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Chinese Ginge7\ — In my last report I ventured to express a doubt as to the correctness of the 
roots sent from Kew under this name, which proved to be Alpinia U-alanga ; and vcij remarks have 
received confirmation from the observations of Mr. Ford of the Hongkong Botanic Gardens. In 
his report for 1890 he states that he saw cultivated extensively in the rich alluvial delta south of 
Canton (whence the " preserved ginger " of commerce is chiefly derived) the ordinary true ginger 
(Zingiber officinale), and believes this to be after all the source of the product. He points out that 
the confusion may have arisen from both the plants coming under the same general name of 
" Keung" in Chinese.* 
Fruit Trees at Hahgala. — Mr. Nock reports : — 
A good many of the European fruit trees started into growth in May, but none have made satisfactory 
progress. The Morella cherries flowered well and produced some fruit. The raspberries, too, bore some fruit, 
but they tiller out so much in their growth that I am afraid they can never be profitably cultivated here. Some 
very fine fruit was produced on the blackberry plants, raised from English seeds — one panicle bearing 72 berries. 
The American sorts have made remarkfibly good growtli, and are now sparselj' showing flower buds. I have 
hopes that they Avill fruit next year. Three varieties of plums received from Japan in February have grown 
very well indeed, and at the end of the year showed numbers of fruit buds. I have every reason to believe that 
these varieties will suit this locality. 
Ullncus. — On this vegetable Mr. Nock further remarks : — 
The crop of Ullucus which was taken up in February weighed 16 pounds. This was the produce of a bed 4G ft. 
long and 4 ft. wide. Another small patch was taken up in March, which gave 21 lb. more. These M'ere the produce 
of 2^ lb. weight of tubers planted. The 25 largest weighed 2 lb. We have had very few applicants for tubers 
of this plant, and unless some one should take up its cultivation for feeding pigs and require a stock of it, I see 
no reason to continue its propagation here. The natives, though they like the tubers very much, have not taken 
to growing it, and its flavour is scarcely such as to lead to its cultivation by Europeans as a table vegetable. 
Palmyra^ Fihre. — The sheathing leaf -stalks of the palmyra, as of many other palms, contains 
a stiff thick fibre, and a new industry in the collection of this has sprung up, under the auspices 
of a Colombo firm, in the north of the Island. These fibres or bristles are much like the " Piassaba," 
so largely exported from Brazil (the produce of the palms Attalea fimifera and Leopoldinia Piassaha) 
for brush-making, and are doubtless exported hence for the same purpose. Immense numbers of 
the palmyra exist in the Jaffna peninsula and the islands near, and it is in the latter especially that 
the business of collecting the leaf-stalks for sale has been carried on by the inhabitants. In 
Elavaitivu the value thus collected in six months was about Rs. 3,000, a great addition to the 
means of the people. Unfortunately, in their eagerness for this easy method of money-getting, 
they have treated the trees so badly that it is reported that in that island alone 1,000 young 
palmyras have been destroyed. As this palm is the principal permanent source of food in the 
country, and is besides of immense utility for timber, fences, &c., it became obviously necessary to 
put a stop to this reckless destruction, and I understand that steps have been taken to regulate the 
fibre industry, which, properly conducted, should become a valuable addition to the means of living 
for the inhabitants. 
Mahogany Trees. — In my report for 1888 (page 7) I recorded the receipt from the Calcutta 
Botanic Gardens of the seed of Siuietenia macrophylla, a new kind of mahogany. Young trees 
from this seed are now very flourishing at Peradenij^a, Anuradhapura, and Henaratgoda, those at 
Peradeniya being about 13 ft. high. This shows a much more rapid growth than the old kind, 
S. Mahogani ; experience in Java is the same, and I saw at Buitenzorg trees sown in December, 
1888, which were 12 ft. high. 
I obtained more seed of this promising tree from Calcutta this year, and have sent 160 of the 
resulting seedlings to the Forest Department to form a small plantation in the North-Western Province. 
The Calcutta Gardens originally received the seed in 1872 as mahogany seed, said to be from 
Honduras, through the India Office ; and Dr. King, on its flowering, named and described it in 
Hooker's " Icones Plant." for November, 18SG (t. 500). Its great advantage over ordinary mahogany 
is that it seeds freely in the Fast, whilst the latter very rarely does so. 
I had occasion to fell a large tree of ordinary mahogany in Peradeniya during the year, and 
found it very sound and free from all defects. The trunk measured, at 6 ft. from ground, 9 ft. 1 in. 
in girth ; another tree growing in tbe Garden is 11 ft. 2 in. in circumference at the same level ; 
Ijoth these trees are, I believe, just fil'ty years old from seed.f 
• Sinop writing' the above I have received the K(w "Bulletin" for January. 1892, in which it is now acknowledged 
that •• in koiik; way a iiiisljike was iiiadi^ in the .soleetion of the plant" in China, and that ''it is probable that none of 
lh<- pn'.Hervcd (.niijfer )H (lerivei from'' (liiltiiujd. 
t TheHf; ineasurements may Wr i'oiii|i;i,rcil willi tliose of trees at Jaffna g-iven at p. 8 of the Report for 1890 of the 
Conttervator of ForewtH, 
