222 
make sure there were no grass seeds in it, but as cane seed ger- 
minates quickly there is no particular advantage to be gained by 
this. One portion was covered very lightly with a sprinkling of 
fine sand, and the others not at all. The advantage is slightly 
in favour of the former method, though it is not great. Each pot 
was covered with a piece of glass to prevent too rapid evapora- 
tion, and when the soil appeared to be getting dry the pot was 
plunged for a minute or two in a vessel with water up to the rim. 
No water was given overhead until the plants were a fortnight 
old. 
Those sown in the bed were, however, watered with a fine rose 
pot from the first, as often as was necessary, and furnished a good 
number of plants, but not by any means in proportion to those 
sown in pots and covered with glass. The advantages are all in 
favour of the latter method. When a month old the young 
plants were pricked out in boxes four or five inches deep in a mix- 
ture of pure leaf-mould and sand in equal part and a sprinkling 
of bone dust added. This was passed through a quarter-inch 
sieve. At two months old three hundred plants were potted in 
five and seven-inch pots in a mixture similar to that used for the 
boxes, but with the addition of a little fine old cow manure. 
If good seed is obtainable there appears to be no difficulty 
in raising any number of plants, but I think it should be sown as 
it is ripe. A second sowing from the same lot of seed from 
which these plants were raised, after an interval of fourteen 
days, and under exactly the same conditions, failed to produce 
a single plant. That this is not always the case is evident 
from the fact that canes were raised at Kew from seeds sent 
from Barbadoes. Those interested in this subject will find in- 
teresting papers in Kew Bulletins for December, 1888, October, 
1889, January, 1891, and March, 1894. 
C. CURTlS, 
Penang. 
SHADE TREES. 
Suitable trees for shading roadsides and open spaces are not 
so easy to decide upon as would appear at first sight. They re- 
quire several qualifications, in order to be satisfactory, and some 
which are adapted for one class of locality are quite unsuited for 
another. The trees selected should be at least fairly fast grow- 
ers, but many trees of rapid growth must be condemned on ac- 
count of their short life period, or the brittleness of their wood. 
This latter is of course very important, as during gales, boughs 
of brittle trees will be thrown down on carriages and passers by 
and cause accidents. In some trees the boughs die away even 
when large and remain attached to the tree in such a manner 
that they form a constant danger. This is especially the case 
with Fig trees, such as the Waringin. As a rule trees which pro- 
duce few large boughs are safer than those which produce a 
