882 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[June i, 1891 
Limited Company. But there was no help for it ; 
because in registering in London, there was no room 
to register as a Company, a name already on the roll. 
Various other forms of the name were attempted, 
but without success ; and at last it had to be 
"the Colombo Ironworks, Limited" in order not 
to delay business. But no one cared for a name 
without any personality and few of the old customers 
ever used it — “John Walker & Co." or “Walker 
& Co.” was the address on nearly every letter, 
or every reference ! Fortunately therefore — as 
we learn from a circular issued in London 
by Mr. Frank Walker as Secretary to the Company 
— another and satisfactory, because expressive, 
title has been found and registered, namely Messrs. 
Walker, Sons & Co., Limited, under which title, 
we wish all success to the old Firm and new 
Company. 
NOTES ON POPULAR SCIENCE. 
By Dr. J. E. Taylor, f l.s., f.g.s., &c. 
Ewior of “ Science Gossip.” 
Two French botanists have discovered that the 
stem.s of potatoes trom various parts of France are 
attacked by yOjU^y6?i6S, and that the latter appear to 
be caused by the presence of enormous r.umuers of 
bacteria iu the diseased ceils. Similar ganyi-ene dis- 
eases produced by the same group of micro-organisms 
have been found iu byacmths, pelargoniums, and 
other highly educated and abnormally developed 
horticultural plams. The animal and vegetable king- 
doms are growing nearer everyday, not farther apart 
by virtue of their suffering trom the epidemical and 
destructive effects of the same lowly organised and 
innumerable class of parasitic plants. 
All vine-growers are interested iu the natural history 
of the phylloxera, that underground mite which attacks 
the Vine in its most succulent parr, the root and root- 
lets. Its ravages are increasing in the vine-growing 
regions of the old world, especially m the Italian 
vineyards, A new fact in its natural history, however, 
has just come to light. It is stated that the mere 
perforation of the rootlets by the phylloxera is not the 
direct cause of ihe destruction of the vines, but that 
the latter is due to parasitic fungi wliioh take advantage 
of the lesions produced by the insects. If this be the 
case, the top-dressing of veneyaid soils with iron 
sulphate ought to be more resorted to than ever. 
The cross-fertilisation of Cowers has assumed a new 
interest since the publication of the two famous books 
by Darwin and Hermann Muiler. Mr. Scott-Eiliot has 
recently shown that in Natal the sun-birds (which in 
South Africa take the place of the humming-birds * of 
America) are the usual fertilisers of the banana. These 
brilliant birds are great flower-frequenters, and they 
generally visit only one species of flower at a time. 
Australia possesses many species of arum. One of 
fhem goes by a very opprobrious name, which I may 
freely translate as “ stiukplant.” All the arums smell 
vilely, ill whatever part of the world we find them. 
It has been just discovered here that the fertilisation 
of arums is mainly effected by carrion-loving coleop- 
tora (or beetles), which are attracted by the nasty 
odours. In tills work, however, they are joined by blue- 
bottle and other flies. 
When in Australia I noticed and wrote about the 
indueuoo which gall-insects had upon the leaves of the 
blackwood (Acacia melanoxyloii), and attributed tho 
change of their shape to their reversion to an ancestral 
slate latavism). Two distingiiislu <1 German botanists 
Iiavc just demonstrated that the hoteromorphism of 
the leaves of oak and beech, when injured unduly by 
cold or naects, assumes ancestral or atavic forms and 
sbapes. 
A German cliemist has once more analysed the 
diamond. The proces.s is a costly oii", and therefore 
must be :i careliil one. Tho result coiilirinod tlie oxperi. 
As they do in Ceylou. — Eu. T. -I. 
ments made before (they are extraordinarily few), that 
the diamond is chemically identical with carbon, since 
not only is the atomic weight the same, but on oxidation, 
both yield exactly the same product. — Australasian. 
— 
ANALYSIS OP THE ORANGE. 
The Boston Journal of Chemistry publishes the 
following result of the aua'ysis of a medium size orange, 
purchased m Fauenil i-.all Market: 
The skin weighed 97.5 grams, which is 23.33 per cent. 
The sted.s weighed 7 grams, which is 2.84 per cent. 
The pulp wi ighed 182 grams, which is 83.83 per 
cent. 
The skin contained in 100 parts : Water and volatile 
oil, 78.00; organic matter, 21.30; ash .G4. 
The seeds contained in loO parts; Water, 50.00; 
organic matter, 48.64; ash, 1.36. 
Tbe pulp centaiue i in 100 parts; Water, 90.90; organic 
matter 8 68 ; asb, .33. 
The pulp contained in 100 parts: Grape sugar, 4.3; 
cane sugar, 4 2; iu free acid, 1.0. 
Tho free acid consisted of about equal parts of malic 
and citric acid. 
The ash consti'uents of the orange were as follows: 
Po ash, 38.7; soda, 7-6; lime, 23.0 ; magnesia, 6.5Ifeiric 
phosphate, 1.7; sulphur, 2.9; silica, 6.2; phosphoric 
acid, 14.1 
It will be seen from tbe analysis that lime and potash 
are tbe priucipal elements of tbe ash, and hence that 
any fertilizer to be a complete orauge tree f lod must 
contain a large perceiitage of these elements mentioned 
and also the other chemicals mentioned in the analysis 
in the relative proportions . — Florida Agriculturist. 
<i> — 
ECHOES OF SOIBNOE. 
According to the Russian traveller, M. Grum-Grzi- 
mailo, the l asis of Tnrfan, in Tiau-Shan, Central Asia, 
is a desert, once the bed of a great lake, which has 
been reclaimed by man with extraordinary labour. It 
has no water, and the inhabitants have excavated a 
system of underground canals and wells, some 300ft. 
deep, to irrigate the soil. These canals collect the 
underground water ai d convey it to the surface in the 
lower lands. The works are so colossal that the mem- 
bers of the exploring partj^ could only compare them 
with those of ancient Egypt. 
At a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical So- 
ciety, Mr. A. E. Pratt described a journey of his in 
Ta-rsien-lu, South-West China, during which he as- 
cended the sacred mountain of Omei. It is 11,100 
feet high, and supports nearly eighty temples. On 
one side there is an immense precipice, about 11-3 
miles in height, from the edge of which Mr. Pratt 
witnessed the phenomenon called the “Glory of 
Budoha." Looking down into a sea of mist which 
filled the valley below, he saw, about 150 feet beneath 
him, the golden disc of the sum surrounded by rings 
of rainbow-coloured light. This effect i.s the great 
marvel of Mount Omei, and the proof of its peculiar 
sanctity. Every year many pilgrims commit suicide 
by throwing themselves over the cliffs. 
Lord Howe Island, situated about 300 miles from 
Port Macquarrie, is marked out as a future sanatorium 
for the Australian colonies. It is seven miles long, by 
a mile wide, and contains basaltic mountains 3,000 feet 
high. The soil is fertile, and covered with vegetation ; 
the scenery is beautiful, and the climate cannot be 
surpassed. It is likely to become a holiday resort 
very soon, the sea voyage not being too long, yet long 
enough to benefit the health. There is a banyan tree 
on the island covering six or seven acres, and only 
smaller than tho famous one between Poonah and 
Kolapore. 
The recent bu'letin of the American census announ- 
ces that the ratio of land to water surface in the Uni- 
ted States is 98T6 to 1'84. The average number of 
inhabitants to each square mile of laud is 21’08 If, 
however, the whole teritory were as thickly inhabited 
