no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



them, the Dutch had chosen a species which was hardly worth 

 growing, and the plantations have been long since nprooted. For 

 some years the English Government confined itself to importing 

 seeds and plants, which died on the passage to India. This was 

 evidently futile, and Sir William Hooker urged a systematic pro- 

 cedure. Mr. Clements Markham, in 1859, was sent to Peru to col- 

 lect seeds and young trees. When he returned, his precious stores 

 were received at the Gardens, nursed, and transmitted to India 

 with trifling loss. This effort was successful. In the plantations 

 of Bengal, laid out and managed by officers recommended by Sir 

 William Hooker, there were, at the date of the latest report, about 

 five million trees. From Kew cinchona-trees have been distrib- 

 uted also to all parts of the world where there was a chance for 

 successful cultivation. The plantations of Ceylon are only infe- 

 rior to those of Bengal ; in Jamaica the sales of bark exceed 

 £5,000 a year ; the tree has been introduced also into St. Helena, 

 Trinidad, Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, Queensland, and many 

 other settlements. The output of the cinchona drugs from these 

 sources up to 1880 was 87,704 pounds, which, taking quinine at an 

 average value of two dollars an ounce, would represent $2,806,528. 

 Ipecacuanha is a plant scarcely less important than cinchona 

 itself. But few members of the vegetable kingdom so absolutely 

 refuse to exist under anything short of perfectly satisfactory con- 

 ditions. In 1866 Sir Joseph Hooker sent a specimen to the Bo- 

 tanical Gardens at Calcutta, which promptly died. Then a strug- 

 gle began in which the advantage was now on one side, then 

 on the other. In 1875 the Director of the Calcutta Gardens tri- 

 umphantly reported that he had one hundred thousand nice young 

 plants, but in 1886 the strain received from Kew direct alone sur- 

 vived — less than five per cent — and all hope of successful cultiva- 

 tion in India has been abandoned long since. Plants had been 

 sent out to Singapore, however, in 1875, # with much more lively 

 confidence, and there perseverance found its reward. Ipecacuanha 

 is established in the Old World at last, and the authorities of Kew 

 may be trusted to diffuse the cultivation. Another instance is 

 Liberian coffee, distributed from Kew to take the place of that 

 grown in the East Indies, which was affected by a fungoid pest, 

 and that of the West Indies, which suffered from the white fly. 

 Liberian coffee, moreover, will thrive in hot and moist situations, 

 where the Arabian variety is unable even to live. It has been 

 introduced in a great many places, but, although its growth is 

 very promising, it has nowhere become the general crop. This 

 imperfect success was another problem for the investigators of 

 Kew, and the solution is now believed to be found in the fact that 

 the treatment proper for the Arabian berry after gathering is not 

 suited to the Liberian, with a widely different pulp. 



