SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 639 
Brazil, generally known as Para rubber, and from Castilloa, sometimes 
called Central American Rubber, and from Manihot Glaziovii Ceara 
rubber. Not only are these plants now successfully cultivated in ex- 
perimental gardens in the tropics, but many other rubber-yielding 
species have been added to the list. The Landolphias are among the 
most promising of the whole: these are the African rubbers. Now in 
addition to these which are the chief source of supply, we have Wil- 
lughbeia, from the Malayan Peninsula, Leuconotis, Chilocarpus, Alsto- 
nid, Forsteronia, and a species of a genus formerly known as Urostigma, 
but now united with Picus. These names, which have little signifi- 
cance as they are here pronounced in passing, are given now merely to 
impress upon our minds the fact that the sources of a single commer- 
cial article may be exceedingly diverse. Under these circumstances 
search is being made not only for the best varieties of these species 
but for new species as well. 
There are few excursions in the tropics which possess greater inter- 
est to a botanist who eares for the industrial aspects of plants than the 
walks through the gardens at Buitenzorg in Java and at Singapore. 
At both these stations the experimental gardens lie at some distance 
trom the great gardens which the tourist is expected to visit, but the 
exertion well repays him for all discomfort. Under the almost vertical 
rays of the sun, are here gathered the rubber-yielding plants from dif- 
ferent countries, all growing under conditions favorable for decisions 
as to their relative value. At Buitenzorg a well-equipped laboratory 
stands ready to answer practical questions as to quality and compo- 
sition of their products, and year by year the search extends. 
I mention this not as an isolated example of what is being accom- 
plished in commercial botany, but as a fair iliustration of the thor- 
oughness with which the problems are being attacked. It should be 
further stated that at the garden in question assiduous students of the 
subject are eagerly welcomed and are provided with all needed appli- 
ances for carrying on technical, chemical, and pharmaceutical investi- 
gations. Therefore Iam justified in saying that there is every reason 
for believing that in the very near future new sources of our most im- 
portant products will be opened up and new areas placed under suc- 
cessful cultivation. 
At this point attention must be called to a very modest and con- 
venient handbook on the Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury by Mr. Jackson of the Botanical Museum attached to the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, which not only embodies a great amount of well-arranged 
information relative to the new useful plants, but is at the same time 
a record of the existing state of things in all these departments of 
activity. 
