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much to be hoped that while doing all it can to further the work 
of the Botanical Survey and help forward the Herbarium, which 
has been opened under such auspicious circumstances, the 
Government of South Africa will not in any way neglect to give 
adequate assistance to the National Botanic Garden, Kirstenbosch. 
This garden, which was started largely through the initiative 
of the late Professor Pearson, has great possibilities, and from 
the Reports that have reached us it does not appear to have 
received its due meed of recognition and support from Govern- 
ment. We venture to express the hope that a Government 
which is so enlightened in matters botanical and agricultural 
as is that of the Union of South Africa, now that it has established 
so essential an Institution as a National Herbarium, will not 
neglect its National Botanic Garden, which was founded so 
wisely a few years ago. 
South Africa is singularly fortunate in possessing not only 
a remarkable flora, which must be most zealously guarded and 
studied, but also a Prime Minister who knows it so well and 
appreciates to the full its value and interest. To achieve the 
attainment of the ends that General Smuts has outlined a Botanical 
Garden as well tended and provided for as may be possible is 
essential. In the past the foundation of the Garden has usually 
preceded the establishment of the Herbarium, but in South 
Africa the Herbarium appears to have received the greater 
attention. The new National Herbarium alone cannot be to 
South Africa what Kew strives to be to Great Britain and the 
Empire any more than can the Kirstenbosch Garden represent 
every side of Kew’s activities. 
If, however, the New National Herbarium and the comple- 
mentary National Botanic Garden at Kirstenbosch can be 
coupled together in the matter of adequate financial support so 
that their united work may be National not merely in name 
but in fact, then the Union of South Africa will indeed possess 
a worthy counterpart of “ Kew ”’ fitted to answer the botanical 
and agricultural problems that confront the Country. 
Cascara Sagrada.—Considerable interest was aroused a few 
years ago by a series of articles which appeared in the Kew 
Bulletin on the possibility of the cultivation of Rhamnus Purshiana 
on a commercial scale in the British Isles. The following extract 
from the Report of the Administrative Chairman of the Honorary 
Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Canada, 
1922, indicating that the wood is practically as active as the 
bark, should prove of value to those interested in the experi- 
mental cultivation of these trees. 
“The investigations made indicate that the results obtained 
by storing the bark of the Cascara Sagrada for three years previous 
i this 
oxide, and tests made at the Vancouver Genera] Hospital with 
