Sept.  2,  1895.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
151 
It  i3  usual  after  the  “ Kuda  Mosama  ” to  prune 
the  bushes,  clear  and  weed  the  ground,  and  turn 
over  the  soil.  This  procesi  of  giving  nourishment 
to  the  bushes  secures  a profitable  crop  in  the 
“Maha  Mosama”  of  the  foilwing  May. 
Cinnamon  is  brought  down  for  sale  to  the  native 
merchants,  who  get  it  first  hand.  They  examine 
the  quality  of  the  bu'k  by  smell  and  taste  in  a few 
minutes,  and  accordingly  fix  a price  for 
a very  easy  process,  indeed,  to  what 
the  early  days  1 . . 
“ cinnamon  has  been 
payment — 
was  done  in 
The  next  step  af  er  the 
carried  into  the  Company’s 
2(5% 
4% 
“ storehouse  is  to  examine  its  quality.  This  task  is 
“ imposed  upon  the  Company’s  surgeons,  and  a dis- 
“ agreeable  one  it  proves  to  be.  it  is  performed 
“ by  taking  a few  sticks  out  of  each  bundle  and 
“ chewing  them  successively,  as  the  taste  is  the  o ly 
“ sure  method  of  ascertaining  the  quality.  The 
“ cinnamon,  by  the  repetition  of  this  operation, 
“ excoriates  the  to.jgue  and  the  inside  of  the  mouth, 
and  causes  such  an  intolerable  pain  as  renders 
“it  impossible  for  them  to  continue  the  process 
“ above  two  or  three  days  successively.  The  surgeons 
“ are,  however,  obliged  in  their  turns  to  resume  it, 
“ as  they  are  responsible  for  the  goodness  of  the 
“cinnamon;  it  is  customary  for  them  to  mitigate 
“the  pain  by  eating  a piece  of  bread  and  butter 
“ between  whiles. " . 
Before  the  cinnamon  is  exported  it  is  sorted  into 
grades  of  the  following  assortment: — 
No.  1 quality 20%  No.  3 quality. 
No.  2 „ 50%  No.  4 „ 
Superior  and  extra  superior  grades  are  sold  separ- 
ately. The  bales  are  packed  in  jute  cloth  when 
shipped.  ... 
Genuine  cinnamon  oil  is  obtained  from  the  chips 
and  cuttings  from  the  quills.  Inferior  oil  is  obtained 
from  a mixture  of  the  bark  (chips)  and  leaf.  The 
Dutch  paid  the  greatest  attention  to  the  distillation 
of  the  oil.  They  were  the  first  to  introduce  the  pre- 
sent process  of  distilling.  Capt.  Percival  describes  it 
as  follows ; — 
“The  fragments  and  small  pieces  which  happen 
“to  be  broken  off  in  packing  up  the  bales  are 
“ collected  and  put  into  large  tubs,  about  a hundred 
“weight  into  each,  with  just  as  much  water  as  is 
“ sufficient  to  cover  them  completely.  This  mass  is 
‘ ■ left  for  six  or  seven  days  to  macerate  and  is  after- 
“ wards  poured,  by  little  and  little,  into  a copper 
“ alembic,  to  which  a slow  fire  is  applied.  The  water 
“which  comes  over,  called  'Aqua  Cinnamoni  ’ is 
“ received  in  glass  vessels  of  a peculiar  construction, 
“ and  it  is  nearly  of  the  colour  of  milk,  and  the  oil 
“floats  at  the  top  of  the  glass  recipient.  The  process 
“is  slowly  and  cautiously  conducted;  one  tub  being 
“usually  distilled  off  in  twenty-four  hours.  Two 
“ comm'issaircs  ( who  were  members  of  the  Council  of 
“Justice  in  the  time  of  the  Dutch)  are  appointed  to 
“superintend  the  whole  of  the  process,  and  one  of 
“them  is  always  required  to  be  present  to  prevent 
“ the  Apothecary  who  conducts  the  distillation  from 
“ smuggling  any  of  the  oil.  After  remaining  for 
“some  time  in  the  recipient,  the  oil  is  careiully 
'•  skimmed  off  under  the  eye  of  the  commissaires  and 
“ put  into  large  bottles,  which  are  sealed  with  the 
“Government  Seal  and  brought  to  the  Gsvernor, 
“ by  whom  they  are  placed  in  a chest  secured  in 
“ the  same  manner.  The  reason  of  all  these  pre- 
“ cautions  is  the  great  scarcity  and  value  of  this  oil. 
“It  is  only  made  at  the  Company’s  laboratory  at 
“ Colombo,  and  the  quantity  is  much  less  than  can 
“ be  procured  from  an  equal  weight  of  any  other 
“ spice.  ’’ — Imperial  Institute  Journal. 
SOME  WELL-KNOWN  TEA  PESTS. 
Remedy  fou  Red  Spider. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  Microscopical  Society  on 
Monday  night,  Mr.  Miles  read  an  interesting  paper 
on  Tea  Rests,  which  was  illustrated  by  slides.  He 
said  : — For  many  ytars  planters  in  the  various  tea- 
growing  districts  have  suffered  in  varying  extent 
from  the  ravages  of  two  well-known  pests  rtv.,  the 
tea  mite  {TetraiKhus  hioculatus),  more  commonly 
known  as  “Red  Spider,"  and  the  Tea  Bug  (Hclo- 
peltis  theivora)  or  “ Mosquito  Blight.’’  There  are 
several  other  pests  to  which  I shall  refer  later  on. 
but  as  these  occur  only  spasmodically,  their  visits  are 
not  so  much  dreaded  as  the  first  two  named. 
I shall  first  proceed  to  give  you  a short  account 
of  the  Tea  Mite  or  “Red  Spider ’’ of  which  I exhibit 
a coloured  drawing  of  the  male  species.  I am  indebt- 
ed to  the  work  of  the  late  Mi^  J.  Wood-Mason  for 
the  following  description  of  its  structure  aud  habits:— 
“ The  mite  lives  in  societies  on  the  upper  surfaee 
of  the  full-grown  leaves  beneath  an  exceedingly 
delicate  web,  vvUich  it  spins  for  itsdf  as  a shelter. 
This  web,  ordinarily  invisible  to  ihe  naked  eye,  is 
often  rendered  vi.sible  by  the  deposition  upon  it  of 
dew  in  minute  globules,  which  give  to  the  leaves, 
when  bathed  in  the  sun,  an  indescribably  splendid 
appearance  of  being  sprinkled  over  with  minute 
diamonds. 
“ The  mites  lay  their  eggs  in  hollows  close  to  the 
ribs  of  the  leaves  usually.  The  eggs  are  oblate 
spheroids,  flatter  at  one  pole,  by  which  they  are 
firmly  aud  broadly  attached  to  the  leaves,  thin  at 
the  other,  at  which  their  transparent  shell  is  suddenly 
drawn  out  into  a long  and  tapering  and  sli''htly 
curled  glassy  process.  Th  y ar  red,  like  the  Mite 
itself,  and  at  the  close  of  segnientat  on  present  at 
their  surface  a beautiful  redicula  ed  pattern,  due  to 
the  presence  of  a concentrated  and  dark-coloured 
layer  of  protoplasm  aruuud  the  nue'ei  of  all  the 
cells  of  the  blastoderm.  The  young  arachnids  leave 
the  eg.!8  as  six-footed  larvro,  which  do  not  attach 
themselves  as  parasites  to  the  bodies  of  insects  an  I 
spiders,  as  do  their  distant  relations  the  Trombididae, 
nor  undergo  any  of  those  strange  changes  which 
many  other  mites  pass  through  in  the  course  of 
their  development,  but  attain  to  the  adult  condition 
by  a simple  change  of  skin  that  usually,  though  not 
perhaps  invariably,  is  made  on  the  same  leaf  as 
that  on  which  they  emerged  as  larvae  from  the  egg. 
The  shells  of  the  hatched  eggs  remain  glued  to  tne 
leaf  for  some  time  as  microscopically  small  objects 
resembling  porcelain  saucers. 
“ Prepara'.ory  to  the  final  moult  the  Mites  draw 
all  their  legs  in  under  them,  become  perfectly  mo- 
tionless, and  appear  to  change  from  red  to  white  ; 
but  no  change  of  colour  actually  occurs,  the  appear- 
ance of  whiteness  which  the  thin  and  colourless 
old  skin  presents  being  due  to  the  access  of  air  to 
the  interval  between  it  and  the  new. 
“ ’The  male  differs  from  the  female  not  only  in 
size  but  also  remarkably  in  the  form  of  the  body. 
The  former  rex  is  the  smaller,  and  in  the  shape  of 
the  body  resembles  a plover’s  e^g,  being  broadly 
round  at  the  interior  end  and  pointed  posteriorly, 
while  the  latter  resembles  an  egg  which  is  similar 
and  semi-circular  in  outline  and  nearly  equal  at 
both  ends. 
“ The  mite  injures  the  tea  plant  by  repeatedly 
puncturing  the  leaves  and  pumping  out  the  liquid 
contents  of  the  epidermis  (?  and  parenchyma)  through 
the  punctures  by  the  aid  of  the  pharyngeal  pump 
with  which  it,  like  all  other  arachnids,  is  provided. 
A freshly  punctured  leaf  exhibits  a regular  and 
pretty  pattern  of  irregular  star-shaped  patches  of 
light  green  worked  upon  a dark  ground.  The  pale 
spots  are  caused  by  the  mites  ,and  in  the  centre 
of  nearly  every  one  of  them  two  most  minute 
punctures  can  only  with  difficulty  be  made  out  even 
by  the  aid  of  a uicroscope.  In  order  that  the 
manner  in  which  the  punctures  are  made  may  be 
understood  it  will  be  necessary  briefly  to  describe 
the  mouth-parts  of  the  animal.  Tnese  consist  of 
(1)  a conical  rostrum  or  beak,  the  sides  of  which 
are  embraced  and  partly  formed  by  (2)  a pair  of 
short,  stout  and  jointed  palpi  or  feelers  which  end 
in  a pair  of  pincers,  and  answer  to  the  great  claw- 
bearing feelers  of  the  scorpion  and  to  the  first  max- 
illae of  an  inseet,  and  of  (3)  a pair  of  jaws  or 
mandibles,  which  do  not  enter  into  the  composition 
of  the  beak  above  and  in  front  of  which  they  lie 
but  between  which  of  them,  on  the  contrary,  there 
exists  a wide  interval.  The  rostrum  is  not  serrated 
on  the  edges  so  as  to  resemble  that  of  an  ordinary 
tick,  as  it  ia  in  the  European  T,  telarius,  but  on  each 
