BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE IN CEYLON 313 



that we must go for an illustrative example. In 1880 Dr. Melchior 

 Treub was appointed to the direction of the famous Dutch 

 colonial gardens at Buitenzorg in Java, which up to that 

 time had been working on similar lines to those of Ceylon. 

 Dr. Treub, unlike all previous directors, both in British and 

 foreign gardens, was a " laboratory " botanist, and not a 

 systematist. 



With the advent of Dr. Treub, pure " laboratory " science 

 commenced to have its innings in the tropics, both for itself, and 

 for application to the needs of practical life, until now, if one 

 may judge by the quality of the publications turned out by the 

 Java department, the Dutch planter in that island is the most 

 scientific agriculturist in the world. To leave pure science 

 alone for a moment, one of the most noteworthy steps taken in 

 Java was the scientific improvement of the bark of the cinchona- 

 tree by careful selection, until now the best Java barks of 

 Cinchona Ledgeriana contain as much as 17 per cent, of their 

 weight of quinine, while the best Ceylon (unselected) barks 

 contain only 8 per cent. This means that only half the weight 

 of bark has to be grown and harvested in Java, as compared 

 with Ceylon, to give an equal monetary return. Thanks largely 

 to this work, Java has acquired a practical monopoly of the 

 trade in cinchona, from which it scarcely seems likely that she 

 will be easily ousted. 



Other valuable work was done in grafting coffees, in the 

 scientific improvement of sugar manufacture, and in many other 

 lines, so that Java has remained, on the whole, a very pros- 

 perous colony, free from the terrible vicissitudes that have over- 

 taken Ceylon and some other British possessions. 



A laboratory for pure science was early established, and 

 invitations to come and work in it issued to botanists in 

 Europe and elsewhere, were responded to with consider- 

 able alacrity, especially as Dr. Treub himself, by turning out 

 splendid work in several different departments of botanical 

 science, showed what an opening there was for botanical work 

 in the tropics. 



The bulk of the botanical work done has been published in 

 the well-known Annates du Jardin botanique de Buitenzorg, and 

 a rough examination of this work will repay any one who is 

 interested in this aspect of the subject. First-class work has 

 throughout been turned out by Dr. Treub, and by a few 



