AnguBt 31, 1871. J JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 159 turning it round so that it may have the force of the water directed against every part. The water should be heated to a temperature of 160°, and to every three gallons add a wine•glassful of spirits of turpentine and 12 oz. of soft soap. The solution should be applied at a temperature of 140'. This will destroy all the mealy bug escaping the hand-squeezing, but it ia not applicable to all kinds of plants. Those with smooth hard leaves it will not injure, but those with soft hairy leaves it will destroy. Examples of plants which it will not injure are Gardenias, Ixoras, and Stephanotis, and those which it will injure are exemplified by the Gloxinias. In the case of soft hairy-leaved plants, the best method is to persist in the handcleaning, and syringing with water only at a temperature of 20°. Either persisted in will soon clear the plants of those pests — not that the insect may not return, which it assuredly will do if of long standing. It hides itself in the woodwork, plunging material, ifcc, and reappears when least expected. This remedy may, perhaps, be known to everybody, but it is not applicable in every case, as it is impossible very often to remove the subjects, and the solution applied to them may drip on subjects it would injure. For individual plants it answers well, but for a house something different must be used. That something is guano, or the ammonia it gives off. The vapour of turpentine answers the same purpose, but it will destroy every leaf that has not ceased to inhale, and especially plants that do so largely, as Gloxinias, Achimenes, Gesneras, and all of their family, along with Vines, &j. The vapour arising from guano, on ihe other hand, is invigorating to all but a few, and to the latter, even, in less powerful doses. It is easy, however, to remove such subjects as Gloxinias, Achimenes, Gesneras, and Ferns, and with the house closed to scatter some of the best Peruvian guano on the floors, just covering every part; then sprinkle with water and keep moist. In about an hour the ammonia evolve! will be suflicieut to make it strongly apparent to the eye and nose. Let the guano remain on the walks as long as yon please, keeping them moist, and in case of any mealy bug being found repeat the application ; but I Lave not found it necessary to do so. In addition to the guano on the floor, I put in each of the evaporation troughs (I have all the upper pipes troughed in all Louses requiring a high temperature) a handful of guano, and etir well up, repeating the application every fortnight during the growing season, and this keeps off the mealy bug, and is nseful against other insects, especially red spider, for which it is a remedy. The value of ammonia to the cultivator is well known, and the greater benefit of natural watering as compared with artificial wateiing is in a great measure due to its presence in the one ca^e, and absence in the other. I am persuaded that for sprinkling, for every three gallons used, 1 oz. of guano would be vastly superior, more beneficial than water only, which from its being drawn from a source deprived of its ammonia possesses no stimulating quality. Strained I consider it would be very beneficial for syringing plants. Having tried it but to a limited extent, I cannot say more than that it has a beneficial tendency similar to that of soot water, it is of an .squally harmless nature as regards the foliage, and does not discolour paint, &o. — G. Abbey. THE FOREST TREES OF HINDOSTAN. Foremost amongst the crowd of leafy princes in ornamental beauty and commercial value stands the Ironwood tree of the Burrampooter valley, Mesua ferrea. Tall, straight, and symmetrical, it rears itself some 60 or 70 feet high, tapering upwards in its glossy green mass of waxlike foliage, beset with snowy, ifragrant, golden-centred flowers of the Camellia character, its timber unmatched for weight and hardiness by any other in all the immense wildernesses of Ind, and its worth enhanced by its comparative rarity, for the axe has played sad havoc with the very partially-scattered groups to be met with at the present time. The dried flowers are sold as a perfume. There are certain conditions of soil, clime, and natural production which iave hitherto baffled the zealous arboriculturist in his labours to propagate this beautiful wonder of the woods. I sent large quantities of seed to the Koyal Botanic Gardens in Calcutta, and ill success appears to have attended all the attempts at introduction, besides the unavoidable catastrophe of those gardens being more than once utterly demolished by frequent hurricanes, known as " cyclones." When I was building a house in Assam, I succeeded in finding and felling some firstelass ironwood timber, and when it was ready for use had to employ no less than three lusty elephants to drag each of the best specimens to my locality, a few miles distant, and they found it hard labour, too; the ground being soft and marshy, with no vestige of a roadway, all stumps, and bushes, and bogs, putting wheels or rollers quite out of consideration. Slowly and surely my mast-like logs found their way to my work ! I will return to this little-known order of Garcinacece presently. A rival in beauty and utiUty, though quite of another type, appears in profuse array, the gorgeous Ligerstro3inia reginte — every spike of rose-red flowers enough to fill a market-basket. Grand in its regal bloom and stout in its growth, yielding durable though crooked logs, preferred by the Burmese for ship's "knees," and by the 'cute Anglo-Indian adventurer for the roof supports of his residence, this lovely tree attains a moderate size in cultivation, and flowers annually in the gardens of Lower Bengal. On entering Central and Lower Assam, the European stranger is overpowered with admiration of the gigantic woodland scenery. As he ascends the noble Burrampooter, winding among ranges of little hills and grand mountains, he will with his telescope scan the interminable tracts of dark forest, and occasionally define its constituent " Sylva." Spreading over the lower country, his glass will, from the poop of the steamer, proclaim that here Shorea robusta is indigenous and paramount, its sombre and silent shade telling the well-known tale of deathdealing malaria, which has laid low many a bold hunter and brave botanist in the regions of heat and moisture, the combination so necessary to the life of this valuable timber tree, attaining its proudest dimensions here, and in the equally noxious atmosphere of the Nepaul Terai. The Government gun-carriages, the transport train, the military buildings, the warehouse of the merchant, the craft of the native boat-bnilder, all constructed of the heavy fibrous wood, supporting great strain and shock,_ while so heavy as to sink in water, and hence requiring rafts of bamboo and earthen pots to give it floatage in conveyance by river. Were it not for the annual conflagrations caused by the primitive custom of burning the old grass lands, India would at the present time have been indeed overstocked with this invaluable tree. Most of your readers may not be aware that dammar is the gum or resin of Shorea robusta, which is annually collected by woodmen, who pay a license for gathering forest produce — i e,, charcoal, honey, beeswax, gums, and the flowers of Bassia latifolia for the distillation of spirits. I once visited a noble forest of this tree, the hereditary property of a Mahometan priest. It had evidently been tended and conserved by past generations, for the giants appeared as clean and regularly placed as in a recent plantation ! I was allowed, as a special favour, to fell one of the monsters of the many hundreds standing in proud state, and found the timber very solid and mature. The grain of the wood is much like that of our English Elm. The railways have availed themselves largely of its comparative abundance and good qualities, and the Government conservators are keeping a strict eye upon the herdsmen and other incendiary tramps, to save the young seedlings (self-sown) from annihilation. This is not the only precious individual in that remarkable order, Dipterocarpaceae, for Vateria indica supplies that elegant resin known to commerce as East Indian Copal, closely resembling amber, and often containing flies and other minute natural objects. I have had beads and mouthpieces for pipes made of this substance, but it is too brittle for much handling. Combined with boiling linseed oil and a little pale dammar, it is in general use by carriage and Louse painters in the East as a varnish ; while among the aborigines of Malabar it is manufactured into candles, which burn with a clear light, no smoke, and fragrant odour. This gum resin is highly electrical. Vateria lancifolia yields the incense used in Hindu temples near the coast. Dipterocarpus lasnis and angustifolius furnish the balsamic oil known as gurjun. An old tree will supply by tapping and charring 40 gallons in one season, but will soon perish ; for this reason I presume the product is rapidly rising in price. I have found it a famous solvent for the most difficult soluble substances. The virgin forests of our north-east frontier and alsoBurmah are its localities, growing in the most dark and pestiferous jungles. Cedrela species are superb timber producers, yielding the finest woods for cabinet work, the darker kinds being almost equal to mahogany, and taking an exquisite polish. The older the timber, the finer the grain and the darker the veins. This is the favourite wood of the cabinet-makers and Louse carpenters of the luxurious East. Such furniture as bedsteads, dining tables, chairs of every shape, sofas, cabinets, chests of drawers,