Amiurnlea8^5arm}     Sago  Cultivation  in  North  Borneo.  335 
native  schooners  of  about  forty  tons,  which  ply  regularly,  and  in 
fair  weather  are  able  to  make  a  trip  every  two  days. 
The  following  are  the  figures  recorded  in  the  returns  at  Mempakul 
of  the  sago  shipped  to  Labuan  since  January,  1890 : 
Sago  Flour.  Raw  Sago. 
1890  $23,483.72  $10,350.32 
1891  24,826.67  18,560.20 
1892                                                       .101,327.06  25,304.59 
1893                                                          119,092.70  25,034.24 
The  latter  portion  of  the  year  is  generally  the  busiest,  as  the 
rains  assist  in  the  transport  of  the  raw  material  from  streams  which 
may  have  become  too  shallow  during  the  dry  weather. 
The  present  price  of  sago  flour  at  Singapore  is  $2.55  per  pikul. 
The  Chinese  traders  buy  the  raw  material  at  from  $1  to  $1.20  per 
pikul,  according  to  the  market  price  at  Singapore,  and,  after  allow- 
ing for  the  cleaning  of  the  raw  sago  and  washing  it  in  the  factories, 
there  remains  a  profit  of  at  least  50  cents  per  pikul  to  the  Chinese 
manufacturers.  The  freight  from  Labuan  to  Singapore  at  present 
is  22  cents  per  bag  of  115  catties  =  150  lbs.  A  royalty  of  6  cents 
per  pikul  is  charged  on  sago  flour  exported  from  Province  Dent  to 
Labuan,  when  the  Singapore  price  is  below  $2.50,  and  8  cents  when 
above  that  sum.  On  raw  sago  a  royalty  of  8  cents  is  charged  to 
protect  the  sago  factories.  The  sago  trade  is  increasing  rapidly  on 
the  Borneo  Coast,  and  at  the  present  time  over  three-fourths  of  the 
flour  and  raw  sago  exported  from  and  imported  into  Labuan  comes 
from  British  North  Borneo  ports. 
(Signed),  J.  G.  G.  Wheatley, 
Magistrate,  Province  Dent. 
Mempakul,  September  15,  1894. 
Seeds  without  Fertilization. — Some  years  ago,  Mr.  John  Smith,  the  Curator 
of  the  Kew  Gardens,  had  a  plant  of  the  Euphorbia  family,  which  was  wholly 
pistillate — not  another  plant  was  known  in  Europe — and  yet  it  produced  perfect 
seeds.  On  this  account,  the  plant  being  of  a  new  genus,  he  named  it  "Ccele- 
bogyne"  a  Greek  term  representing  this  curious  behavior.  Peculiarities  of 
this  kind  seem  incomprehensible,  and  yet  they  are  generally  believed  in  by 
scientific  men.  Mr.  David  H.  Day,  of  Buffalo,  writes  that  he  is  quite  sure  a 
pistillate  plant  he  has  of  Thalictrurn  Fendleri  produces  seeds  without  being 
pollenized,  and  the  writer  of  this  paragraph,  one  year,  cut  off  all  the  pollen- 
bearing  flowers  of  the  castor-oil  plant,  so  that  not  a  particle  of  pollen  perfected, 
and  yet  the  plant  produced  its  complement  of  seeds.  The  whole  experiment, 
however,  can  be  so  easily  repeated,  that  it  is  much  better  to  consider  this. result 
as  only  a  possibility  until  further  experiments  have  been  made. — MeehanxS 
Monthly  for  April,  1895. 
