INTRODUCTION. 19 



and characteristic plants become a legend of the 

 past. 



It is scarcely lialf a century ago since the tea-plant 

 was first introduced for cultivation on the slopes of 

 the Himalayas in India, and now it has become a 

 most important industry ; and tea-gardens, formerly 

 unknown, are a distinctive feature in the landscape. 

 More recently, and with similar success, the fever 

 bark, or cinchona plant, has been brought from South 

 America and naturalised on the Neilgherry Hills in 

 Southern India, whence it is spreading to other parts 

 of the Peninsula. To a more limited extent the 

 hop has been introduced from England into the 

 north-west of India, where barley was already grown, 

 and now breweries of "bitter beer" are established 

 for the benefit of Europeans in the most remote 

 regions of our Indian Empire. Not only are useful 

 plants thus widely distributed, but with them others, 

 such as we term " weeds " are associated. The small 

 seeds of these plants, unintentionally mixed with the 

 seeds of food-plants, accompany them to their new 

 destination; thus the red Indian of North America is 

 said to have recognised the plantain, travelling west- 

 ward with the white man's corn, and gave it the name 

 of the " white man's foot." Every century will make 

 it more difficult of determination what are the really 

 indigenous plants in countries where European races 

 have established themselves. 



c 2 



