the  tropical  agriculturist. 
July  i,  1895.] 
ns  if  tho  Mangrove  renews  its  Inrk  readily  after 
licing  ahuvod.  Should  this  be  rho  case,  it  would  he 
interesting  to  know  whether  the  renewed  Mangrove 
bark  would  give  a larger  amount  of  tannic^  acid, 
just  as  renewed  cinchona  bark  gave  a much  better 
analysis  than  the  original  bark.  The  advantages 
of  shaving  off  the  bark  are  manifeat,  for  the  tree 
will  not  get  killed  in  the  process,  and  would  probably 
give  another  harvest  of  bark  within  the  year,  and 
along  river  banks  the  cutting  down  of  large  quantities 
of  Mangroves,  which  keep  up  the  bank  o!  the  river 
a' d stop  denudation,  might  cause  a cosiderable 
alteration  in  the  course  of  the  river. — Ceijlon 
Forester 
MADRAS  SEASON  REPORTS. 
For  the  purpose  of  Weekly  Season  Reports  the 
Board  of  Revenue  has  directed  Collectors  to  adopt 
the  following  adjectives  in  describing  the  yield 
of  crops: — 20  annas=a  bumper  ’.crop;  10  annas  = 
average;  10  annas=fair  ; 8 annas— middling ; and 
4 amias=bad. 
The  Seasox  ox  the  West  Coast.— A correspond- 
ent writes : — The  unusual  manner  in  which  the  south- 
west monsoon  is  holding  off  this  year  is  causing 
much  uneasiness  and  apprehension,  owing  to  the 
exceptional  drought  this  year,  wailing  comes  up 
from  all  parts  of  the  district  that  water  is  becoming 
very  scarce  and  crops  are  beginning  to  wither  up. 
lu  many  localities,  the  modan  and  chama  dp’ 
crops  have,  it  is  said,  entirely  withered  up,  while 
almost  a similar  fate  is  said  to  be  awaiting 
field-sown  paddy,  not  a few  cultivators  even  com- 
laining  that  the  very  seed  has  been  parched  up 
eyond  recovery.  Even  the  outturn  of  coconuts  is 
affected.  In  Calicut,  the  heat  is  intense  ; several 
wells  have  almost  totally  dried  up,  and  even  the  Big 
Tank  wliich  supplies  tlie  Europeans  and  several 
others  with  good  drinking  water  has  gone  down  to 
a vei'y  low  water  level. — Jladrus  JIui!  June  8. 
N ARlol’S  PLANTING  NOTES. 
The  Actiox  of  Glycerine  ox  Plants. — The  Jtcmic 
Hortieole  tells  us  that  a German  nnturalist  has 
discovered  that  if  a plant  deprived  of  its  starch  by 
planting,  be  watered  with  two  parts  of  glycerine  to 
a thousand  parts  of  water,  and  exposed  to  light,  the 
starch  soon  appears  ; but  as  this  would  happen  in 
any  case  under  exposure  to  light,  we  do  not  see  what 
part  the  glycerine  plays.— 6'ardeMeJ'.>(’  Chronicle. 
Oyster-shells. — The  use  made  of  these  substances 
in  agricultnre  leads  us  to  mention  the  analysis  of 
the  shells  of  various  kinds  of  oysters  made  by 
MM.  Chatin  & Muntz.  So  far  as  cultivators  are 
concerned,  the  principal  thing  to  be  noted  is  the 
large  proportion  of  line,  var>ing  from  48  4 to  53’7 
per  cent,  of  the  dry  matter.  Phosphonc  acid  varies 
in  proportion  between  0-01  in  the  Marennes  variety, 
and  0-90  in  the  Portuguese  oyster.  The  presence 
of  minute  quantities  of  iodine  and  bromine  goes  to- 
wards explaining  the  use  of  oyster-shells  in  medicine 
in  olden  times.— Ibid.  ^ ^ 
A .Tai’axesk  Douglas  Fir.- In  the  number  of  the 
Tohjo  P.utunical  Mtujadne  for  Feb.  20,  is  a desniption 
and' figure  of  a t ew  species  of  Pseudotsuga,  discovered 
in  the  province  of  Kii  in  .Japan,  at  an  altitude  of 
UOOO  feet,  by  Homi  Shirasawa.  Mr.  Shirasawa  puts 
his  new  discovery  in  the  genus  Tsuga  section, 
Pseudotsuga.  The  description  which  he  gives  (in 
German  happily),  and  specially  the  illustiatious,  leave 
no  doubt  as  to  the  coirectness  of  Mr.  Shirvsawa’s 
identification.  The  orginal  Douijlas  Tir,  as  is  well 
known,  is  a native  of  North  West  America,  and  so 
far,  has  been  th  ■ only  representative  of  its  genus 
or  section.  That  a Japanese  form  should  occur  is 
most  interesting,  it  forms  a parallel  case  to  the 
occurrence  of  Tsuga  Mertensiana  and  Tsuga  gigantea 
in  California,  Ac.,  and  of  Tsuga  Sieboldi,  Tluiya 
japonica  in  .Japan,  slid  there  are  other  cases  of 
parallelism  in  the  floras  of  the  two  countries  known 
to  botanists,  which  furnish  ground  for  interesting 
KiH’culation.  The  newly-discovered  tree  grows  in  as- 
sotiation  with  Tsuga  Sieboldi,  Fagus  japonica,  Mag- 
nolia  hypoleuca,  and  others.  It  has  an  erect  straight 
trunk,  horizontal  spreading  branches  and  coivcal 
top.  The  height  is  given  as  15  to  20  metros,  with 
a circumference  of  :4  metres,  so  that  in  point  of 
dimensions  it  is  far  exceeded  by  its  American  con- 
gener.— Ibid. 
Tea  Salks  IN  Bomh.vy.— An  auction  .sale  of 
Indian  teas  took  place  on  Saturday,  at  the  office 
of  Me.ssr.s.  Grindlay,  Groom,  A:  Co.,  of  tliis  city 
But  as  the  agents  were  determined  to  hold  to 
their  re.serve  prices,  the  dealers  left  the  room  in 
a body.  On  the  sale  being  proceeded  with,  only 
five  boxes  of  Orange  I’ekoe,  from  the  Raipur  Tea 
Estates,  were  purchased  by  a Persian  shop-keeper, 
at  eight  annas  and  one  pie  per  lb.,  leaving  tour 
liundred  and  twenty-four  cases  un.sold. — Bombay 
Gazette. 
Calcutta  Tea  Market  : S.\le  No.  3.— After  the 
interval  of  a fortnight  the  third  sale  of  the  season 
was  held  on  the  13th  inst.  The  room  was  a fairly 
full  one,  most  of  the  old  buyers  having  returned,  and 
there  being  a sprinkling  of  new  faces,  representing 
some  of  the  large  distributing  houses  of  the  world. 
In  spite  of  this  the  auction  was  dull  the  general 
unattractive  quality  and  the  heavy  weight  of  Ceylon 
tea  now  being  placed  on  consuming  markets  being 
doubtless  the  reason  for  the  want  of  competition  at 
the  present  comparatively  high  range  of  values  which 
tea  has  reached. — Indian  Planters'  Gazette. 
Commercial  Fibres. — The  thii’d  of  a aeries  of 
Cantor  Lectures  was  delivered  before  the  Society 
of  Arts  by  Dr.  D,  Morris,  m.a.,  c.m.g.,  on  Monday. 
April  1,  1895  The  following  is  a summary : — Con- 
tinuing the  review  of  fibi’es  yielded  by  the  Palm 
order,  the  lecturer  drew  attention  to  the  remarkable 
vegetable  substance,  resembling  whalebone  in  strength 
and  elasticity,  called  bass,  or  piassava.  This  is  ex- 
tensively used  for  making  brooms  and  brushes,  and 
consists  of  the  indurated  fibre-bundles  thickly  invest- 
ing the  stems  of  Palms.  Some  are  strong  and  bony, 
while  others  are  soft  and  elastic,  resembling  horse- 
hair. The  bass  or  piassava  of  commerce  is  obtained 
chiefly  from  native  Palms  at  Para  and  Bahia. 
Latterly  it  has  been  obtained  from  the  Wine  Palm 
of  West  Africa,  and  still  more  recently  from  the 
Palmyra  Pa'm  of  Ceylon.  The  fibres  yielded  by  the 
husk  of  the  Coco-nut  were  of  considerable  com- 
mercial importance.  They  afforded  materiiil  ft.r 
bru  lies,  mats  and  matting,  cords  r pes,  and  tow. 
Coco-nut  refuse,  on  account  of  its  wonderful  pro- 
perties of  absorbing  moisture,  has  been  lecoimmnded 
for  use  as  a backing  material  in  the  constiuction  of 
men-of-war.  Of  all  vegetable  substances,  the  most 
noted  substitute  for  horse-hair  was  the  fibre  of  the 
Spanish  Moss  (Tillandsia  ueneoides).  The  plant 
grows  in  long  hanging  tresses  on  Cypress  trees  in 
the  Southern  United  States.  The  fibre  is  prepared 
by  steeping  the  narrow  stems  and  leaves  in  hot 
water.  The  preparation  of  Pine  wool  from  the  leaves 
or  needles  of  the  Scotch  Fir  was  mentioned  as  a 
local  industry  in  Germany,  but  now  extending  to 
other  countries.  The  supply  of  material  for  paper- 
makine  was  becoming  more  a>  d more  dependent  on 
woodpulp.  This  was  imported  into  this  country  to 
the  extent  of  21(i,UOO  tons  annually.  It  was  important, 
however,  to  distinguish  between  mechanical  woodpulp 
and  wood-cellulose.  In  the  latter  the  ex'raneous 
matters  were  so  fully  eliminated  that  the  pulp  was 
ractically  pure,  and  suitable  for  the  best  papers, 
n mechanical  wood  pulp  no  chemical  purification 
took  place,  and  although  sometimes  sufficiently  white 
to  be  used  in  “ white  " papers,  the  stability  of  such 
papers  when  used  in  public  documents  and  works  of 
great  historical  value  was  open  to  grave  doubt.  Many 
most  valuable  materi.als  for  paper-making,  such  as 
the  Paper- Mulberry  of  .Japan,  and  the  Nepal  Paper 
Plant,  were  not  at  present  in  European  commerce. 
The  lecturer  concluded  the  course  by  discussing  in 
some  detail  proble'i  s connected  wiLh  the  introduction 
of  new  fibres  and  improvement  of  fibre  plants  by 
systematic  selection  and  cultivation,  and  by  a geneial 
review  of  the  methods  adopted,  by  mechanical  and 
chemical  means,  for  the  extraction  of  commercial 
fibres. — Gardeners’  Chronicle. 
