1890.] Address. 123 



appears to bo the most suitable foi' general cultivation in India. Some 

 interesting experiments are being made in the gardens with foreign 

 varieties of sugarcane and wheat, and with huskless barley, for malting' 

 purposes. The paper-mulberry continues to be found useful for plant- 

 ing on usar and reh-covered tracts. The cultivation of the Mesquit 

 bean {Prosopis juliflora) has also been a success, but the Carob bean has 

 not done so well. An improved method of cultivating the Jalap plant 

 has been tried and pi'omises well. 



The results of the working of the G-oveimment Cinchona planta- 

 tions in Sikkim have already been noticed. The red-bark trees are 

 being replaced by yellow bark ones, which yield only quinine, and thus 

 the alkaloidal value of the plantations has been very much increased. 



The Indian Forester contains a number of notes and papers which 

 are of interest in connection with economic botany. From a note by 

 Mr, Gamble it appears that Prof. Beccari of Florence, to whom Sir J. 

 Hooker had entrusted the descriptions of the Indian Palms, has given 

 a list of 6 species of Phcenix indigenous to India, while a seventh 

 P. Sylvestris, is only admitted as an introduction. 



Mr. W. Coldstream's " Grasses of the Southern Punjab " and Dr, 

 Bonavia's " Cultivated Oranges and Lemons of India and Ceylon " ai'e 

 both valuable contributions to Indian Economic Botany. 



There are other subjects with which I should have liked to have 

 dealt, as last year, but, owing to the vast extent of the field over which 

 I have had to take you and my desire to show you something more 

 than mere indications of the work done, I have already far more than 

 exceeded the limits I had proposed to set myself, and must perforce 

 bring this review to a close. All imperfect as it necessarily must be, 

 it will serve to show that the workers in the field, both in this country 

 and out of it, have not been inactive, and that considerable and valuable 

 additions have been made to our knowledge of things Indian and 

 Asiatic during the year.* 



The time has also come when I must vacate this chair in favour of 

 our friend Mr. Beveridge. He is well-known to you as taking a lively 

 interest in our meetings, and with his extensive literary and historical 

 acquirements I feel sure that the well-being of the Society will be safe 

 in his hands, and that he will do much to further it. 



* I have again to record my acknowledgments for the assistance kindly given 

 me by friends and others in preparing this review and passing it through the press — 

 among them : — Dr. A. F. R. Hoernle, Pandit Hari Prasad Sastri, Messrs. E. T. 

 Atkinson, Wood-Mason, Sclater, Cotes, Haly and Thnrston, Drs. Hendley and 

 Fiihrer, Colonel Thuillier, R. E., Mr. T. A. Pope, Dr. W. King, Messrs. Eliot and 

 Pedler, Drs. G. King, Scully, Cunningham and Barclay and Mr. H. M. Phipson, 



