43° 
THE TROPIC At. ACPRrtniLTORlST 
[December 1,1891. 
daring the current year, thorctore, in order to hecp 
pace with the demand, should bo at least 4,000 lb.; but 
Mr. Lawson has made no ostimato The prioo of tho 
drug, it may bo mentioned, baa fullen from UlO 7-0 
to K14-11- 3 per lb. 1,050 lb. of febrifuge wore made 
during tho yenr, and this, and 400 lb, in band at tbo 
beginning of the year, has boon issued in indents to 
the Modioal Stores Department in Madras and 
Bombay. 
Uegarding the condition of tlio quinine sent to 
Oeylou, the Medical SuperintendoNt of tho Medical 
Btures, Oolombo, said that its appearance was very 
much against it, and asked that futnre supplies might 
be better crystalised.* Unless this point was attended 
to, it could, he said, never compete with Howard and 
Sous, or other well-known, quinine. Mr. Lawson 
denies that the crystalliaation was bad ; m fact, he 
says it was rosily very good, tho bad appuaraoco of tho 
quinine facing duo to its having been partially dried 
by pressure instead of by absorption, and that the 
orystals thus became broken up. On receipt of 
the Medical Superintundeut's letter an olfur was 
made to take all the quinine back and to scud 
in ita place an equal araunnt of better looking 
stuff, but the Superinteudent said he would not do this, 
he only hoped that for the future a better looking sort 
of quinine would be rent. This seems to have been 
done, for since his remonstrance no further complaint 
on the matter has been received. The actual receipts 
of tbe Milgiri plantations diiriug last year amouuted to 
1128,876, against a revised estiinato of L{40,0I)0, but it 
eredit be taken for tbe qninine and bark issued dnring 
tho year, of wbiob the value was not reulisod before 
its close, the reoeiptH are raised to 1180,629; snd if the 
value of the stock in hand at the end of tho year bo 
also iuclnded at the rates prevailing dnring the year 
tho Bgure como.s to R7 3,555. The net result of tho 
eperatious, taking the last 6gutc.s, show that there was 
B debit balance at the end of the year of B'1,8S2. 
Sinoe the oommcuceincut of planting operations in 
1860 there lias been a dehoit of 211 lakhs of rupees ; tho 
value of bark supplied to the quinulogist for oxpori- 
montal purposes, and that of quinine and febrifuge 
sold has amounted to a little over one lakh : tho value 
of bark seut to Kugland or supplied to other Qovorn- 
meats or departments boa amounted to close upon 32 
lakba of rupees, while tbs sales of plants, seeds, etc., 
has brought in a revenue of 1178,381. The total expen- 
diture during the past tliirty years has been 38-86 lakh.s, 
and the total reoeipts 33-78 lakhs . — Madras Mail. 
SACRKD TREES OF THE WORLD. 
Tbe Palm, the Oak and the Ash arc the three trees 
which sinoe times immemorial were held u> bo sacred 
trees. The first among them, which figures on the 
oldest moimmeiits and piclutcs of tho Egyptians and 
Assyrians, is the Date-palm (Phatiix dactylifera), 
which was the symbol of the world and of ori utu u, 
and the fruit of whiuh filled Iho faithful with divine 
strength and prepared them for the pleasures of 
immortality. " Honor,” said Mobamnied, •• thy pater- 
nal annt, the Date-palm, for in Paradise it was ore- 
atod ont of tbe same dust of the ground.'' Amithcr 
Mohsmmoiian tradition of a later period says thst 
when Adam left I’aradiso ho was allowed to take 
with him three things — a Myrtle, because it was the 
most lovoly and tbe most scented fiower of tbo earth ; 
a Wheat-ear, because it bad most nourishment, and 
a Date, because it is the most glorions fruit of the 
earth. The data from Psiudise was, in some mar- 
volons way, brought to tho Ilojas ; from it have 
come all the Date-palms in the world and Allah 
destined it to bo Iho food to all tho tino believers, 
who shall conquer every country whore tbe Date- 
palm grows. The Jews and tho Arabs, again, looked 
npon the same tree as a mystical allegory of human 
beings, for, like them, it dies when its head (tbo 
summit) is cut off, and wbeu a limb (brauch) is ouco 
* A spscimeu received by us from Dr. King, of 
quinine manufactured by Mr. Gammie, was as pure 
as Howard's.— Ep, 2', A., 
out off it docs not grow again. Those who know, 
can Understand t ho mysterious language of the 
branches on days when there is no wind, when 
whispers of present and future events are eeiumuui- 
oatod by tbe tree. Abraham of old, so the rabbis 
say, nudestand the language of the Palm. Tho Oak 
was always considered a “holy” tree by our own 
snoestors, and, above all, W the nations of the 
north of Europe. When Winifred of Devonshire 
(680-754 A. D.) wont forth on bis wanderings through 
Germany to preach the Gospel, one of hie first 
aotions was to cut down the giant Oak, in Saxony 
which was dedicated to 'Thor and worshipped by the 
people from far and near. Bat when he bad nearly 
felled tbo Oak, and while tbe people were cursing 
and threatening tbe saint, a supuruatural storm swept 
over it, seised the summit, broke every brauoh, and 
dashed it, “qaasi snperni motus solatis,” with a 
tremendous crash to tho ground. The heathens 
aoknowledged tho marvel, and many of them weto 
converted there and then. But tbo saint built a 
ohapel of the wood of this very Oak and dedicated 
it to St. Peter. 
Tbe saorol Oaks, it must be admitted, do not 
seem to have always done their duty. Thns, for 
instanoe, a famous Onk iu Ireland waa dedicated to 
tho Irish Saint Columban, one of the peculiarities 
uf the tree boiug that whoever carried a piece of 
ita wood in his month wimld never be hanged. 
After a time, however, Iho holy Oak of Kenmare was des- 
troyed in a storm. Nobody dared gather tho weed except 
a gardener, who tanned some shoe leatlier with the 
bark ; but when ho wore tbo ahoos made of this leather 
for the first time ho became a leper and waa never 
cured. In the Abbey of Vetrou, iu Brittany, stood 
an old Oak-tree which had grown ont of the stuff 
of 8t, Marlin, the first abbot of the monastery, and 
in the shade of which the piinoos of Brittany 
prayed whenever they went into the abbey. Nobody 
dared to piok even a leaf from this tree, and not 
even the birds dared to peck at it. Not so tho 
Notinuo pirates, two of whom climbed tho tree of 
St. Martin to out wood for their bows. Both of 
them fell down and broke their necks. The Celts 
and Germans and Scandinavians, again, worshipped 
the Mountain Ash, and it is espeoially in tho reli- 
gions myths of tbe latter that the ” Aiker Yggdrasil ” 
plays a prominent part. To them it was tbe holiest 
among trees, tbe “ world tree ” wbioh, eternally 
young and dewy, represented heaven, earth and hell. 
Aooordiiig to the Edda, the Ash Yggdrasil was an 
evergreen tree. A speoimeu of it (says Adam of 
Bremen) grew at Upsala in front of tbe great temple, 
and another in Ditomarscbin, carefully guarded by a 
roiling, for it was, iu a mystioal way oonuuoted with 
tlie fate of the country.— D*ufje7,e littndschau. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Kill Andrew Claiik on Tea. — It waa Sit Andrew 
Clark wlui i poke againal Indian tea tbe other day, 
and It was in the conrao of a lecture to tho students 
of the I.ondoii Hospital that he delivered liimself of 
the opiuiou that Indian tea was espeoially bad for 
nerves. This is what ho said : — “ Tea is a blessed 
beverage. 1 do not know what I should do without 
it. But there is teaaud tea; audoueof the teas which 
I have in ray mind is thejbepresentatiuu of all that 
is physiologioaliy wicked. I go about town a good 
deal, holding consultatious here and there, aud,about 
five o'clock when I get into a plaoo the lady of the 
house will say |o me, " Sir Andrew, yon look eo tirod, 
do lot me give you a cup of tea.' I say, * Thauk 
jou very much.’ But the tea has stood for half-au- 
hour ; and she remarks, * 1 know you do not like it 
strong. Sir Andrew,* and then she puts about a 
tahlespoonlul of tea into tho cup, and fills it up 
with water. Now, I oall it positively cruelty to give 
too like that to anybody, and I hope you gentlemen 
will always set your face against such a beverage. 
Tea to bo useful should bo, first of all, black China 
tea— the Indian tea which is being cultivated has 
beoomo BO powerful la its eifeot upon tho nervons 
