165 



4 



iad made to liim, he (Mr. Farris) had brought to England some 

 Hexea seeds which were quite fresh. There were several hundreds 

 of these seeds collected bj Mr.^ Farris, but when thej were received 



at Kew and sown there, of the whole only about a dozen germinated- 

 On September 22nd, 1873, six of the plants raised from the seeds 

 collected by Mr, Farris and obtained from him through Mr- 

 Collins for the India Office, were taken in a Wardian case to 

 Calcutta by Dr, King. All of the other plants raised from these 

 Farris-Collins seeds of 1873 were kept at Kew^ It is to be seen 

 from the Report of the Hoyal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, for 

 1873-4, that the propagation of Hevea from cutting^ taken from 

 the sis plants taken out to India by Dr. Kin^ was at once started, 

 and from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Report for 1875, p. 7, 

 it is seen that at Kew it was found possible to do the same thine:. 

 But the Ilevea did not succeed in Northern India, and I do not 

 helieve that any plants propagated by cuttings from the Farris 

 (so-called Collins) plants ever reached Malaya from Calcutta. Nor 

 was it necessary to continue this method of propagation anywhere 

 after the fortunate arrival of Mr. Wickham's good seeds in 1876, 

 so that I do not believe that any Ilevea propagated from the Farris 

 plants wyere sent to the East from Kew. 



^^ Yours faithfully. 



''(Signed) D. PRAm, 



Director. 



<i 



Dr- P. J. S. Cramer, 



^^ Chief of Division for Plant Breeding, 



''Department van Landbouw, 



" Buitenzorg, Java." 



XXVIIL-HEDYCHIUM CORONARIUM FROM 



CALCUTTA. 



In Kew Bulletin, 1912, p. 373, a detailed account appeared of 

 investigations made by Messrs. Clayton Beadle & Stevens into the 

 possibilities of Hedycliium coronarium as a source of material 

 for paper-making. The experiments w^ere made with dried mate- 

 rial from Brazil and with fresh stems grown in the Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew. Subsequently a supply of the dried plant received 

 irom the Royal Botanic Garden, Sibpur, Calcutta, w^as forwarded 

 to Messrs. Clayton Beadle & Stevens, w^ho have examined the same 

 to see if the plant would give similar results from different parts 



■of the world. 



The following report has been furnished by Messrs. Clayton 

 Bt^adle & Stevens: — "The botanical specimens sent over from 

 Calcutta are complete, dried-down specimens, whereas the Hedy- 

 ehium coronariiim examined from Brazil was in the form of 

 crushed fibre produced by passing the green, freshly cut stems 

 through sugar rollers to express the juices, prior to drying for 

 shipment. This in itself constitutes an important difference. We 

 had our doubts whether complete specimens in the dried-down con- 

 dition could be rendered serviceable in the manufacture of paper 



