May I, 1891,] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
?8s 
COCONUT VERSUS PALMIEAII. 
Europoau planters and native planters too who more 
readily copy the faults of their European guides than 
follow their virtues, cut down the palmirah to make 
room for the coconut. This is a senseless procedure. 
First because no other tree that grows high can ever 
injure the coconut trees, unless it shuts out air and 
light. Oo the contrary it protects the coconut trees 
from the effects of the frequent droughts to which the 
Paohohillapalli district is liable, if its leaves or branches 
are lopped off from time to time, when they show a 
tendency to obstruct air and light. The palmirah and 
the margosa are more conducive to the growth, pre- 
servation and fructification of the coconut trees than 
inimical to them. Secondly, because sixteen palmirah 
tte-'S can very well stand in the space occupied by one 
coconut plant. Eejeoting eight of these as male trees, 
we have 600 female trees per acre. Bach female tree 
yields on an average 6 cents per annum, i. e., R36 per 
acre. We get these R36 per acre without sewing, 
transplanting, fencing, watering, watching, digging, 
manuring, picking, peeling, drying, weighing, carting 
etc., all which have to be done in order to get some- 
thing out of the coconut and this something, after 
deducting all expenses, can never exceed 1120 per acre 
in this district. 
If we take into account the interest of the capital 
laid out in the purch ise of the coconut estate, theE20 
will come down to RIO. But it we take into account 
the interest of the money laid out in the raising of the 
coconut trees, the industry will be found to entail a 
dead loss of R30 or 40 per acre per annum. There is 
not a single estate in this district, bui has changed four 
or five hands, the last purchaser paying not more than 
one-filth or one-sixth of the original cost of plant- 
ing up the estate with coconut. 
If the palmirah ba utilised for treacle, the male 
trees will a*so become available and the income per acre 
will be raised toR72 per annum. 
It is usually said ihatthe palmirah takes a long time 
to bear. If the a tention paid to the coconut be paid 
to the palmirah, it will coma into bearing at the same 
age at which the coconut does, i. 20 years. People 
say that the coconut tree bears at so early an age as 4. 
This is true in exceptional cases. But I will not alter 
my limit of 20 years, unless one who has actually 
planted a coconut estate demonstrates to me that its 
income covered its own current working expenses 
before its 20th year. I won’t ask him to include the 
interest Of the capital laid out in the purchase of the 
land or in the various operations from the time the 
trees were planted to the time of their coming into full 
bearing. If these were included, no coconut estate 
would be found paying in this district. _ 
The average age of the coconut tree is 60 years, that 
of the palmirah is over 100. When the latter dies 
through accident or exhaustion, the trunk is worth 
from 25 cents to one rupee, if not more. When the 
former dies, you requite at least 5 oeuts to cut it down 
or burn it. 
The palmirah cannot ba choked out of existence by 
any foreign vegetation, but the coconut can be anil 
always is. The palmirah sows itself, but the coconut 
dot s aud cannot. The palmirah like the coconut has 
many enemies, such as oattle, beetle, drought, light- 
ning, oyclones etc., but the palmirah withstands them 
much better than the coconut. It is a pity that the 
pioneers of planting did not plant palmirabs rather than 
coconuts in this peninsula. — Com. — Jaffna “ Patriot.” 
DEATH OF THE VICTORIA REGIA AT 
THE GORDON GARDENS. 
Our morning contemporary has the following 
Death of the “Victouia Regia.” — This beautiful 
aquatic plant, which was brought from Madras and 
placed in the lower fountain basin in the Gordon 
Gardens, appeared to thrive at first. Afterwards, 
however, it seemed to be affected by sun and wind, 
and its large round leaves curled up. A cadjau screen 
was put up on one side, but that aocomplished nothing, 
for at last the Victoria regia has died, and the 
remaiuB have been removed, 
With reference to the above a correspondent writes to 
us : — “I annex an extract from ‘Firmingar’s Manual 
of Gardening ' which may account for the demise 
of this plant, if no other cause has been discovered. 
I have not been to look at the plant myself for 
some time,” The extract is as follows : — 
“ V. regia. — The plant is found not to exist more 
than two years, when its place must be supplied by 
a fresh one raised from seed, which in the vicinity 
of Calcutta it bears abundantly. It the seeds have 
to be conveyed to a long dittance, it has been found 
that they will only retain their vitality by being kept 
in phials of pure water The seeds are 
sometimes very long in germinating.” (‘“ Firminger’a 
Manual of Gardening for Bengal and Upper India,” 
4th Ed., Part IV, page 449.) 
O " 
Bioguaphical Index of British and Irish 
Botanists. — From the list of those iiublished 
in the Journal of Botany for January, we extract the 
following as being interesting to horticulturists; — 
“ Thwaites, George Henry Kendrick (1811-1882); 
b. Bristol, 1811 ; d. Kandy, Ceylon, Sept. 11. 1832. 
Ph.D. F.L.S., 1854. F.R.S. C.M.G., 1878. Local 
Sec. Bot. Soc. Lond., 1839. Lectured at Bristol, 
1846. Superintendent, Peradeniya Bot. Gard., 1849; 
Director, 1857-1880. Oontrib. Bristol list to Top. Bot. 
and to ‘PhytoL’ from 1841. ‘BnumeratioPl. Zeylanise,’ 
1858-64. Described Basygloia amorpha for Eng. Bot. 
(2941). Pritz 318; Jacks. 612; R. S. C. v. 939; Proc. 
Linn. Soc. 1882-83, 43; Gard. Chron. 1874, 438, with 
portr.; 1882, ii., 505; ‘Athenaeum,’ 1882,500. Portr. 
Kew. Thwaitesia, Montague. Kendrickia, Hook f. 
— Gardeners' Chronicle. 
The Ginseng Trade in Canada. — Ginseng, the 
root of Panax quinquefolia, var. Selimseng, is well 
known as a valuable medicinal product of China, 
Manchuria, and Corea. A kind of Ginseng, P. quiu- 
quefolia proper, is also grown in America, and the 
root exported thence to China, but this industry has 
of late years much declined. Under the title, how- 
ever, of ‘‘ The Revival of an Old Canadian Industry,” 
our contemporary the Chemist and Druggist has the 
following ; — “ Ginseng, the drug par excellence of 
Chinese Materia Medica, was formerly extensively 
collected and dried in Canada. It was one of the 
first articles of commerce exported from Canada after 
the Peace of Utrecht, and for a time considered hardly 
less important than the fur trade. This plant was 
discovered growing near Lachine, by the Jesuit Lafi- 
tan, in 1716. He had learned of its value as a medi- 
cine in China, and a Company was formed for its ex- 
port to China, Tartary, and Japan. When first in- 
troduced, the price at Quebec was from 30 to 40 dollars 
(or cents) per lb, and anyone was permitted to sell the 
plant. But in 1751, the Company obtained a monopoly, 
and excluded all others from the trade. The price rose 
to 12 livres, and at one period even to 33 livers per lb. 
As the demand for the plant increased, the care with 
which it was obtained and prepared was relaxed. It 
was gathered out of season, and dried imperfectly be- 
fore it was ripe. Under these circiunstances Canadian 
Ginseng soon lost its reputation in China, but during 
the time when the drug realised high values, agricul- 
ture was neglected altogether in some localities, the 
entire attention of the inhabitants being given to the 
collection of Ginseng, with the result that in some 
parts of Canada the plant entirely disappeared. When 
the trade was at its maximum in 1752, the value ex- 
ported was about 500,000 livres per annum, but two 
years later it had sunk to 33,000 li\Tes. The Company 
then ceased to purchase the plant, and the trade 
entirely disappeared. All that remained of it was a 
proverb among the people, when speaking of some 
matter having failed, that it had come to nothing as 
the ginseng, C’est iombe le Ginsong. It is a strange 
fact, that the word Ginspng has the same meaning 
both in the Chinese and Iroquois languages. At 
present Ginseng gathering is again becoming a large 
industry in Canada, the root being collected for sale 
to the Chinese in the United States.’ 
Chronicle, 
