A TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 401 



selves are liable not to give the results expected and certainly merited 

 by the laudable efforts of those who established them. A state estab- 

 lishment pursues its regular development protected against these im- 

 patient demands. It gradually extends its sphere of action for the 

 interests of all, but without allowing the variable and often exaggerated 

 exigencies ofthe moment to disturb it. The first duty of the functionaries 

 placed by the colonial government at the head of the botanic gardens 

 is to combat the lack of stability and continuity, the scourge of every 

 colony. It is not only the right but the duty of governments to demand 

 that the persons to whom they have entrusted these posts shall not 

 have variable and narrow views, excusable in others, but never in a 

 naturalist. The latter has had the benefit of an enlightened scientific 

 education, and there is expected of him a certain breadth of view which 

 should be the result of his own researches. These general principles 

 admitted, let us see how they are carried out in the particular case 

 under consideration. The government of the Dutch East Indies author- 

 izes the director of the garden at Buitenzorg to distribute gratuitously 

 seeds and plants of useful vegetables. In 1888 there was sent to all 

 parts of the archipelago 1,400 packages of seeds, cuttings, and young 

 seedlings of useful plants. It is by means ofthe garden of agriculture 

 that it is possible to gratify so many demands. But this garden is part 

 of a.scientific organization and would not work well if alone. The fol- 

 lowing examples will show this: When the remarkable anaesthetic 

 qualities of cocaine were discovered, it was only necessary to go to the 

 two specimens of Erythroxylon coca of the group of Erythroxylaceai in 

 the botanic garden proper. Enough seed could be gathered to make a 

 little plantation in the garden of agriculture. When, a year after, a 

 scientist urged upon the colonial secretary at The Hague that the in- 

 troduction of Erythroxylon coca should be attemi)ted at Java, the Bui- 

 tenzorg authorities were able to answer that thousands of seed gathered 

 in the garden of agriculture had just been distributed. The tree for a 

 long time known as the producer of the best quality of gutta-percha, 

 the Palaquium [Isonandra) guita is believed to grow nowhere in a wild 

 state ; at all events it is almost impossible to obtain seeds. In the 

 division of Sapotaceoe in the garden of Buitenzorg, are two specimens 

 from 30 to 40 years old which produce every 2 years a great number 

 of seeds. From them has come the young plantation in the garden of 

 agriculture as well as a great number of specimens in a large separate 

 plantation of gutta-percha trees commenced by the government some 

 years ago under the auspices of the garden of Buitenzorg. The cam- 

 phor tree of Sumatra, a plant of great value, is very difiicult to obtain, 

 first because its seed are very few, then because they lose very rapidly 

 their germinating power, even during a short voyage. By taking 

 special pains Teysmann succeeded in introducing the tree at Buiten- 

 zorg. In 1885 the specimens at the botanic garden began to bear fruit, 

 and now the garden of agriculture possesses a j)lantation of young 

 H. Mis, 129 2(5 



