DEOUGHT-EESISTING PLANTS 403 



and Usar tracts. As Director of Kew I had seeds of various 

 Cape and Australian plants supposed to be suitable sent to 

 India for experimentation in the N.W., but my impression is 

 that the results were disappointing. Of course I have no 

 intention of taking up the subject, but in thinking over it 

 I am tempted to ask whether there may not be other causes 

 for failure than the Alkalis in the soil. On the one hand 

 some of these Australians have taken at once to the Alkaline 

 soils of California. On the other, Australia seems to have 

 itself produced endemic drought-resisting plants by the 

 score on its alkaline soils. Per contra, India neither accepts 

 what Australia produces, and California greedily utilizes, nor 

 does she induce any of her own alkali-loving Chenopodiaceae to 

 spread over her alkaline tracts. Hence it appears to me to be 

 probable that other, and possibly more potent conditions than 

 the Alkalis may be found to obstruct the attempts to clothe 

 the Usar with fodder plants, whether native or introduced. 



I have put the question to Duthie, suggesting that the 

 incidence of the rains may have something to do with it. 



What was of closer interest, however, to the people at 

 home, was the revival of the West Indies especially due to the 

 wise application of botanical science. Hooker had seen the 

 emancipation of the slaves, the rise and fall of the sugar 

 industry, the growing poverty, discontent, and demoralisation. 

 He was deeply conscious of English responsibility towards the 

 Islands, lest the population in our hand should lapse into the 

 condition of Hayti. He had long urged the introduction of 

 other crops, tobacco and coffee, oranges as well as bananas, and 

 though progress was often deplorably slow, he was delighted 

 when far-sighted governors and merchants put the principles 

 of botanical science into practice. 



The wave of depression which passed over the Colony 

 in 1897, just when he thought it was well on its feet, caused 

 him the deepest concern. 



To Bev. J. D. La Touche 



November 14, 1897. 



I am interested greatly in this W. Indian sugar question ; 

 it is the most serious look out by far that ever occurred in our 



