346 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



than iron, and does not rust. I imagine this method might be suc- 

 cessfully employed in drying Agarics." 



Mission of Dr. and Professor De Yriese to Dutch East India. 



We announce, with much satisfaction, that His Majesty the King 

 of Holland and the Dutch Government are alive to the great import- 

 ance of promoting the culture of useful and economic plants in their 

 fertile possessions of Java and the Malay Archipelago ; and that Dr. 

 and Professor De Vriese, so well known by his botanical writings, espe- 

 cially those bearing on the Netherlands India, has been appointed to 

 conduct a Mission into that region, accompanied by an accomplished 

 chemist, Dr. De Vry. These gentlemen embarked at Marseilles in the 

 Peninsular and Oriental Company's mail steamer of the 20th October 

 (from Southampton). Besides the object of cultivating exotic produc- 

 tions suited to the soil and climate at different elevations, Dr. De Vriese 

 is further charged with researches after plants, natives of the islands, 

 which are in any way useful in the arts, to trade and commerce ; such 

 as Caoutchoucs, Gutta-perchas, Gums, Eesins, dye-stuffs, fabrics, etc. ; 

 and to encourage the collecting and bringing into the market the best 

 kinds and those prepared in the best manner ; for it is well known how 

 much inferior and even adulterated kinds are sold for genuine. Spu- 

 rious Gutta-perchas are mixed with the true kinds, and the more so 



now that the original article is become almost extinct in Singapore, in 

 consequence of the wasteful management of the natives. A very infe- 

 rior kind has been imported from Borneo ; and from specimens of the 

 tree of that country, now before us, it certainly is not identical with the 

 true species, Isonandra Gutta, Hook. Dr. De Vriese has however re- 

 ceived the true plant, and has, as well as Dr. Miquel, communicated 

 samples of it to us, from Sumatra, where in all probability it abounds, 

 and will be turned to very profitable account. 



Other European Governments would do well to follow the example 

 of Holland, and make like researches on scientific bases in their respec- 

 tive colonies. 



Dr. De Vriese will, en route, spend a fortnight in Ceylon, and profit 

 by the studying the best modes of cultivation so long practised in that 

 island, and by the scientific knowledge which Mr. Thwaites has brought 

 to bear on the useful plants indigenous or introduced there. 



