THE TROPICAL AQRICULTURIST [December i, tSgt. 
426 
The similarity in the relations of Teak and Bamboo 
in Burma, and of Oak and Beech in the Spessart, 
has led foresters in both countries to devise similar 
arrangements for the regeneration of these forests. 
In the Speasart, v/hen the old timber in a compart- 
ment of the forest is cut, tlie beat places for the growth 
of the Oak are selected, and the Oak, which here sella 
at the rate of from two shillings to three shillings a 
cubic foot for sound and well-shaped pieces, is sown 
on soil most anitable for its development ; while the 
Beech, the timber of which only fetches about one- 
fifth of that amount, ia allowed to reproduce naturally 
from self-sown seedlings over the rest of the area. 
Among the Oak also a certain but small proportion 
of Beech springs up, and even where pure Oak woods 
may be the result of these proceedings, it will not be 
tlifiicult, when they are sufficiently advanced, to in- 
iroduce such a proportion of Beech aa will secure 
Iheir satisfactory development. In the same way in 
Burma, seclected areas are cleared for the growth 
of Teals; in the original forest, the clearance being 
effected, and the Teak planted, with the aid of that 
rude mode of shifting cultivation, known aa the 
SCoWJgya sjstQm,— -Garden and Forest, 
DATUEA STEAMONIUM, Linn. 
- "Xhoen Apple," "Stink Weed," "Devil's 
Tbumpei." 
A coarse, weedy annual, sometimes attaining a 
■height of 3 or 4 feet. The leaves are very unequal 
in size — the larger ones often 8 or 9 inches long, 
ovate in outline, rather flaccid, the margin undulated, 
and deeply indented with large, irregular incisions, 
forming unequal spreading teeth. Flowers, solitary, 
and shortly stalked, corolla funnel-shaped, white, 
3 to 4 inches long, and about 2 inches wide at the 
mouth, with five spreading or recurved lobes. Sta- 
mens, five, inserted in the corolla tube, and included 
in it. Fruit, about S inches long, thickly set with 
unequal, sharp, rigid spines. The thorn-apple is con- 
eidered by De Candolle to be indigenous to the coun- 
tries bordering the Caspian. It is now spread as a 
weed nearly all over the warmer and temperate parts 
of the earth. In this Colony the seedlings generally 
spring up in September or October, and continue 
growing till April or May, when the plants usually 
file out, although I have seen them growing occasionally 
in winter, but only in very sheltered situations. In 
many places — but principally in the coastal districts 
—the plant may be seen growing plentifully during 
the summer months. When growing in pastures it 
is really a dangerous weed, for I have known it to 
poison milch cows that have partaken of it, and no 
pains shoiild be spared on the part of any one who 
keeps cattle to exterminate it from ©-azing lands. 
When it is allowed to grow undisturbed for a time it 
produces a phenomenal quantity of see3, which will, 
when ripe, germinate readily any time during the ram- 
mer months, whilst there is moisture in the soil, so 
that the area of its occupation gradually widens from 
year to . ear. The very same thing takes place with 
many oth'er intrrodnced weeds, especially those from 
the northern parts of Europe;, and, America ; and, al- 
though they may be strictly annual in those coun- 
tries, often, in a^ good season here, they will pro- 
duce three or four- euccessioaal crops from seed 
ripened at different times in the same year,_ so that 
.:>iur cultivators sometimes have to war against an- 
nua'.^- almost as much as if they were perennials. 
I have very often given the leaves of the "thorn- 
apple plant " to persons suffering from asthma, ?jBd 
recommended thelT to amoke it— but with caution, 
and not too often— .as J^ey would tobacco, and when 
tliey have done so it has g';'?n them great relief. 
When UBod for this purpose tl)c should be par- 
tially dried in some place ;i.\r-', I'. , in Llic i";"uenee 
of the Bun's rays. Bailey mul ' ,vi .i.jji (<,,jueeii;-iJana)' 
include the "thorn-apple plant" in their "I'lants 
Ilcputed PoisououB and Injurious to Stoc)%," and say 
that "the plant ia decidedly poisoHOVia." Much com- 
ment was made in this and the adjoining colonies 
about a notice of the thorn-apple plant published in 
the Si/dneij Mail, 6th April, 1890, by J. H. Maiden, of 
the Technological Museum, Sydney. The writer said, 
amongst other things, that "the plant has a dis- 
agreeable taste, and cattle will not touch it, so that 
stock-owners need have no anxiety about it." To this 
statement Mr. P. E. Gordon, Chief Inspector of 
Stock, Queensland, wrote the following letter to the 
Editor, Sydnen Mail, and it was published on the 19th 
April, 1890: — "In the notice of the abovenamed plant 
in your issue of 5th April, Mr. J. H. Maiden Bays 
'that cattle will not touch it, so that stock-ovmers 
need have no anxiety about it.' In this Mr. 
Maiden is entirely wong. Quantities of this plant 
grow in the neighbourhood of Toowoomba, and there 
have been many deaths in cattle from eating it. 
These deaths have not been mere oases of surmise. 
When the Board of Inquiry into ' Diseases of Live 
Stock and Plants ' (of which I was ex-officio secretary) 
was in existence in this Colony, the stomachs of 
several cattle that had died in paddocks close to 
Toowoomba were forwarded to the Board, and ana- 
lyzed by the late Karl T. Staiger, then Government 
Analyst, and in each instance the analysis showed 
death to have been occasioned by the animals having 
eaten the thorn-apple plant. It may . be remarked 
that in each instance the poisoning was confined to 
quiet milking cattle, and it will be found, aa a rule, 
that mortality from poisonouB plants ia confined to 
quiet milkers, or their progeny. These pet animals 
will nibble at and eat plants that ordinary bush 
cattle will not touch, unless forced to do from sheer 
starvation." 
The following extract is from Bentley and Trimen'a 
Medicinal Plants : — " The activity of both the leaves 
and seeds of Datura stramonium are due to the highly- 
poisonous alkaloid daturia or datunne; and although 
we have no chemical proof of the existence of this 
alkaloid in the other species of datura alluded to under 
the head of substitutes, its presence in them can 
scarcely be doubted .... according to SohrofE, 
atropia has twice the poisonous energy of daturia ; 
whilst Jobert, again, regards datima, when applied to 
the eye, aa about three times as jjowerfnl as a^rcTpid, 
and more constant and lasting in its operation . . 
The properties of stramonium are regarded as ano- 
dyne and antispasmodic, and, in overdoses, a powerful 
poison. It has been found useful in nexuraigio and 
rheumatic affections, in gastrodymia and other pain- 
ful diseases, and some have regarded it aa a very 
valuable remedy in mania and epilepsy, but in these 
diseases it not unfrequently produces injurious effects 
When used during paroxysms of spasmodic asthma 
it commonly gives temporary relief, and facilitates ex- 
pectoration. In the latter disease, and also in dyspnoea, 
catarrhs, and in other cases, the leaves are generally 
smoked, like tobacco, or inhalation from their infusion 
in warm water is resorted to. But its use in these 
ways requires caution, as it has proved highly in- 
jurious, and, in some instances, fatal. In Cochin 
China a strong decoction of the leaves is regarded as 
a very efficacious remedy in hydrophobia." 
The Kev. Dr. Wools, F.L.S., informs me that a 
chiicE 3ied near Richmond from awallovfing the seeds 
Of stvtmoninm.^4p'(cnMvral Qanette. 
GEMMUSfG AND MINING OF CEYLON. 
Searching for gems is obviously a very precariouB 
industry, which has hitherto yielded more blanks than 
prizes. To Ihe long list of-' undertakings which have 
been lormed and worked apparently with the object of 
proving this point may be ad^ed the one whose title 
heB.38 these remarks. Why precious stones should 
elude the vigilance and sioienoe of the expert miner, 
whra backed with any amount, of caxiital supplied by 
the Biitish iavfiator, is the more singular' because euoh 
things are said to literally jump into the laps of the 
«v«itfj/£C', who have neither science to guide them in 
' . --^aroh jaor money wherewith to decoy the preoj- 
tnoir »v., j^jjgjj, jji^jog places. This is a matt 
ons treasures ... _ - -t. , i^ug wfaile past, ana we 
er we have reoognisoa lu* .. " f 
