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THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec,  2,  1895. 
“ Handbook  to  the  Flora  of  Ceylon.” — Dr.  Tri- 
men  s most  useful  htiiidbook  markes  steady  progress. 
The  plates  by  which  it  is  illustrated  now  number 
seventy-five.  Barleria  Arnottiana,  with  large  tabu- 
lar blue  flowers  would  be  a desirable  introduction 
to  our  stoves.  The  text  of  the  third  volume  has 
now  reached  the  Balanophoraceae.  The  terse  de- 
scriptive paragraphs  admitting  ready  comparison 
are  in  marked  contrast  to  the  diffuse  dissertations 
admitting  of  comparison  with  difficulty  if  at  all, 
which  are  employed  by  the  laboratory  school  of 
botanists. — Gardeners’  Chronicle. 
The  New  Public-Gardens  Superintendent  at  Nag- 
pur.— We  learn  that  Mr.  John  Horne  Stephen, 
formerly  of  Kew,  and  lately  curator  of  the  Lai  Hagh 
Botanic  Gardens  at  Bangalore,  Mysore,  has  been  ap- 
pointed Superintendent  of  the  Public  Gardens  at  Nag- 
pur, Central  Provinces  of  India,  in  succession  to  the 
late  Mr.  J.  11.  Ward.  Mr.  Ward  died  in  Jauuai-y  last 
from  smallpox  complicated  w'ith  other  maladies.  He 
had  only  held  his  post  since  1893,  but  had  already 
won  general  regard ; his  untimely  death  has  cut  short 
a career  of  promise. — Kao  Bulletin,  September,  1895. 
A Nkw  Guinea  Correspondent  Write.s. — 
“ The  well-known  Gen  nan  traveller,  Mr.  Otto 
Ehlers,  has  started  on  his  trip  through  New 
Guinea.  With  45  carriers,  he  intends  to  follow^ 
the  Francisco  river  inland,  and  to  cross  the 
mountains  so  as  to  meet  the  Heath  river  in  the 
Emdish  territory.  The  direct  distance  from  shore 
to  ”hore  is  not  much  more  than  1)0  miles,  but 
nothing  whatever  is  known  of  the  country  to  be 
traversed,  if  it  is  inhabited  or  not,  if  the  inhabi- 
tants are  friendly  or  hostile,  if  food  is  to  be 
procured  or  not  and  therefore  the  results  are  still 
doubtful.— df.  Mail. 
The  Po-ssirilutes  oe  CoLONhs.vrioN  in  the 
Tropics  are  discussed  in  the  articles  of  Mr. 
Frederick  Boyle  in  the  New  Review,  and  Cap- 
tain Lugard  and  Mr.  A.  Silva  White  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century  for  September 
Mr.  Boyle  revives  and  gives  personal  support  to  the 
opinion  of  Mr.  H.  VV.  Bates  (the  “ Naturalist  on  the 
Amazon”)  that,  “ though  humanity  can  reach  an 
advanced  degree  of  culture  only  by  battling  with  the 
inclemencies  of  nature  in  high  latitudes,  it  is  under  the 
equator  alone  that  the  race  of  the  future  will  attain 
to  complete  fruition  of  man’s  beautiful  heritage,  the 
earth.”  Captain  Lugard,  eschewing  transcendenta- 
lisms' continues  his  search  after  “ New  British  Mar- 
kets ’’  this  time  in  tropical  Africa,  and  winds  up  with 
the  enthusiastic  prophecy  that  the  “ great  policy"  of 
r^lonial  development  announced  in  the  speech  of 
Au-'usl  22nd,  but”  first  formulated  in  1893,’  “will 
be  identified  in  English  history  as  Mr.  Chamberlain’s.” 
Captain  Lugard  may  learn  some  day,  in  company 
with  more  eminent  persons,  that  it  is  not  quite  as 
easy  to  lead  the  Colonial  Secretary  by  the  nose  as  it 
annears  to  be* 
^'TiiE  Planting  and  Agricultural  En’ier- 
prise  of  Ceylon  and  the  London  “Ti.me.s.” 
Very  opportunely  on  tlie  day  we  are  pubh.sh- 
i , our  “Directory”  Supplement,  the  German 
steamer  has  brought  us  a copy  of  the  London 
Times  of  Oct.  ‘21st— three  days  later  than  our 
last  mail— which,  am  mg  other  things,  contains 
the  lon('  letter  we  ventured  to  address  to  the 
Editor  on  Sept.  19th  on  first  arriving  at  a elear 
hlea  of  the  position  of  our  Planting  Enterjuise. 
Vy  reproduce  the  letter  in  full  elsewhere  and 
•t  will  observed  that  it  refers  to  native 
A-M-icultural  industry  as  well  as  to  our  Bice 
I ('nstoms  'I’axation,  ami  the  marvellous 
\v,  )cariu”  at  a time  when  bir  Arthur  Havelock 
i,  about  “o  hand  over  the  reins  m person  to  a new 
rovernor.  Sir  West  Kidgeway,  this  letter  in  leaded 
fvne  in  The  Times  cannot  fail,  we  think,  to  attract  a 
m d deal  of  otlicial  and  general  attention  111  the 
motlier  country,  aiid  thereby  to  prove  a good  ad- 
{or  Ceylon. 
Take  Notice. — The  Ceylon  hserver  by  the  way 
issues  a warning  to  Indian  tea  planters  in  italics 
and  it  only  requires  the  accompaniment  of  slow 
music  to  render  it  melodramatic.  Our  contemporary 
says:  “We  have  been  asked  by  a Colombo  mer- 
chant to  state  what  pro2iortioii,  according  to  our 
reckoning,  of  the  reserved  land  in  private  hands 
may  be  available  for  planting  with  tea.  The  total 
extent  of  plantations  being  718,017  acres,  and  of 
cultivation  379,182  acres,  we  get  for  total  reserve  368,833 
acres.  Of  this  very  large  extent  we  should  say  that  about 
120, OuO  acres  represent  forest  and  other  valuable  laud 
fully  available  for  cultivation  if  dua  encouragement 
is  offered ; and  unless  a fall  in  the  price  of  tea 
through  large  crops  in  India  interfere  we  see  no 
reason  why  60,000  acres  of  this  reserve  should  not 
be  iilanted  during  the  next  five  or  six  years — apart 
from  any  Crown  land  that  may  be  made  available — 
so  let  Indian  tea  planters  heivare  of  supposing  that 
there  is  no  more  tea  land  to  plant  in  Ceylon.  ” The 
italics  are  copied  from  the  Ohsercer. — II.  <(•  G.  Mail, 
The  Indian  Tea  Crop.— A writer  in  the 
Indian  Planters'  Gazette  says  of  the  current 
crop 
If  the  profit  last  year  per  lb.  was  estimated  at  2d 
per  lb.  we  would  be  inclined  to  think  that  all  over 
it  might  be  cut  in  two  this  year,  as  Assams,  which 
princiiially  keep  up  the  high  average  price  of  Indian 
teas  up  to  date,  with  a few,  aye — very  few — notable 
exceptions,  have  proved  a “ lame  duck”,  and  only 
contributed  to  lowering  the  average.  Tis  true  that 
lately  a few  of  the  sales  have  been  exceptionally 
good,  but  this  by  no  means  represents  the  general 
bulk,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  this  is  entirely 
due  to  the  atmosphere,  as  all  cannot  have  lost  the 
“ cunning  of  their  hand.”  In  the  beginning  of  this 
season  a leading  broker  stated  his  opinion  that  the 
jioorness  of  the  Indian  crop  was  entirely  due  to  at- 
mospheric causes,  and  jilanters  must  find  it  a great 
advantage  to  be  informed  by  competent  authority 
that  the  fault  does  not  lie  in  the  system  of  manu- 
facture pursued,  but  in  the  air  so  to  speak.  At 
one  time,  the  1895  crop  was  talked  about  with 
“bated  breath,”  but  the  wind  has  again  been  tem- 
pered for  the  shorn  lamb,  and  season  1396  will  be 
upon  us  ere  we  know  what  we  are  about,  and  there 
will  be  probably  speculation  as  to  the  enormous 
increase  again  I 
What  has  iieen  done  and  what  is  to  come 
— formed  the  occurence  of  a. striking  passage  in  the 
British  Association  President’s  addres.s ; — 
Who,  at  the  ioundation  of  the  Association,  would 
have  believed  some  far-seeing  philosopher  if  he  had 
foretold  that  the  spectroscope  would  analyse  the  con- 
stituents of  the  sun  and  measure  the  nioiions  of  the 
stars;  that  we  should  liquefy  air  and  utilise  temuera- 
tures  approaching  to  the  absolute  zero  for  ex^ieri- 
meiital  research ; that,  like  the  magician  in  the 
“ Arabian  Nights,”  we  should  annihilate  distance  by 
means  of  the  electric  telegraph  and  the  telephone ) 
that  we  should  illuminate  our  largest  buildings  ins- 
tantaneously, with  the  clearness  of  day,  by  moans  of 
the  electric  current ; that  by  the  electric  transmission 
of  power,  we  should  be  able  to  utilise  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  to  work  factories  at  distant  iilaces  ; that  we 
■should  extract  metals  from  the  crust  of  the  earth  by 
the  same  electrical  agency  to  which,  in  some  cases 
their  deposition  has  been  attributed  ? * » ]}ut 
what  will  our  successors  bring  discussion  sixty  years 
hence  ? How  little  do  we  yet  know  of  the  vibration 
which  communicate  light  and  heat ! Far  as  we  have 
advanced  in  the  application  of  electricity  to  the  uses 
of  life,  we  know  but  little  even  yet  of  its  real  nature. 
Wo  are  only  on  the  threshold  of  the  knowledge  of 
molecular  action,  or  of  the  constitution  of  the  all- 
pervading  sether.  * * It  is  only  within  the  last 
tew  years  that  we  have  begun  to  realise  that  electri- 
city is  closely  connected  with  the  vibrations  which 
cause  heat  and  light,  and  which  seem  to  pervade  all 
space — vibrations  which  may  be  termed  the  voice  of 
the  Creator  calling  to  each  atom  and  to  each  cell  of 
protojilasm  to  fall  into  its  ordained  iiosition,  each, 
as  it  were,  a musical  note  in  the  harmonious  syw 
jfhony  iv'hioh  wo  call  the  uuiveiBe. 
