Botanical Laboratory, Owens College.
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BOLIVIAN CINCHONA FORESTS.
The great progress made in the acclimation of cinchona trees in India, Ceylon, and elsewhere has awakened the governments of countries where the plants are indigenous to the necessity of conserving from reckless destruction, and replanting denuded forests, so as to be able to keep up the supply of this valuable product.
In Bolivia, since 1878, according to the report of the Netherlands Consul, private individuals and land owners have taken up the question with great earnestness, and at the present time on the banks of the Mapiri, in the department of La Paz, there are over a million of young trees growing.
New plantations have also sprung up in various other localities, either on private ground or that owned by Government. The competition of India and Ceylon in supplying the markets has had also the effect of inducing more care in collecting and also of revisiting old spots, often with the result of a rich harvest of bark which had been left on partly denuded trunks, and the opening up of new localities. The new shoots springing up from the old stumps have yielded much quill bark, and the root bark of the old stumps has also been utilized.
The replanting entails very little expense. The Indian tenant on an estate has a house and land from the owner (hacienda) of the estate. For this he binds himself to work for two to four days a week, at from 28 to 36 cents per day, women and children obtaining 16 to 21 cents per day. Thus the planting, weeding, etc., during the first two years is but nominal in expense; after this period the trees may be left to themselves.
On Government land the expense is greater, as, after an application being made, the land is put up to public auction, and may fetch a very low or higher price according to the bidding. The land secured, contracts are made with natives of the lower class to clear the forest and plant cinchona. The contracts are often sublet to Indians. The young plants are planted from five to six feet apart, with banana trees between, on account of their rapid growth and the shade the latter afford. From March to June, after the wet season is over, is the best time for planting, and the contractor keeps the plantation free from weeds and in good order for twelve months, when it is handed over to the owner. The following is given as the cost of the Mapiri River plantation of an area from 60 or more miles in extent:
Ground. $1,200
300,000 plants at $0.14. 42,000 Superintendent, buildings, etc. 4,400 Interest. 4,800
——-
Total. $52,400
Till the plants are above two years of age, they are liable to die from drought or the attacks of ants, and during 1878 many thousands died from these causes. At the end of the fourth year some proprietors begin to collect the quill bark by the method of coppicing.
It is feared by some that, should this new venture be successful, it will prove a dangerous rival to the plantations of India, Ceylon, and Java, and lower the price of bark considerably.–_Jour. Society of Arts_.
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FERNS.
_N. Davallioides Furcans._–Among the many crested ferns in cultivation, this, of which the annexed is an illustration, is one of the most distinct; so different indeed it is from the type, that it is questionable if it really is a form of it; the most essential characteristic, that of the fructification at the extreme edge of the lobes of the pinnae, is altogether absent, and the whole habit of the plant is also thoroughly distinct. It is of equally robust growth, but its handsomely arching fronds, which are from 3 feet to 4 feet in length, are produced in great abundance from a central tuft or agglomeration of crowns. Its most distinct characteristic is the furcation of the pinnae, which are all of the same dimensions, whether sterile or fertile; they are all opposite and closely set along the mid-rib, whereas those of N. davallioides are set much further apart. In the barren pinnae which are only situated on the lower portion of the frond, and which generally are only few in number, the furcation is rudimentary; in the fertile pinnae it is twice and even three times repeated in the extremities of the first division, becoming more complex toward the point of the frond, where it often forms quite a large tassel, whose weight gives the fronds quite an elegant, arching habit. On that account this plant is valuable for growing in baskets of large dimensions, in which it shows itself off to good advantage, and never fails to prove attractive. Although it produces spores freely, it is best to propagate it by means of the young plants produced from rhizomes in the ordinary way, on account of the extreme variations which take place among the seedlings, a small percentage only of which are possessed of the true character of the parent plant. Stove.–_The Garden._
[Illustration: NEPHROLEPIS DAVALLIOIDES FURCANS.]
_N. Duffi_.–This pretty, neat-habited species, of which an illustration, kindly lent us by Mr. Bull, appears in another place, is a native of the Duke of York’s Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, and is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of the whole genus. Its compact habit, its comparatively small dimensions, and the bright, glossy color of its beautifully tasseled fronds render it a most welcome addition to a group of ferns naturally rich in decorative plants. Its curiously and irregularly pinnate fronds are borne on slender stalks, terete toward the base, and covered with reddish brown, downy scales, instead of being produced loosely, as in most other Nephrolepises; these are densily crowded, and the outcome of closely clustered crowns. They measure from 15 inches to 18 inches long, and are terminated by very handsome massive crests, which vary in size according to the temperature in which the plant is grown. We have at different times heard complaints of these fronds being simply furcate, when the same plant, after being subjected to a greater amount of heat and moisture, produced fronds very heavily tasseled, and partaking of an elegant vase-shaped appearance. In fact, nothing short of the moist heat of a stove will induce it to show its characters in their best condition. The pinnae, which are small, of different sizes, rounded and serrated at the edges, are produced in pairs, one overlying the other, and, curiously enough, those on the top are the largest. The pairs are sometimes opposite, but mostly alternate, distant toward the base, approximate higher up, and crowded and quite overlapping in the crested portion of the frond. This, being a thoroughly barren kind, can only be propagated by division of the crowns, an operation easily done at any time of the year, but most safely in early spring and by young plants produced from the rhizomes, which, however, are produced much more sparingly than in any other species. It is also one of the best adapted for pot or pan culture, its somewhat upright habit making it less suitable for baskets, brackets, and wall covering than other species. Stove.–_The Garden_.
[Illustration: NEPHROLEPIS DUFFI.]
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FORMATION OF SUGAR.
A paper on “The Formation of Sugar in the Sugar-cane” was recently read by M. Aime Girard before the Paris Academy of Sciences. By comparative investigations of the amount of cane sugar and grape sugar in different parts of the sugar-cane in the afternoon and before sunrise, the author has found that only in the substance of the leaves does this quantity vary, and that the quantity of cane sugar sinks during the night to one-half, while the quantity of reducing sugar remains almost unaltered. He finds further that the quantity of sugar-cane in the leaves increases with the illumination, on very bright days reaching nearly one per cent., considerably less on dull ones, and in either case diminishing during the night by one-half. From this the author concludes that the formation of saccharose from glucose takes place entirely in the leaves under the influence of sunlight, and that the saccharose thereupon ascends the cane through the petioles, etc., and collects there.
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