the East African coast. undertook the task. The extensive 
influence he had acquired by his intercourse with the native 
chieftains and tribes, enabled him to procure living plants ; 
while his botanical knowledge secured him against the mis- 
takes committed by others, who had been misled by the 
local settlers in their search, and imposed on by the substi- 
tution of other species instead of the true Colombo root. 
Captain Owen; in the year 1825, brought away in his 
Majesty’s ship Leven, from Oibo, a great number of cases, 
filled with growing roots of the male and female plants, laid 
down in the sandy loam, which appears to be their favorite 
soil. Notime was lost by him in forwarding a great portion 
of these to Mr. Texrarr, at Mauritius, planting some also 
at Mahé, in the Seychelles Archipelago, and sending to 
Bombay several cases, in order to multiply, by dispersion, 
the chances of success in naturalizing them in different 
climates. i 
*« The roots that were brought to Mauritius, were partly 
transmitted to England, New Holland, and America ; but 
the greater number were distributed among the various 
districts of Mauritius and Bourbon. Many of these plants 
blossomed at Mauritius in the course of a year, but the 
flowers proved all male. The roots, however, had, during 
that period, multiplied to twenty or thirty times the original 
quantity, and thus an opportunity was given for distributing 
them still more extensively. The female plants flowered 
at Seychelles, and Mr. G. Harrison, the Government . 
Agent there, transmitted some of their roots to Mr. Trxrair, 
in whose garden of Bois Chéri, in the Mauritius, they have 
flowered, and being fecundated by Professor Bosrr, who 
touched them with the pollen of the male blossom, they bore 
seeds. From these individuals the drawings by Professor 
Boser have been taken, which give a delineation and dissec- 
tion of every part. é 
“ Some of the original roots imported by Captain Owen, 
and immediately planted, have however remained in the 
earth without making any shoot, though they possess 
vegetable life, entire and undecayed. When taken up and 
examined, they appear to be undergoing a process of 
cicatrization at the surface, where they have been broken 
off from the parent root; and it is not until this wound 
is completely healed and firm, that the powers of vege- 
tation are directed to the production of a stalk and leaves 
and flowers. This process of cicatrization is extremely 
slow, thus offering an obstacle to the extensive propa- 
gation of this species by offsets from the root. But Pro- 
fessor 
