedar that there ia nothing 
strange or unfamiliar in its presencs, although the 
species is confined mainly to thete islands. When 
Juan Bermudcz, nearly 400 years ago, was feeling 
his way along the treacherous reefs which surround 
them, be saw the islands covered with forests of these 
trees, which then attained to stately proportions. 
These forests have been cut and re-cut since, and yet 
they form the most conspicuous growth upon the 
island to-day; indeed, the larger proportion of the 
surface seems forest-clad, for wherever the land is 
left to itself the Cedar "comes in." It would be 
naturally supposed from the shiploads of onions aud 
potatoes that reach our markets from Bermuda in 
the spring that every rod of the scanty territory was 
under plow or spade, but the visitor's first surprise, 
and one from which he can hardly recover during a 
brief sojourn, is, that he rarely finds these articles of 
export growing in large fields— indeed, an acre 
would pass for a codsiderable plantation here— but 
generally in little pockets a rod or so across, where 
the red soil is deep enough to furnish root-room for 
the plants, while all about them the rock is thinly 
covered or thrusts its massive shoulders quite above 
the ground. 
Next to the forests, clothing the hills which slope 
toward the shore, one who for the first time sails in 
sight of them through the tortuous channel wliicli 
leads to Hamilton is struck with the white houses 
which nestle in their foliage. These are all built of 
