BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 279 



Indies, having expressed an anxious desire for the publication, in an 

 inexpensive form, of a Flora of that interesting and fertile group of 

 islands, Her Majesty's Government, with a view to encourage such a 

 work, have granted a sum sufficient to meet the expenses of authorship 

 thereof; and Sir William Hooker has undertaken that, from the large 

 collections of West Indian plants in his own Herbarium, and in the 

 Herbaria of the Eoyal Gardens of Kew, in the British Museum, etc., 

 such a work shall forthwith be prepared. 



To render the publication however more complete, the Governors 

 and official gentlemen of the islands are requested to lend their power- 

 ful aid towards the more perfect completion of the work in question, 

 by encouraging all interested in the subject to collect further materials, 

 whether in the form of dried specimens (for the Hortus Siccus) or for 

 cultivation in our stoves, together with the various useful vegetable 

 products for the Museum, according to printed instructions which ac- 

 company this circular. 



Letter No. 7. Copy of a Letter from the Colonial Office, which accom- 

 panied the above correspondence, addressed to the Governors, etc. 



Downing Street, June 2§th, 1857. 



Sir, — I transmit to you the copy of a Letter from the Director of the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew, requesting that the attention of the Governors of 

 the West Indian Colonies may be called to the accompanying Circular, 

 relative to the transmission of Plants from those Colonies to the Gardens. 

 I also transmit, for your information, copies of Correspondence with Sir 

 William Hooker, from which you will see that a grant o/*^300 has been 

 sanctioned by her Majesty's Government in aid of the publication of a 

 work by Dr. Grisebach, to serve as a Flora for the West Indies. 



I have the honour to be, etc. etc. 



Finland Bread. 



It appears that there has been a season of great distress in the 

 spring of the present year (1857), for want of a sufficiency of food in 

 the northern provinces of Finland. Samples of the bread employed 

 have been obligingly sent by the Board of Trade to the Museum of 

 Economic Botanv at Kew, together with copy of the following letter, 



