_: ers ORD. VIII. Sarmentacex. CocCULUS PALMATUS 
calumba-root, whith had been brought to the Botanic garden there by Mr. 
Berry. Copies of this drawing were distributed to the different ships of 
war, and captains of merchant vessels, trading to the eastern coast of Africa, 
that they might be enabled to distinguish the plant, and bring it to the 
Mauritius; since there had been an evident unwillingness on the part of 
the Portuguese authorities to permit this precious vegetable to be taken 
away in any other state than what it bears in commerce, when deprived of 
vegetative power by passing through the oven. 
“All the attempts resulting from these means, proved fruitless; until 
aptain William Fitzwilliam Owen, commanding the surveying squadron 
of His Majesty’s Navy, on the East African coast, undertook the task. The 
extensive influence he had acquired by his intercourse with the native 
chieftains and tribes, enabled him to procure living plants ; while his bo- 
tanizal knowledge secured him against the mistakes committed by others, 
who had been misled by the local settlers in their search, and imposed on 
by the substitution of other species, instead of the true Calumba root. Cap- 
tain Owen, in the year 1825, brought away, in His Majesty’s ship Leven, 
from Oibo, a great number of cases, filled with growing roots of male and 
female plants, laid down in the sandy loam, which appears to be their 
favourite soil. No time was lost by him in forwarding a great portion of 
these to M. Telfair, at Mauritius, planting some also at Mahé, an island in 
the Seychelles Archipelago, and sending to Bombay several cases, in order 
to multiply by dispersion, the chances of success in naturalizing them in 
different climates. . 
“The roots that were brought to Mauritius, were partly transmitted to 
England, New Holland, and America ; but the greater number were dis- 
tributed among the various districts of Mauritius and Bourbon. Many of 
these plants blossomed at Mauritius in the course of a,year, but the flowers. 
all proved male. The roots, however, had, during that period, multiplied to 
- twenty or thirty times the original quantity ; and thus an opportunity was 
given for distributing them still more extensively. The female plants 
flowered at Seychelles, and Mr. G. Harrison, the Government agent there, 
transmitted some of these roots to Mr. Telfair, in whose garden of Bois 
Chéri in the Mauritius, they have flowered, and being fecundated by Pro- 
fessor Bojer, who touched them with the pollen of the male blossom ; they 
bore seeds. From these individuals, the drawings by Professor Bojer have 
been taken, which give a delineation and dissection of every part.” 
