REPORT ON THE ROYAL GARDENS AT KEW. 153 
receive liberal encouragement from the Governors and other autho- 
rities. 
From Ceylon ripe seeds of Chinchona officinalis have been sent to ` 
Kew by the able and energetic Director of the Royal Botanie Gardens. 
These we have transmitted at once to Jamaica and Trinidad, whilst 
others have been sent by Mr. Thwaites to the Mauritius, Cape of Good 
Hope, Queensland, and elsewhere. As the first-fruits of the intro- 
duction of the Chinchona into our eastern possessions, this event 
marks an epoch in the history of the drug, and reflects great credit on 
the energetic manager of the plantations. In India proper, under the 
superintendence of Mr. M-Ivor, in the Neilgherries, Dr. Anderson at 
Caleutta, and Mr. Mann at Darjeeling, the Chinchona plantations are 
being immensely extended, and the plants given out to cultivators ; 
and I am informed that at Darjeeling there had been a sale of plants 
to the settlers at 6d. each. It has been found that an infusion of the 
leaves is an excellent febrifuge, aud it is hence much to be desired that 
this plant should be cultivated even in islands where its growth is not 
rapid, nor its propagation easy, and where its cultivation for bark is 
unprofitable, if only its foliage is produced in tolerable abundance; 
for no tropical locality in any quarter of the globe enjoys immunity 
from diseases for which the Chinchona leaf may not afford a specific. 
In Trinidad, Mr. Prestoe, who was last year sent from Kew to be 
superintendent of the Botanie Gardens there, has succeeded in culti- 
vating the Chinchona, and will doubtless meet with the same success 
in propagating it as has rewarded the efforts in India. 
From the promising colony of Queensland, his Excelleney Sir G. 
Bowen has communicated the important news that Mr. Walter Hill, 
Director of the Brisbane Botanie Gardens (who also went there from 
Kew), has discovered a magnificent well-watered tract.of the richest 
agrieultural land at Rockingham Bay, a salubrious distriet, and ad- 
mirably suited for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, indigo, etc., and 
which the Governor has directed shall be retained for Government 
reserves. It is a singular fact, that for the discovery of the Liver- 
pool plains in New South Wales, and of their suitability for colonial 
purposes, that colony is indebted to another botanist, also sent out 
from Kew, the late Allan Cunningham. Mr. Hill’s Garden report 
for this year records the complete success at Brisbane of the coffee, 
cinnamon, mango, tamarind, cotton, allspice, ginger, indigo, and to- 
