274 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



command. With our knowledge of the unfriendly feeling both of the 

 Chinese and Japanese towards Europeans, and not least towards the 

 English, we dare not flatter ourselves with the hope of entire success : 

 but there is a wide field in the adjacent regions, and whatever hostility 

 the Chinese may feel and practise towards us in their frequented har- 

 bours and great towns, it is a fact that the people in Eastern Tartary 

 are very friendly disposed towards us, and even encourage intercourse 

 with our people by all the means in their power. 



Flora of the British West Indian Islands ; hy Dk. Guisebach. 



In the present number of this Journal (witness the preceding article), 

 and in many preceding ones, I have recorded with pleasure and pride 

 the encouragement given in the present day to botauical science by our 

 Government. It is now my agreeable duty to state that the Colonial 

 Office has sanctioned the publication of a Flora of our British Colonies 

 in the West Indian Islands, and has obtained a grant from the Trea- 

 sury of £300 in aid of such publication. As the Colonial Office has 

 liberally printed the correspondence respecting this transaction, to be 

 circulated among the Governors and official gentlemen in those islands, 

 with a view of conveying the information to them, and requesting their 

 aid towards the greater perfecting the work, we cannot but desire to 

 give it further publicity through the medium of our pages. 



Letter No. 1. Sir W. J. Hooker to the Right Honourable the Principal 



Secretary of State for the Colonies. 



Royal Gardens, Kew, May 14, 1857. 



Sir, — The aid and encouragement given to the Royal Gardens of 

 Kew, on various occasions, and to the Botanic Gardens in our Colonies, 

 by the Right Honourable the Principal Secretary of State for the Co- 

 lonial Department, encourage me to make the following proposition to 

 Mr. Secretary Labouchere. 



Botany is not now what it once was, a science confined to the learned, 

 and of little or no benefit to the people at large. In the present day, 

 as is well known, it has a practical bearing on numerous trades and 

 professions ; and a familiarity to a certain extent is of essential conse- 

 quence. Not a .lay parses that we have not, at Kew, applications made 



