Am.  Jour.  Pharru.") 
November,  1895.  / 
Cultivation  of  the  Coco-Nut. 
583 
six  feet  from  the  stem,  to  apply  ashes  and  dry  manure  to  the  roots, 
and  leave  the  opening  until  the  end  of  the  rainy  season ;  then  to  fill 
in  again  the  soil  which  has  been  removed,  and  level  the  ground. 
During  the  time  the  roots  are  exposed,  the  older  worn-out  rootlets 
may  be  cut  away  and  the  roots  of  other  plants  removed.  Cattle 
should  on  no  account  be  allowed  in  the  plantation,  as  it  is  most 
hurtful  to  the  tree  to  have  the  leaves  bitten,  and  if  the  unfolded  leaf 
is  injured  the  tree  dies. 
Yield. — A  tree  in  good  condition  yields  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
nuts  every  year,  but  good  climate,  soil  and  cultivation  may  bring 
the  yield  up  to  as  many  as  200  nuts. 
The  following  paragraph  is  a  part  of  a  speech  delivered  by  the  Marquis  of 
Ripon,  K.G.,  late  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  of  Great  Britain,  at  the 
anniversary  dinner  of  the  Linnean  Society.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  honest 
enough  to  acknowledge  ignorance,  but  how  a  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colo- 
nies could  have  escaped  hearing  something  of  gambier  is  a  mystery. 
I  had  a  curious  proof  the  other  day  of  the  way  in  which  plants  of  great  value  may  be 
but  little  known  to  those  who  do  not  cultivate  science,  or  are  not  engaged  in  those  industries 
in  which  these  plants  are  employed.  I  received  a  deputation  from  Leeds.  Though  most  of 
you  probably  think  only  of  Leeds  as  an  important  place  for  the  production  of  cloth,  yet  there 
is  a  great  leather  trade  in  Leeds  besides,  and  this  deputation  of  leading  men  came  to  me  to  do 
what  I  could  to  help  to  increase  the  production  of  gambier.  They  told  me  they  could  not  get 
on  without  it,  that  it  was  absolutely  essential  to  their  industry,  and  that  it  came  shipped  to 
them  from  Singapore.  I  believe  the  largest  quantity  is  not  grown  in  Singapore,  but  comes 
from  the  native  states  beyond.  I  am  bound  to  say  that  until  I  had  received  this  deputation,  I 
had  never  heard  of  gambier.    I  knew  nothing  about  it. 
The  interest  of  this  paragraph  lies  not  in  the  ignorance  of  the  official,  but  in 
the  information  it  gives  of  the  growing  scarcity  of  gambier.  If  that  deputa- 
tion of  citizens  of  Leeds  should  turn  to  the  United  States,  they  would  learn 
that  we  have  a  substance  here  called  cauaigre,  prepared  from  the  roots  of 
Rumex  hymenosepalus,  that  will  sooner  or  later  displace  gambier  which  is  of 
uncertain  origin,  uncertain  quality  and  uncertain  effect. 
The  verification  of  the  existence  of  the  true  Juan  Fernandez  Sandal  Wood 
is  recorded  in  the  Kew  Bulletin  for  1894,  page  no  ;  and  the  receipt  of  a  speci- 
men (page  372)  from  Professor  F.  Philippi,  who  described  it  from  very  imper- 
fect material.  Thanks  to  Mr.  Sohrens,  Kew  now  possesses  excellent  dried 
specimens  of  this  most  interesting  plant  {Santalum  fernandezianuni)  collected 
by  the  donor  himself.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  Mr.  Sohren's  letter  on 
this  subject : 
"It  may  be  interesting  to  you  to  know  that,  after  many  years'  search,  only 
one  live  tree  of  the  sandal  wood  has  been  found,  which  was  in  flower  in  the 
middle  of  April.  The  height  of  the  tree  to  the  first  branch  is  5-4  metres. 
The  nearly  horizontal  branches  prevented  my  measuring  the  total  height, 
which  may  be  about  8  metres;  circumference,  1*5  metres  at  0*5  metres  from  the 
ground." 
