Botanic Gardens at Buitenzorg. — Vanilla CaUivation. 205 



gcnuSj wliether ornamental or useful, found in the Nether- 

 land Indies or Australia, of which a representative is not 

 to be found liere. The superintendence of this garden has 

 been intrusted to tliat indefatigable liortulanus^ Mr. J. C. 

 Teijsmann, who in his department assisted to the utmost tlie 

 objects of the Novara Expedition. He not only presented us 

 with duplicates of all tlie more valuable plants in his very 

 extensive collection, but also with valuable seeds. By such 

 kind co-operation we found ourselves provided with some 

 twenty various species of fibrous plants, amongst others the 

 well-known Ram^-shrub (Boehneria utilis\ and that useful 

 species of wild plantain, the 3Iusa textilis (from the leaves 

 of which is manufactured Manilla hemp), as also twenty-four 

 different species of rice. Of these latter two were of special 

 interest, one needing no watering, but flourishing best in 

 mountainous, dry soil, the other being chiefly used l)y the 

 natives for the preparation of a dye. 



Mr. Teijsmann has the great merit of having been the 

 first to introduce into Java the cultivation of the valuable 

 and costly Vanilla plant ( Vanilla planifolia), by using artificial 

 means of fructification, after all the many expensive experi- 

 ments previously made had failed, because the insect which 

 effects the fructification of the plant in its orginal climate, 

 the West Indies, is not found in Java. At present the yield 

 is so great, that not alone does Mr. Teijsmann annually se- 

 cure and send to market several hundredweights of this aro- 

 matic pod, but several other landowners have applied them- 



