876 
plants, and another class called carnivorous, 
which feed on flesh, and the one can no more 
live on the food of the other than a fish can 
live on the land, or a cow in the water. So with 
plants, we have three great families, reckoned 
from a manurial point of view, to which all 
plants belong ; and, as a rule, what is food for a 
crop of beans, peas, or clover, speaking roughly, 
is no more food for a cabbage or ryegrass than a 
bunch of clover is for a dog, or a pouud of steak 
to a bull calf. In speaking of our own food, we 
have a proverb which says, ' That what is one 
man's meat is another man's poison,' and al- 
though this is only true of the human race in 
extreme and isolated examples, it is an ever- 
present fact in the case of the food of plants. 
In the neighbourhood of dense forests, the air 
near the ground is moister and the dew heavier 
than in the open country. A guage placed upon 
the crowns of the trees in forests, collects more 
rain than one outside at the same height. Well 
stocked forests are a perfect shelter against 
scorching winds. There is no doubt as to their 
value in protecting the soil and regulating the 
natural drainage, while they diminish floods 
and control torrents. 
The Repopulation op Palestine. — Practical 
steps have at last been taken towards founding a 
colony of Russian and Polish Jewish exiles in 
Palestine. Finding that the funds at the disposal 
of the Chovevi Zion Association and those that 
are likely to come in are limited, and that it is not 
considered advisable to establish a colony with 
less than a hundred families, the committee have 
negotiated with the New York and Odessa 
societies, and arranged to purchase, through the 
intervention of Baron Edmond de Rothschild a 
tract of land, forty miles east of Lake Tiberias, 
which is described as extremely fertile. The cost 
of the land is two thousand pounds only, of which 
sum about two-thirds are already in hand. The 
general emigration will, we learn, be preceded 
by a pioneer mission, for which also funds will 
be required. It will consist of ten or twelve 
young men, who raust leave their families and go 
out prepared to rough jt," to live in tents and 
till the land, to make paths and roads and to 
sink wells, When this work is done the first 
set of families will be sent out ; and from year 
to year others will follow as their resources 
increase. 
The Consul for Sweden and Norway at Bombay 
writes to say that as the seed of Wagner's improved 
Lathyrus sylvestris and that of the wild variety 
are very much alike, the latter is sold for t)ie 
former, with the result that the properties in the 
former do not appear. The Consul offers to 
put correspondents in the way of getting the best 
and hardiest seed at a fair price, and give any 
information about the plant. 
The total import of palm oil into England is 
about 60,000 tons valued at over £1,000,000, but 
it is considered that this is an exceedingly small 
trade , compared to what might be the case 
were the enormous resources fully utilized. 
Besides being used in the manufacture of soap 
and candles, palm oil is used in the process of 
preparing tin plates. Its non-drying qualities 
render it valuable as a preservative of the 
surface of the heated iron sheet from oxidation 
until the moment of dipping into the bath 
of melted tin, the sheets being rapidly transferred 
to that from the hot oil bath, which consists 
almost entirely of palm oil. 
The students of the School of Agriculture visited 
the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, and the 
Dematagoda slaughter-house, last term. 
At the last meeting of the School of Agriculture 
Improvement Society, Mr. Nallatamby reda a 
paper on the Palmyra Palm. 
Mr. J. T. de Silra of Moratuwa (an old boy, 
now engaged in work under the Forest Depart- 
ment) writes : — There is an enormous granitoid 
rock at the foot of a hill in this (Pasdum) Korale 
known as Pahingala by the villagers who hold it 
sacred, and have built near it a temple. At one 
time wild beasts sought shelter under it, but it is 
now believed by the villagers to be the abode of 
a very large bird called by them " raja-kurulla" 
or royal bird. Great numbers of bats also seek 
shelter in the hollows of this rock, and the 
excreta of these birds have been collected by 
the villagers for manuring their fields. 
