September i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
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of still greater things to come. Should they be 
jpublished (as is much to be desired) they will 
not only form an enduring monument to the 
author’s fame, and also to that of the Peradenia 
Garden where they have been prepared, but they 
will be a most valuable contribution to botanical 
science. 
Their great value, above most other similar 
botanical plates wilt consist in this, that the tloral 
analysis has been in all cases made either from 
the living plant, or from specimens preserved in 
spirit, by the author himself, and not by his 
draftsmen. The errors incident to mabing dis- 
sections of dried specimens are hence avoided. 
VV. H. H. 
^ 
BAEK AND DRUG REPORT. 
(From the Chemist and Dnu/gist.) 
London, July 10th. 
Annatto.— Fifty-two bags Ceylon seeds sold at very low 
prices indeed ; bright at 3s, dull to ordinary low at from 
Id to Jd per lb. 
Bael Fruit.— a parcel of 91 packages partly mouldy 
and shelly fragments was shown today, and bought in at 
the nominal price of 2d per lb. There is very little chance 
that that price can be realised. 
Coca Leaves.— No South American leaves were offered 
today, but there were two parcels from the Kelvin 
estate in Ceylon, together 784 lb. The quality was 
e.vcellent, and the leaves (of the dark-green Huauoeo 
variety) were beautifully cured, and of fine taste and 
flavour. One-half found buyers at the comparatively cheap 
rate of Is 2d per lb. 
Essential Oils.— There is very little alteration in 
any of the essential oil quotations this/ week. Several 
lots of Citronella oil in bottles, tins, and tanks (the 
latter holding about 9 cwt. each), mostly mixed ' with 
petroleum were offered today, bought in at nominal 
prices. 
Quinine. — Lower: early in the week a sale of 15,000 oz. 
second hand Brunswick bulk at Is per oz. was reported. 
Today there do not seem any further sellers at that 
price though we think there would be buyers at the 
figure named. 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA AUCTIONS. 
Amsterdam, July 10th. 
At today’s public auctions 2,843 packages cinchona 
were sold at unit prices ranging from 8c to 8jC per J 
kilo, equal to Ifd to Ijd per lb. The following were the 
prices paid :— Manufacturers' barks : Quills, broken quills 
and chips 6c to 71c, equal to Id to 12fd per lb. ; root 
15o to 50c, equal Igd to 9d per lb. Druggists’ barks : 
Quills, broken quills and chips lie to 57c, equal to 2d 
to lOjd per lb.: rootl2o to 2ic, equal to 2|d to SJd per 
lb. The principal purchasers were the Auerbach, the 
Amsterdam and the Brunswick factories. 
NORTH BORNEO PROSPECTS; A VISIT TO 
TEA BONDING WAREHOUSES ; TEA BOXES; 
MR. MAITLAND EIRWAN AND IIIS 
PATENT TEA PACKING. 
So many Ceylon men have left you at various 
times to try their fortune in Borneo that infor- 
mation as to the progress of the British North 
Borneo Company will certainly be possessed of 
interest to those of their friends whom they left 
behind them in your island. Sir Rutherford 
Alcock, K.c D., occupied the chair at the half-yearly 
general meeting of this Company on Wednesday 
last, and he told his auditors that the revenue 
had gone up by £14,850, or nearly 60 per pent, 
the total income — apart from land sales having 
risen from £24,986 in 1888 to £39,8.50 in 1889. 
Besides this revenue they had sold land during 
the year to the amount of £39,836, this amount 
having been received for 202,800 acres. The expenses, 
however, had mounted up, chiefly because of the 
cost of two expoditiors sent out. This was 
an extraordinary expenditure, and would not be 
of frequent recurrence, Sir Rutherford said ; but 
the directors thought it advisable not to add to 
the dividend which had been paid ad interim in 
January last. They hoped great things from the 
tobacco planting, which was going on vigorously 
and with most satisfactory results. The chief dififl- 
culty of their planters was scarcity of coolies, but 
steam communication with China had now been 
established, and the Chairman said he had no doubt 
an ample supply could be drawn from that country 
by its agency. He told his audience that a scheme 
for the construction of a railway across their terri- 
tory under the land grant system was under 
consideration, but that until matters were more 
advanced he held it would be premature to enter 
upon any details. There was much to be hoped 
for from mineral products, and mainly as to coal; 
in the development of the souroes of which last, 
considerable advance had been made. The closing 
of Sir Rutherford Aleock’s address was followed by 
a good deal of rather warm discussion, the pro- 
prietors being anxious that power should be obtained 
enabling dividends to be declared upon land sales. 
This course the auditors decline to permit, and 
insist that receipts from such sales should be 
placed to and retained as a special reserve 
fund. You will recognise the important relative 
bearing this decision has upon the course hitherto 
adopted by the Ceylon Government in consider- 
ing its receipts from land sales as revenue 
applicable to the most general purposes, an error 
the gravity of which, now that the end of your 
tether as regards available land is being rather 
closely approached, has come to be fully ac- 
knowledged. 
My regret was expressed when last writing that 
space was not available for me to make some 
remarks upon what was observed by me during 
my visit to Mr. Maryetti’s Tea Bonding Ware- 
houses. On that visit I was enabled to realize for 
the first time that there might be some justifi- 
cation for the heavy charges which home agents 
make upon teas shipped to them from Ceylon. 
These have repeatedly been made the subject of 
complaint in your columns, and I with others 
have always had to acknowledge that they seemed 
to constitute a great and justly complained of 
grievance. But really, when one comes to see 
what has to be done with respect to tea before 
the chests are issued from the warehouses, the 
same disposition for acknowledgment does not 
remain. In the first place, the handing out of 
samples to the trade is a most laborious job, 
and however great may be the care exercised to 
escape loss it cannot be altogether avoided. Dozens 
of boys were constantly rushing in and demanding 
samples for this or that broker, their employers. To 
each of these an ounce of tea was carefully weighed 
out, and they were expected to return the same 
weight. Just fancy, however, what it must 
mean in the way of labour to work such a system 
EO carefully as to guard against serious loss 
through non return of samples 1 Turning to another 
department of the work one is confronted by the 
heavy charges for labour involved in unpacking 
the chests, — and this is particularly heavy in the 
case of the metal chests — turning out the contents, 
a job involving much delay if there be any 
obstruction such as framing inside the chest ; weigh- 
ing before the Customs officers, and refilling to 
the exact weight mentioned on the chests. By the 
way, I may tell you here that with some chests 
of Ceylon tea recently turned out their contents 
wighed two pounds more than the figures 
shown they should contain I Who is responsible 
for this out with you ? Tho idea is here that 
too much reliance is placed on the boxes holding 
exactly a given weight, and that they are filled 
