Apml I, 1891.] THE. TROPICAL AGRiOULTURIST. 723 
CACAO CULTIVATION. 
Kandy, March 13th. 
Dear Sir,— I n the Report of the Director of the 
Ceylon Botanio Gardens for 1890 there seems to be 
an error as regards the export of cocoa, the figures 
for 1889 being quoted as those of last year. 
The figures given by the Chamber of Commerce 
may, I supp 'se, be taken as fairly accurate ; — 
1889 . . . . BWt. 19 051 
1890 .. .. ,, 15,981 
Decreese ,, 3,075 
This result ha' dly supports the statement that the 
industry here may be considered to be in a satisfac- 
tory and improving condition. 
if tho Director had moved as freelv amongst the 
villagers as an “ Ideal Planter,” he would long ago 
have fully understood why they have tak''U so little 
advantage of his gratis distribution of seeds. The 
more enterprising natives who went in for cultivating 
a few cacao trees could, as a rule, obtain all the seed 
they wanted from the nearest estate, without the 
trouble of asking for it ; while others have usually 
been able to obtain a few bushels at any time, in 
the same way, for the mere trouble of picking.— 
Yours faithfully, PB^KDIAL PROGRESS. 
[Still, villagers in Kegalla and throughout Sabara- 
gamnwa generally can scare- ly be guilty of the 
thefts in the Kurunegsla district ? The export in 
1883 was equal to 13,i59 owt. so that taking the 
three years, we have not done so badly ; perhaps 
cacao is to distinguish itself by alternate big and 
average crops. — Ed. T. A.] 
JAVA SUGAR PALM. 
Matale, March 13th. 
Dear Sir, — A “ gumpty palm ” or as some c ill it 
tho .Java sugar palm had flowered and I got the sap 
drawn from it same as we do with the kitul, coco- 
nut or pilmirah flower, but the reeu't has been very 
unsatisfactory. Comp ired with our sweet-toddy, its taste 
is like dirty tank water. Boiled down to asixieeoth, 
it was like an infusion of cinchona b»rk. Is 
any of your readers able to tell us how the suiar 
is obtained and whether the sap could be drawn sweet. 
—Yours failbfully, A. VAN STARHEX. 
Cacao of the Forastero de.scriptiou is, we 
learn, being planted both in the Nigombo and 
Kalulara districts under the advice of an experienced 
planter and wiih the object of giving it a fair trial 
A OuM-PTiODUCiNG Pi,.\NT. — III the last part 
of the leones rianfantm is an aocuuut of Kuoommia 
ulmoides, a innst singniar Coiuese plant, as yet hut 
little known to botaui.sis, and the true aflinity of which 
has yet to 1 0 dixC'ivcred, “The moat .singu'ar feature 
about the uiant.” we read, “is the oxiraordinary 
abundance of an ebist'c gum in all tho younger 
tissues — excep ing, iiorhap.'', tlie wood prop>r — lu tne 
bark (in tho n ual si use of the word), tlie leaves 
and petioles, and pericarp; any of these snapped across, 
Eud I ho parts dr.iwii uaundei-, exhibit the silvery sheen 
of iiiiinmerablo thicids of this gum.' Tne trees 
are ra sed from seed by the Ohhie.-e (Patting and 
Szechwan are di.stn'cts named), a^d when sulUou-ntly 
gr wn, nre felled, and the bark taken off. To this 
the natives afirilnitc wondoiful m. dioinal properties, 
the value of which has yrt to be pioved by 
Europeans. Patterns were f .rmeily made Irom the 
wuo.i, and the yo uig haves iux> som times eaten. 
It is hoped that at no very distant dale a frosli 
supply (f speciiinns will bo obtaint'd, wtdeh will 
enable tlio-e iutorosted in llii.s wonderful plant to 
prosecute tin ir reMsirches still further. It is lo Dr, 
Henry that wo owe whai little we know of this 
important plint. — Gardiners' (hrnnirh'. 
” Ceiollo ” AND “ Fobfbiero ” are not Portu. 
gueso words, as Mr. J. H. Barber seems to think, 
but Spanish, meaning simply “ indigonou.9 ” and 
“exotic” (literally “home-bred ’ and “foreign). 
Any theory, therelore, as to the introduction of cacao 
into Ceylon by the Portuguese, founded on the use 
of these words, is unten&ble. — Cor. 
Tea in Udapussellawa is described by a 
gentleman who hasjretently|travelled for 22miles along 
the d.striot road fromjNuwara Eliya, as veryfine : from 
the 6lh to the 13th mile out, there are perhaps no 
finer sheets of tea in the island, bethinks, than are 
to be seen in this splendid undulating upland district. 
At a Recent Meeting of the Academie des 
Sciences, Paris, M. Charles Naudin read a paper 
on the Eucalyptus tree, which contained soma 
interesting observations. He began by remarking 
that owing to the peouliar tendency of this tree 
to change with age or climats and to produce 
crosses, there was only one good work on the 
Bubjsct — namely, the monography of Mr. Ferdi- 
nand Muller,* of Melbourne. M. Naudin has made 
a study of the eucalyptus as transplanted into 
Europe. At Thuret, near Antibes, in Provence, 
there is one of tho finest collections of the tree in 
Europe. It comprises eighty species, or about half 
the total number known to exist, d’ho gum tree 
was originally confined to Australia and the islands 
in geographical relation with it. M. Naudin thanks 
that allits varieties have beea derived from a single 
prototype subsequently to the separation of Australia 
from the Asiatic continent. But ths tree has a great 
practical value, as it grows rapidly, and furnishes 
excellent v/oed for construction or fuel. M. Naudin 
thinks that all the Southern eountiies of Europe 
would profit by its cultivation, and that, above all, 
tho liee may be a boon in the Transediterranean 
colonies of France and the roads and Bettioments 
of the Sahara and Central Africa. — Globe. 
Snake-venom.— Dr. Lauder Bruntou has com- 
municated to the British Medical Journal a note 
on suake yeaoni and its antidotes, in which he 
reviews the work which has been done to determine 
the nature of the active principle of venom. Very 
little that is certain is known about it but pro- 
bably the substance is an albumose, although 
globulins also appear to have something to do 
with the action. For instance, the venom of the 
crotaliciffi contains a oomparatively large amount 
of globulins, and produces local swelling and 
blackening of the parts, while that of the cobra 
coniams comparatively little globulin, and has little 
local aotioo. The globulins and albumoses in 
different venoms are probably not altogether iden- 
tical, for the albumose of the cobra seems to have 
a greater power to produce convulsions than that 
of the ratilt snake. It would appear that there 
is some resemblance between snake-venom 
and the albuminoid products of the anthrax 
bacillus, which like the albumoses of snake- 
poison, produce much local oedema, sluggishness, 
coma, and death Like tho veuom albumose, its 
activity is lessened but not destioyed, by boiling. 
But, in addition to thoBO substances. Dr. Sydney 
Martin has obtained an alkaloid which has the same 
aotion as the albumore, but much more powerful, 
and this alkaloid, he thinks, is present in a nascent 
Qondition in the albumose, and is separated from it 
by the tissues of the living animal into which it has 
been iniroduoed. As to the remedies for snake- bite 
Dr. Bruntou seems inclined lo pin bis faith to the 
subcutaneous injection of stryohnine in small and 
repeated doses, whisky or brandy being simultane- 
ously adminislered. — Chemist and Drugyist. 
* Such IS tamo ! Tho gouilcm.m rettrrod to is 
Baron Sir Ferdinand von MiiGler, K.c.M.a, F.R.S., &o.— 
Ed. T. a. 
