CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF PLANTS. 6 



of 1886, which should be in. the library of everyone inter- 

 ested in Economic Botany. 



In the following notes the difficulty has been to keep 

 them within what might be considered reasonable bounds. 

 It was found impossible to even enumerate all the plants 

 reputed to have economic properties that have been intro- 

 duced to the United Kingdom during the present century, 

 therefore those that seemed to have but little claim for notice 

 have been omitted. On the other hand, such important plants 

 as those yielding india-rubbers, gutta-perchas, cinchonas, 

 etc., whose cultivation in other countries than their own is 

 of vast importance to our commerce, and to the prosperity 

 and welfare of our countrymen in our widely-spread domin- 

 ions, have received a large share of attention, because it 

 was thought that the information here brought together 

 would be useful were it more widely disseminated than it- 

 has hitherto been. 



Throughout these pages it will be seen how often fresh 

 products have been brought forward and have shown pro- 

 mise of becoming important commercial articles, and then 

 have collapsed, sometimes finally, and sometimes to crop up 

 again after a lapse of years. It is hoped that a perusal of 

 these facts will inspire those who have opportunities to take 

 up new products, or even to resuscitate those recorded here 

 as having failed, to persevere in thoroughly testing their 

 properties, or placing them in the proper channels for so 

 doing. 



A commercial rather than a scientific arrangement has 

 been adopted, as being probably the more generally useful. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF PLANTS. 



1801. Waste vegetable fibres applied to paper-making. 



1806 Rhatany root (Kramer la triandra) introduced as a medicine. 



1807. Rohun bark (Soymlda felrifuga) introduced as a medicine. 



Gambier or Terra japonica ( Uncaria Gambler] introduced about 



this time. 

 B 2 



