August i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AtSTtlCULTU RIST. 
131 
not endure drought or dry scathing winds. In moist 
rich soils and sheltered positions they grow rampant, 
and add a grace to ordinary shrubs that no other 
hardy exotics can do. 
Again, I should like to ask whence and from whom 
may seeds of Bamboo bo obtained ? The seeds ger- 
minate so readily, and, as General Blunro pointed 
out in 18(16 (Trans. Linn. Soc. Land.), the young 2)lants 
grow so rapidly that it seems a pity the hardier 
kinds of North China, Japan, the Himalayas, and the 
Andes cannot be reared in quantity. 
Where is Arundiiiaria macrosperma of the Southern 
States of America now cultivated in Europe ? One 
of the moat distinct of all the dwarf kinds is one 
from Japan growing 2 feet high. Its leaves are about 
3 to 5 inches in length by 1§ inch in breadth, and it 
acquires a variegated aspect from the withering and 
bleaching of the Margins of its leaves. Can anyone 
tell us the name of this peculiar species ? — F. W. 
Bubiudge. TBambusa tassellata, hort., see p. 578.] — 
Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
LIBERIAN COFFEE, VANILLA &C. 
Experimental cultivation has been carried on for 
some years at the plantation at Mergni in Burraah, 
but according to the report of last year, it cannot 
be said to have achieved much success. Liberian 
coffee was fairly successful, though the plants were 
attacked by white ants, and the cro^r was less than 
in the previous year. Great difficulty has been ex- 
perienced in introducing the coffee for sale, as the 
first year’s crop which was sold to a Burman was not 
properly prepared, and some persons declared that 
it was not fit for consumption. When the present 
Sub-Assistant Conservator of forests took charge he 
suggested that the coffee should be prepared by the 
department itself and sold locally, which was done ; 
and though at first there was some difficulty in finding 
purchasers owing to the bad name acquired by the 
produce of the previous year, it was gradually sold 
off, and the purchasers were ail iileased with its 
flavour. The crop of last year at once found a ready 
sale at Rl-8 per viss, and the supply v;as not 
sufficient for the local demand, the coffee being pro- 
nounced much superior to that sold in the baz.iars. 
The experiments with Arabian coffee proved a complete 
failure, and have been abandoned. The cocoa seedlings 
and plants suffered severely from the attacks of white 
ants, so that only twenty remain of 161. Only two 
of these produced pods, which have not as yet been 
collected. The vanilla plants grew well and flowered, 
but the flowers all died without coming to maturity 
owing to the absence of insects to disseminate the 
pollen, but an attempt is now to be made to fertilise 
the flowers by hand. There were 172 tea plants, but 
nothing is said about their produce, ' and the four 
cardamom plants all died, while specially selected 
seed sent from Mysors did not germinate. As the 
total receipts from the sale of produce amounted to 
11.272, and the expenditure to R617 it cannot be 
said that the experiments have proved profitable ; but 
as the plantation only cost such a small sum it is 
to be continued . — Indian Agriculturist. 
♦ 
iMORE TEA DEALERS PROSECUTED. 
(Special Iteport for the “ Ceylon Observer,”) 
At Greenwich Police Court, on Saturday, 21st June, 
George Westover, grocer, of 247 Lewisham High 
Street, and Kearley & Tonge, trading as tea mer- 
chants at Mitre Square, Aldgate, appeared before 
Mr. Marsham in answer to summonses under the 
Merchandise Marks Act, charging them with having 
sold or caused to bo sold certain tea to which a false 
trade description had been applied, contrary to 50 and 
51 Viet., cap. 28. Mr. Albert Gray, instructed by 
Messrs Sanderson, Holland, and Adkin, appeared to 
l)roHtcute, and Mr. Asquith, Q. C., instructed by 
Messrs. Lewis and Lewis, defended Kearley and Tonge. 
Mr. LiCKEOni) asked that tho case against the de- 
fendant Westover might bo postponed, on the ground 
that the summons had only been served on the pre- 
vious day. Mr. Gray said he had understood that the 
summons was served some time back, as the informa 
tion was laid on 6th June. However, it the case against 
Westover was postponed, he would ask that the case 
against the other defendants should also be held over, 
because the former case should come first in order of 
priority. Mr. Asquith remarked that it was clearly the 
intention of Mr. Gray to use the conviction he hoped 
to get against Westover as a means of putting the screw 
on in the case against the other defendants. 
Mr. Gray explained that the Act distinctly pro- 
vided for what his learned friend termed ‘'putting the 
screw on.’’ And the charge against Westover would 
never have been brought if he had only availed him- 
self of the means of exemption provided. By a special 
clause the retailer was exonerated from blame if he 
could prove “that on demand made by or on behalf of 
the prosecutor, ho gave all the information in his power 
with respect to the persons from whom he obtained such 
goods or things.” This the defendant had been asked 
to do but had refused, and the prosecutors had been 
reluctantly obliged to proceed against him. 
Mr. Marsham said that as the summons had not been 
served until the day before he thought that the re- 
quest for postponement was very reasonable and he 
must grant it. He thought the case against the other 
defendants might very well be proceeded with at once. 
In reply to Mr. Gray His Worship added that he had 
no objection to the admission of the defendant Westover 
as a witness provided there was no objection by 
defendant’s counsel. 
Mr. Asquith: — My friend Mr. Lickfold may have 
something to say on that point presently. 
Mr. Gray, in opening the case against Kearley & 
Tonge, said the prosecution was instituted by the 
Ceylon Association in London. It was not a trading 
body, but an association of gentlemen connected with 
Ceylon formed for the purpose of protecting the in- 
terests of the Island. 
Mr. Marsham.: — I understand, then, that it does not 
represent any particular firm in this case. 
Mr. Gray:— Certainly not. Counsel proceeded to quote 
the sections of the act under which defendants were 
charged, and referred to “Storey v. the Chilworth 
Gunpowder Company’’ and “Wood v. Burgess,” two 
cases that had been decided in a superior court, as 
bearing some interpretation of the act that was of 
value in the present case. The defendants Kearley 
& Tonge were tea blenders, and they supplied 
tea in packets to a large number of retailers. The 
tea in question (packets produced) was described 
on the label as being from a “ Blackmoor Vale 
Estate.” On the upper surface of the label were 
the words “ imported by Kearley & Tonge ” followed 
by “ Pure Ceylon Tea.” By paying close attention to 
the label, and perhaps with the aid of glasses, the 
words “Blended with India and China ” might be dis- 
covered, but they were so hidden by a signature of 
“ Kearley & Tonge,” one flourish being scrawled 
heavily through them, that the words denoting a blend 
were certain to escape the eye of the purchaser. The 
packets in Court were bought of Mr. Westover, a 
grocer, and the tea had been analysed by professional 
men of the highest standing in London, who said that 
it was not Ceylon tea at all. If there was any Ceylon 
tea in the packets it was so small a part of the whole 
as to be undiscoverable. If that could be proved to the 
satisfaction of the magistrate, the question was 
whether the description upon the packets was a false 
description within tho act, and whether that description 
was false in a material respect and such a false des- 
cription as the Act was passed to prevent. It seemed 
to him (Mr. Gray) that that wjs clearly so. On the 
face of il, it was indicative, when they looked at the 
label on the packet, of the fact that the tea was the 
pure Ceylon tea. For while the words “ Pure Ceylon 
Tea ” were in largo cle >r type, the words denoting that 
the tea was a blend were not only in very small type, 
but were practically scored out. This was indicative 
of a design to deceive, for tho Uttor words were quite 
imiierceptible to the ordinary purchaser. What was the 
impression on tho mind of a person who asked for Ceylon 
