April i, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST/ 
699 
house officers have been in the habit of condemn- 
ing as “ bad ” tea that was not in any way “bad,” 
but was merely a low-grade quality, and the im- 
porters say that this was a wrong condemnation, 
inasmuch as it meant the shutting out of very 
cheap, but, at the same time, not unwholesome 
tea. In the circumstances, the opinions of the 
secretary of the Customs and of the solicitor to the 
Board of Trade have been obtained, and these 
have decreed that the V ictorian Customs autho- 
rities have been somewhat too rigidly interpreting 
an act which follows precisely the wording of the 
English act. The correct practice, they say, ap- 
pears to be to reject all tea in which exhausted 
leaf or foreign substances are mixed, or in which 
leaf of bad quality is present in s^ch pio|)ortion 
as would render undesirable its consumption. 
— Madras Times, March 15. 
THE FERNS OF BRITISH WEST 
INDIES AND GUIANA. 
I am delighted to see that my goodbld friend Mr. 
Jenman, is describing the Ferns of British West 
Indies and Guiana. There is no one living who knows 
them better, and whatever Mr. Jenman does, he 
always does well. The Bulletin you sent me only 
contains two genuses — or what are popularly known 
as “ Filmy Ferns.” No less than 29 species of 
Hymenophyllums and 42 species of Trichomanes are 
here described, which shows what a wealth of these 
exqusitively beautiful Ferns there are in the Western 
British Colonies (so far as I can make out we have 
only 9 species of Hymenophyllums and 16 or 17 of Tri- 
chomanes in Ceylon). The introductory paragraphs 
to the tribes, and the key to the genuses are, to my 
mind, as plain as they can possibly be, and the des- 
criptions of the species are so well arranged that any 
one who only knows a little of botany, can easily 
understand them. The explanatory note following 
each species as to localities &c. are to the point, and 
altogether this work promises to be of very great 
value both to professional cryptogamists and ama- 
teurs. — Cor. 
QUININE, TRACTS, AND GINSENG. 
The culture of Ginseng, the celebrated “febri- 
fuge ” and aphrodisiac of the Chinese, has been 
of old one of the principal industries of Corea. 
Ginseng is not used in Western pharmacy, and 
its culture has been so often described that we 
do not propose to revert to it here. But it is of 
some interest to hear, as we are told by H.M. 
Consul at Soul, in Corea, that quinine has lately 
been introduced into that country in considerable 
quantities, and is gradually superseding Ginseng 
among the Coreans. The introducers of quinine 
into Corea are the missionaries, who, with a fine 
sense of practical Christanity, have hit upon the 
device of selling it at cost price in lieu of wages 
to their native distributors oi tracts. The tract- 
disseminator re sells the quinine to the natives 
at a profit, which he pockets, and the missionaries 
get their literature distributed free. The arrange- 
ment seems to suit all parties . — Chemist and Drug- 
gist, Jan. 22. 
“LADY BIRDS” FOR THE PLANTERS 
OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 
Sir Arthur Havelock’s Government has 
done tlie right thing by tl>e colf'ee-planters of 
Coorg, (Stc., in reference to their request for help 
about importing lady-bird beetles. We have re- 
ceived, today, copies of two official General Orders 
on the subject. In the first, dated 11th December, 
the decision reads : — “ The Government is unable 
to render the planters any substantial help in ob- 
taining the services of a competent Entomologist 
or an Agricultural Chemist, but that arrange- 
ments will be made with the Government of 
Queensland for the shipment of a consignment 
of lady-birds.” But in a later order, Jan. 17th, 
we find ; — 
In modification of the decision expressed in para- 
graph 2 of the first of the orders read above. His 
Excellency the Governor in Council resolves to 
approve of the proposal made by the United Planters’ 
Association to send Mr. Newport to Australia to 
collect and bring over to this country a consignment 
of lady birds and is prepared to meet a moiety of the 
cost calculated on the basis of a maximum expenditure 
of R4, 000 under the following items: — (1) Passage to 
Australia and back ; (2) return Sydney to Brisbane; 
(3) expenses in Australia, say for two mouths ; (4) 
travelling expenses in Australia ; (5) expenses for 
collecting the lady birds, packing, &c., and freight ; 
and (6) sundries. In other words, the Government 
is willing to make a maximum contribution of R2,000 
in respect of the expense under those items. Mr. 
Newport will be furnished with a letter of introduction 
to the Colonial Secretary to the Government of 
Queensland. The Accountant-General is requested to 
place an advance of Rl.OOO at Mr. Newport’s disposal. 
Sir Arthur Havelock deserves credit for so hand- 
somely modifying the original decision. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
‘‘ Colonial The Colonial College Magazine.— 
Winter Session, December, 1897. Centents as follows : 
— Old Students’ Column Communications from Af- 
rica. United States, South America, Italy, and 
Canada ; Soils from Argentina ; The British South 
African Police ; Colonial Progress ; Agriculture as 
a Career ; The SuSolk Horse ; Estate, Farm and 
Building Notes Weather Report — October to De- 
cember, 1897 ; Weather Report for 1897 ; The Athle- 
tic Club Report ; The Entertainment Society ; Res- 
ponsibilities of Young Englishmen; Our Frontis- 
piece; Opening in the Colonies, &c.; College Notes ; 
Notice to Correspondents ; Old Students’ Directory 
(revised). 
Trifacial Orange. —M. Delchevalerie, in his 
account of the Parc Public de V Ezbekieh, Cairo 
(Ghent) p. 11, already noticed in these columns, 
gives the following particulars regarding the 
trifacial Orange : “ Citrus Bigaradia, has long, 
pointed, often wooly leaves ; the petiole is in some 
cases winged, in others not so. The flowers are 
white, but tinged with violet outside. When 
this tree was raised at Florence it was proposed 
to graft it, but the stock having grown out 
beneath the graft, it was noticed that the tree 
bore two sorts of leaves. It was therefore left to 
fruit. It was at first supposed that two branches, 
one of the Citron, the other from the Orange, 
had been grafted simultaneously, and had become 
united, but, as has been said, the tree produced 
shoots beneath the graft. Whatever the reason, 
the foliage shows this peculiarity, that the 
branches were intermixed. At Paris, at Hu ward’s, 
there was formerly a specimen sixty years old 
bearing fruits partly Citron, and partly Orange. 
At Cairo, in the garden of V. R. de Choubeah, 
formerly the residence of Mehemet Ali, was one of 
these eccentric Orange trees from which we have 
gathered furits of a three-fold form and nature, 
one third of each being Orange, one third Cirron, 
and one third rough-skinned Citron.” —tfarrfeners’ 
Chronicle, 
