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probable, therefore, that once the tree becomes established its 
propagation will offer no difficulties. It is pretty certain that seeds 
sown directly from the tree will give a higher percentage of 
germination than those that have been kept an indefinite time in 
seed-rooms. Sir Herbert Maxwell did not save his seed, but that 
gathered from older trees at Kew has germinated well. 
This Rhamnus seems to prefer a light to a heavy soil, and 
wherever it has been tested, has made the best growth in the 
former. In the cold district of Aldenham House, Elstree, Herts, 
Mr. Vicary Gibbs reports that the plants raised from the 1908 
seed, although very healthy, are only 2 feet high planted in heavy 
soil; and at Woburn, Mr. Spencer Pickering reports that in a 
light soil the plants have done much better than im a heavy one, 
some of last year’s growths in the former being 3 feet long. 
At Colesborne, in Gloucestershire a cold limestone district, 
r. H. J. Elwes informs us that the 1908 plants are quite hardy 
and healthy, but grow slowly—about 2 feet only in three years. 
Of the hardiness of the species in the greater part of the British 
Isles, there is, we believe, no doubt. At Kew, the trees raised from 
seed in 1891 withstood the great frosts of February, 1895, without 
being in the least affected, although the minimum temperature for 
a few nights ranged between 1° and 6° Fahr. 
In connection with the possibility of establishing plantations of 
R. Purshiana, attention may again be called to the fact that it has 
been found possible at Kew to strike cuttings by taking them in 
July. The cuttings should be of the new shoots 3—4 inches long 
with a “heel” of older wood at the base (see K. B., 1912, p. 393). 
As already indicated in the Kew Bulletin (1908, p. 429), the bark 
collected from the trees at Kew has been shown to possess medicinal 
properties indistinguishable from those of American Cascara. It 
has been suggested to us that it by no means follows that the bark 
of trees grown in the damp, less sunny parts of the British Isles 
will be equal in quality to the Kew product—the Thames Valley 
being one ot the sunniest and driest districts inthe Kingdom. This, 
of course, is a matter for experiment. 
At the prices at present obtainable for Cascara Sagrada, it 
scarcely seems likely that it would prove a paying crop. In 
Bulletin No. 139, p. 40, issued by the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
United States Department of Agriculture, it is stated that one tree 
is estimated to yield approximately 10 lbs. of bark. As the price then 
(in 1908) paid to collectors for the bark was 3 to 44 cents. per Ib., 
it follows that the produce of one tree barely amounted to two 
shillings. At this price the cultivation of the tree cannot be 
remunerative, especially if a system of collecting the bark is 
adopted (as in America) that proves fatal to the tree. 
which opens about the end of May or early in June and closes 
about the end of August, covers the period of the greatest flow of 
sap. e bark evidently comes away easily sngntak then, as it is 
brought to market in “ quills ” or rolls. 
