404 MR. W. T. T. DYER ON SOME NEW ECONOMIC 
Notes on some new Economic Products recently received | at the 
Royal Gardens, Kew. By W. T. Tutsenron Dyz, M.A., 
C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S., Assistant Director. 
[Read June 21, 1883.] 
THE correspondence, official and otherwise, of the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, frequently brings under the notice of the staff new econo- 
mic products of the vegetable kingdom of more or less interest, 
or at any rate cases in which fresh light is thrown upon those of 
which the origin is somewhat obscure. The Fellows of the 
Linnean Society are scattered so widely over British possessions 
in different parts of the world that I cannot but think that 
brief notes upon such matters would frequently be read by them 
with interest, and might, indeed, lead to the acquisition of further 
information of the same sort. Many such notices have been 
included in the annual issues of the Report of the Royal Gardens 
for some years past. But such a publication is obviously un- 
suited for more than the briefest record of ascertained facts. I 
therefore venture to hope that the following Notes (which may 
be followed from time to time by others of a similar kind) may 
be deemed worthy of a place in the Society’s Journal. 
1. West-African Indigo. 
It has long been known from the observations of travellers 
that the natives of the west coast of Africa obtained an abun- 
dant supply of indigo from plants cultivated for the purpose. 
And as the species of the genus Indigofera have their head 
quarters in the African continent, it was not perhaps an un- 
reasonable supposition that one or more of them was the 
source of the dye in use amongst the inhabitants of the west 
coast. 
It was therefore with some surprise that I found amongst & 
number of specimens received at the close of last year from 
Captain Alfred Moloney, C.M.G., Administrator of the Gold 
Coast colony, a specimen of an arborescent leguminous plant, 
but obviously not an Indigofera, marked as yielding a native 
indigo. I drew Captain Moloney's attention to the interest 
attaching to the matter; and as the specimens received consisted 
merely of foliage, I urged him to secure additional material, suf- 
