PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. lix. 



address dwelt upon the " bad lands " that had to be used 

 for cultivation in our colonies and elsewhere, after the better 

 lands had all been taken up. He gave instances of how these 

 could be cultivated with profit, and how a labourer or small 

 farmer often makes for himself a little oasis in the midst 

 of barren heath or other land, on which he supports himself 

 and his family. Such instances are common in our midst, 

 and are probably more the result of personal labour than 

 any great expense. The war has given an impetus to many 

 things, and amongst others to drug growing. The supplies 

 of belladonna, henbane, digitalis, valerian, and chamomile are 

 all affected, and these and other drug plants are easy to grow, 

 and would doubtless at present be extremely profitable. 

 The Board of Agriculture publishes particulars of culture, 

 &c. An International Congress of Tropical Agriculture 

 was held last June in London, when a paper was read on the 

 wheats of Tunis and Algeria and the tropics generally, a 

 source of supply not usually realised. Rubber and cotton 

 were also dealt with. Some careful experiments in regard 

 to the growing of cotton with the plants at different distances 

 from each other have shewn that the close planting practised 

 by the Egyptian fellah gives a greater yield than when the 

 plants are further apart. This seems contrary to our 

 experience of most plants in English gardens ; but it is 

 difficult to decide with certainty without making in each case 

 accurate experiments. A great flowering of the bamboo 

 (Bambusa polymorpha) took place last year in Burma, which 

 had not occurred since 1860. At these periodical flowerings 

 the plants produce seed and all die, consequently the 

 bamboos in one neighbourhood are all of the same age. The 

 President of the South African Association for the 

 advancement of science in his address called attention 

 to some remarkable cases of mimicry amongst Mesembry- 

 anthemum and some other plants, in their wonderful 

 resemblance to the stones amongst which they grow, not 

 always in colour only, but in roughness of surface and general 

 appearance. Specimens may be seen growing at Kew. 



