Nov.  T,  1895.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
303 
seut  between  papers  by  way  of  sample,  and  as  Ibe 
stems  appeared  fresli,  tl  ough  gathered  at  least  four 
moiitlip,  he  planted  them  in  small  pots  and  plunged 
tln-m  in  a hotbed  of  1 aimer's  bark,  where  they  soon 
put  out  leaves  mid  roo's.  It  is  probable  that  they 
were  soon  afterwaiSa  !'0'. 
Shortly  afterwards  Ca.cs'by  gave  a good  coloured 
figure  of  I’,  inodora.  including  flowers  and  fruit, 
but  in  his  remarks  complelely  confounded  it  with 
the  true  economic  plant. 
Thus  three  distinct  species  had  become  confused 
together,  and  these  are  all  mcluded  by  Linnasus,  in 
his  Species  Flzutanim,  in  17.53,  und“r  the  name  of 
Epidendrum  Vanilla  (p.  952). 
Between  1830  and  1838  Bauer  and  Lindley’s 
trations  of  Orchidaceous  Plants  appeared,  and  we  find 
plates  10  and  11  of  the  Gcneia  devoted  to  the  struc- 
ture of  flowers  and  fruit  of  Vanilla  pi ani folia,  Andr., 
“ drawn  by  Mr.  Bauer  in  1807.”  This  is  the  first 
evidence  of  the  production  cf  fruit  in  Europe,  and 
as  the  drawing  was  made  in  the  same  year  as 
Salisbury’s  figure  appeared,  it  is  practically  certain 
that  it  w’as  made  from  the  very  same  plant.  How 
the  flower  became  fertilised  is  not  mentioned,  perhaps 
accidentally  or  by  some  insect.  Morren  suggests 
that  the  fmit  was  di'awu  from  a specimen  of  com- 
merce, but  the  colour,  the  uniformly  plump  texture, 
and  the  fact  that  it  is  attached  to  the  rachis,  all 
show  the  contrary ; quite  apart  from  the  fact  that 
the  vanilla  of  commerce  was  then  thought  to  be 
produced  by  another  species,  F.  aromalica,  which 
even  Morren  states  that  he  sought  for  in  vain  in 
the  gardens  of  London  and  its  environs,  and  at  Kew, 
and  wrongly  supposes  it  to  be  the  plant  cultivated 
by  Miller  in  1739.  Blorrcn  is  also  wrong  in  stating 
that  the  “Vanilla  pla’ ifolia  {'?)’'  of  Liudley’s  Her- 
barium is  “ihe  veiy  same  plant  drawn  in  flower 
by  Mr.  Fraucis  liauer,  ” for  it  came  from  a Botanic 
Garden  near  Moscow,  as  the  ticket  “ ex  horto  Goren- 
kensi”  proves. 
To  Professor  Charles  Morren,  of  Lidge,  belongs 
the  credit  of  first  produeing  fruits  in  quantity,  and 
of  proving  that  V.  piatiifoUa  was  the  source  of  the 
true  vanilla  of  commerce.  By  a particular  method 
of  treatment  adopted  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  54 
flowers  on  one  plant,  and  these  he  fertilised  artifi- 
cially, and  obtained  the  same  number  of  pods.  The 
following  year  a crop  of  about  100  pods  was  obtained 
from  another  plant  by  the  same  method.  His  paper, 
“On  the  prodnetion  of  Vanilla  in  Europe,”  was 
read  before  the  British  Association  at  Newcastle, 
in  1838,  and  published  in  the  following  year  (Ann. 
Eat.  Hist-,  per.  1,  Hi.,  pp.  l-9j.  He  also  succeeded 
'u  tracing  his  plant  back  to  the  one  which  originally 
flowered  in  the  collection  of  the  Bight  Hon  C.  Grtville, 
and  also  its  introduction  to  Java,  as  has  been  already 
pointed  out.  Thus  Morren  first  proved  the  necessity 
of  artificial  fertilisation,  and  he  attributed  its  not 
bearing  fruit  in  the  East  Indies  to  the  absence  of 
the  species  of  insect  which  doubtless  existed  in 
Mexico,  and  there  fertilised  the  flowers.  He  also 
suggested  that  vanilla  mi-hi  bo  produced  in  inier- 
tropical  colonies,  and  also  in  European  hothouses, 
by  ar.ificial  fertilisation.  Detiel  states  that  arti- 
ficial fertilisation  was  first  practised  by  Neumann, 
in  1830,  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  but  Mum  n makes 
no  mention  of  it.  In  1845  Blanco  described  a species 
of  Wuiilla  from  tho  Philippines,  which  he  had  received 
from  his  friend  Azaola  under  the  name  of  \\ majai- 
Jensis  fFl.  Filip.,  ed.  2,  p.  593^,  but  it  has  since 
been  referred  to  V.  planifolia,  and  thus,  if  the  deter- 
mination is  corect,  it  may  have  been  at  some  time 
introduced  from  Mexico  by  the  Spaniards.  Blanco 
describes  the  pod  as  not  aromatic,  but  it  may 
not  have  Lccn  mature  when  ho  received  it. — Keio 
Bulletin. 
THE  INSECT  ENEMY,  OKTHEZIA 
INS'IGNTS.” 
Dr.  Trimen,  in  his  annual  report  on  tho  Botaiiica^ 
Gardens  for  1893,  mentioned  the  occurrence  in  the 
Peridenija  Gardens  of  an  insect  pest  the  Ortherda 
Intijnia,  which  had  proved  rather  destructive  to 
the  ornamental  shrnbe  there,  H aLerwards  sprt^ad  to 
the  Lntana  outside,  but  Dr.  Trimen  wa,s  of  opinion 
that  it  was  mainly  a garden  pest,  and  Hra't  it  would 
not  spread  to  estates.  Mr.  E.  E.  Gipcn.  of  Pundaloya, 
contributed  what  appears  to  have  been  a rather 
sensational  article  on  the  subject  to  the  “ Ttopical 
Agriculturist  j fur  January  last  ; and  it  is  replied 
to  in  the  “ Kevv  Gardens  Bullet  n ” for  June  and 
July,  just  to  hand.  Mr.  Green  stated  that  the 
p<  sL  • lias,  fi  r unately,  as  yet  shown  no  taste 
lor  eiiher  of  our  two  most  important  produdts 
tea  and  coc:>a.  Coffee,  however,  does  not  share 
this  immunity,  for  trees  of  Liberian  coffee  have 
been  observed  to  be  infested  with  tho  insect,  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  theArabi.n  species 
will  be  less  liable  to  attack.”  The  insect  was 
first  described  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Douglas — with  whose 
n nne  it  is  consequently  associated — from  specim'eus 
found  in  Kew  Gardens,  where,  Mr.  Green  remarked, 
“it  is  now  said  to  be  doing  an  enormous  amount 
of  damage  in  the  plant  houses Originat* 
ing  as  it  does  in  the  Peradeniya  Botanical  Gar^dens, 
there  is  little  doubt  that  we  owe  the  introd^Jfon 
of  Ibis  pe.st  to  plants  received  from  Kww.”  JJThe 
“Kew  Gardens  liplletiu  ” editor  replies  that  “Mr. 
Green's  statement  as  to  ‘ the  enormous  amount  of 
damage  in  the  plant-houses’  caused  by  the  insect 
is  very  much  exaj,  gerated,  and  I am  unable  to 
ascertain  the  authority  on  which  it  is  made.”  The 
Assistant  Curator  was  also  requested  to  report  on 
the  subject,  and  he  states  that  their  Hongkong 
Strohilauthes  is  not  much  aS'ected,  but  species  of 
this  plant  from  India  and  Ceylon  are  much  subject 
to  Orthezia.  No  appreciable  harm  is  done  to  the 
plants,  even  when  badly  infested,  and  it  is  the  least 
harmful  of  all  the  insects  parasitical  on  p'ants  at 
Kew,  where  it  is  “ rather  a curiosity  than  a trouble‘ 
some  pest-”  Some  interesting  comments  follow  on 
the  question  of  the  introduction  of  the  pest  into 
Ceylou  and  we  consequently  give  the  two  eoncluding 
paragraphs  of  the  Assistant  Curator’s  report  in 
extenso : — 
The  dispersion  of  plant  diseases  tluough  the  inter- 
change of  plants  is  undoubtedly  a peril  requiring 
eaieful  precautions.  The  Phi/lloxera  wa,a  introduced 
from  England  into  Switzerland.  The  Coffee-leaf 
disease  {Heinileia)  has  been  conveyed  from  Ceylon 
on  the  one  hand  to  Fiji  (with  tea  seeds),  where  it 
practically  extinguished  the  promising  coffee  in- 
dustry, aiid  to  German  East  Africa  on  the  other. 
It  has  always  been  a matter  of  the  deepest  anxiety 
lest  by  any  accident  it  should  be  introduced  through 
Kew  to  Hie  New  Woild,  where  it  does  not  at 
present  exist.  It  has  been  no  less  a matter  of 
anxiety  lest  the  coffee-leaf  miner  should  be  in- 
troduced into  the  Old  World.  Kew  extends,  un- 
doubtedly, an  I involuntary  hospitality  to  many 
strange  guests,  which  come  unbidden  no  one  knows 
wheuCe.  The  remarkable  land  Planarian,  desefibed 
by  the  late  Professor  Moseley  as  Btpaliwn  Ke  vense, 
which  is  generally  to  be  found  in  the  houses,  is  a 
case  in  point. 
It  is  undoubtedly  possible  that  tho  Orthezia  may 
have  reached  Ceylou  by  way  of  Kew.  It  is  not, 
however,  very  probable,  and  the  reverse  may  just 
as  well  have  been  the  case.  It  exists  in  (the  public 
exhibitions,  however,  from  vi.hich  plants  are  not 
drawn  for  exportation.  The  plants  in  the  propagttt- 
ing  booses  from  which  distribution  is  made  are 
kept  scrupulously  clean,  and  evary  precaution  is 
taken  to  send  them  out  free  from  tai.,t  of  any  sort 
or  kind. — Local  “ Times.” 
— ^ 
A CHAT  ABOUT  JAPAN  TEA. 
Professor  Dr.  Max  Fesca,  went  to  the  Far  East 
country  in  1882,  for  three  years,  as  he  thought.  He 
has  remained  tliero  ever  since,  but  he  uow  thinks 
it  probable  lie  will  not  return.  The  Professor  has 
been  engaged  in  geological  an  i agricultural  surveying 
ill  Japan,  and  he  h vs,  naturally,  se.  n a good  deal 
of  lea  cultivaticm.  It  was  couceriiing  this  that  our 
representative  waited  upon  Dr.  Max  Fesca,  at  the 
Bristol,  this  morning,  when,  he  found  him  “ready 
to  cominunicate.” 
