GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 813 
These included Streptocarpus caulescens, and several 
Leguminosas. 
IV. Professor Mickson exhibited a specimen of Polen^- 
nium coeruleum the garden of G. H. Potts, Es§., 
Fettes Mount, L^wade. It had a broadly fasciafed 
stem, with thickly glistered flowers along its edge-lfke 
extremity. This fo^jp seems to be permanent, as it has 
now come up for the %cond season at Mr, Potts’. ^ 
V. Professor Dicksc% also showed two exhibits sent 
by Mr. Brown — one a^^ecimen of Cheiranthus Cheiri 
var. gynantherus ; the o^er a proliferous Rose, Where 
the second flower, instead^of springing from the o^anic 
extremity of the floral ax^^ i.e., the bottom of the hol- 
lowed out receptacle, springs from its margin Jin the 
neighbourhood of the in%-tion of the coro|la and 
stamens. f 
irland, giving at the sameitime 
girth, &c. I I 
VI I. The following plants in 'Mower werp exhibite 
from the gardenMisSOUF?! . ' . ■ C ' V } 
Aciphylla squarr^ORGE El JSentliaiaorjiaia .'.rERS, 
Delphinium nudicaule Silene'Euadridentata 
Allium oreophilum Lewi.si%ediViva 
Calceolaria Kellyana Polygonu^- capitatum 
Androsace rotundifoliavar. Goodyera^r^pens 
macrocalyx Saxifragl ptopaginea 
Primula floribunda ,, mptatai; 
Erinus alpinus ,, Quthriektia var. 
1 
Nottinghamshire Horticirftural an|L Bota- 
nical. — The monthly meetin^f the abovi? Society 
was held on Monday evening ^st. There wd| a large 
attendance of members and th# friends, and Ml;, James 
Booth, of Fern House, Mapfeley Road, occu^d the 
chair. Mr. C. P. Pearson, c# Chilwell, read a lo% and 
interesting paper on the “ margonium and its Culture,” 
dealing with the plant fro^the first hybridisation of the 
common wild variety by .me celebrated Donald Beaton 
down to the present beai|fiful varieties now in commerce. 
The reader illustrated Ms paper by exhibiting the (Affer- 
ent forms or stages o^ybridisation by living speciilfens. 
4 , and a vote of thanks was awaked 
the essayist. The^was a large show of cut flowers ^id 
: being a very fine collectior%f 
from Mr, Pendry, of Car Colsto%, 
fruit, especially n^ 
named Pyrethr^ 
very fii^E netted Melon from Mr. Swanwick, of 
’ ^ Mr. German, of Malvern House| 
blooms of Cattleya citrina, Cyprii 
and Anthurium Andreanum, all o^ 
5 very much admired. The different exhibitors ' 
and the Chairman were accorded a hearty vote of thanks. 
brought 
J’ffrtigit Cumspwikita. 
A Trip to Malacca : Tapioca Cultivation . — 
As Tapioca is now one of the principal articles of 
export from the Straits Settlements a few notes made 
during a flying visit I recently paid to Malacca regard- 
ing the mode of cultivation and the primitive and 
modern modes of manufacture there employed may 
not be uninteresting to some of your readers. 
During a six years’ residence in the Straits I was 
never fortunate enough to have sufficient time to spare 
in Malacca to go far beyond the limits of the town, 
yet when one reflects on what Griffith, Thomas Lobb, 
Maingay, and others have unearthed from its jungles 
it has become to the botanist and naturalist the most 
interesting part of the Straits Settlements, and while 
driving along its country roads or traversing its jungle 
paths and reflecting on the work done by those lovers 
of Nature, one feels that he is on classic ground so far 
as botany is concerned. 
It was, therefore, with no little satisfaction that I 
accepted an invitation from Mr. J. M. Lyon, who is 
the head of an engineering firm in Singapore that has 
acquired considerable local renown for its inventions 
for manufacturing Tapioca, to accompany him on a 
short trip to Malacca before leaving for “ the land of 
the white elephant.^’ 
Leaving Singapore at 4 P.M. on September 14 by 
the steamship Mayfioiver — which, by-the-bye, is not 
the same craft which conveyed the “ Pilgrim Fathers ” 
from the shores of Old England “ converted ” — we. 
arrived in Malacca (locally known as “ Sleepy PIol- 
low ”) at 9 a.m. next morning, and at once called 
on some of the principal Tapioca planters. 
Before starting for the plantations we were treated 
to a surfeit of Malacca fruits, which at the time of our 
visit were abundant, including delicious Dukus (Lan- 
sium domesticum), the Tampui (Hedycarpus malay- 
^ anus), which, I think, is much to be preferred to the 
I Mangosteen, of which, of course, we saw plenty, and 
splendid Chikos (Sapota Achras), which, although it 
’ is not an indigenous fruit, thrives and fruits to perfec- 
5 tion in Malacca. 
Before noon, however, in company with two of the 
most extensive and energetic planters in the colony, 
Mr. Chea Hoon Bong and Mr. Koh Hoon Boh, we 
were en route to their plantations. 
To the estate of the former gentleman, which is 
about 10 miles from Malacca, the drive was very 
enjoyable, the sides of the road for some distance 
being mostly overshadowed with Cocoa-nuts, while 
underneath the' Rambeh trees (Pierardia dulcis) were 
loaded with long hanging racemes of fruit, while 
large clumps of Salak (Zalacca edulis), Licualas, 
Bauhinias, Poinciana pulcherrima, Ixoras, &c., served 
to diversify the vegetation. Some fine native-grown 
Coffee was passed, laden with ripe fruit, and further 
on a thriving Nutmeg plantation was passed through. 
Further on, where the jungle road begins, there was 
little to interest— -Rhodomyrtus, Grewias, Mussasnda, 
and Melastoma forming the larger part of the vegeta- 
tion. 
The mode of cultivating Tapioca in the Straits 
varies but little on different estates, whether owned 
by Europeans or Chinese. If jungle composed of 
large trees is to be cleared the trees are* cut down at 
some height from the ground, the stumps remaining 
in the ground and the whole set on fire, the charred 
remains of the trees being generally allowed to lie 
where they fall until the first crop is being cleared off, 
v^hen they are utilised for fuel. After the ground has 
been dug over and the soil put into a friable condi- 
tion the cuttings of Tapioca are planted in rows 
from 3 to 4 feet apart and about 9 inches or 
a foot in the rows. The cuttings are lengths about 
a foot long of the stem of the matured plant. 
These root easily, and in less than two months 
the ground is covered with a carpet of green almost 
a foot high. From this time to the time the crop is 
lifted, beyond weeding and slightly banking-up, 
nothing is done to the crop, although on some estates 
the tall stems are sometimes cut down to about 4 
feet from the ground, which must evidently keep the 
plants in a growing state, and prevent the proper 
storage of starch. On some estates I have known 
the crop lifted nine months after planting, with good 
results ; but the Chinese planters in Malacca usually 
keep the roots in the ground sixteen or even eighteen 
months. Perhaps each has its advantages, but it has 
struck me that tubers kept in the ground over a year 
develope a large amount of woody fibre without in- 
creasing the quantity of starch, which is evidently a 
disadvantage to the machinery. The general mode of 
lifting the crop is to cut off a certain portion of the 
tops, and pull up the tubers, the broken pieces being 
dug out afterwards. Of course, on land that has 
previously carried a Tapioca crop, manure should be 
used, which by some planters is applied previous to 
planting, and by others after the young plants have 
started into growth. In Malacca, however, cow-shed 
refuse is a scarce article, and the cost of carriage 
would be considerable where estates are distant from 
the base of supply and roads in many instances steep 
and bad. 
On one estate in Singapore under European 
management a green crop is grown with the Tapioca, 
consisting principally of Arachis hypogaea, various 
Crotalarias, principally C. striata, &c., which is dug 
in with lime, &c., while green, for the' next crop, but 
the plan does not appear to find acceptance with 
other planters. The root of the Tapioca it is hardly 
necessary to describe here, but I may state that while 
in Malacca I saw some specimens over 2 feet long, 
and weighing between 6 and 7 lb. The roots being 
laid in heaps are carted to the manufactory, and the 
sticks laid in stacks for supplying cuttings for the 
next crop. 
The estate first visited in Malacca was Buki 
Bruang (literally Bear Hill), and here we found J. M. 
Lyon & Co.’s, patent machinery in full working 
order. 
Of course steam is the motive power, in fact the 
most primitive styles of preparation seem unable to 
do without this, as I will show later on. The roots 
being first divested of their woody tops, are thrown 
into a large revolving drum, in which pipes are so 
arranged that constant jets of water play on them as 
they are turned over and over, and gradually they 
reach the farther end of the drum perfectly clean, and 
empty themselves into a rasping machine, whence 
they emerge in the form of a fine pulp, which is thrown 
direct from the rasper into another cylinder covered 
either with stout muslin or brass-wire gauze, through 
the sides of which jets of water are continually pass- 
ing. By this process the starch is separated from the 
pulp, the starch passing through the muslin or gauze 
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Missouri 
Botanical 
cm copyright reserved garden 
