6 4 



Nell'ultima parte della communicazione 1'Autore si intrat- 

 tiene .appunto a parlare della storia deH'organizzazione degli 

 Istituti scientific.! metropolitan!, che si occupano di agricoltura 

 coloniale. Tra questi 1'Istituto Botanico e Museo Coloniale 

 di Roma, importante soprattutto per le collezioni della flora 

 eritrea, il R. Giardino Coloniale di Palermo colle sue magni- 

 fiche colture di piante tropicali in pien'aria e ITstituto Agricolo 

 Coloniale Italiano di Firenze, di cui 1'Autore e il direttore 

 fondatore, e che rappresenta il massimo centro di studi 

 coloniali in Italia. 



[TRANSLATION.] 



THE STUDY OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 



The writer refers to the ever-increasing interest of Italian 

 students in the problems of colonial agriculture, which kept 

 pace with the expansion of Italy abroad, not only by the occu- 

 pation of colonies under direct dominion in Africa, but also 

 by the increase of agrarian emigration to oversea countries. 



In this communication are discussed the principles on which 

 the Experimental Agricultural Departments in Eritrea, Somali- 

 land, and Tripoli have been founded; a survey is given of the 

 principal scientific commissions which have visited the Italian 

 possessions with a view to gaining a knowledge of the re- 

 sources and physical characteristics of these possessions, and 

 to initiating researches in order to establish the possibility of a 

 suitable colonization of the land. In this manner the agricul- 

 tural, zootechnical, and forestry problems, as well as those 

 relating to the great factors of agrarian production in Italian 

 colonies, are now on the way to being solved. In the mother 

 country the Colonial Agricultural Institutes have been devoting 

 themselves, for some years, to the scientific study of the 

 material sent home, by the Colonial Governments and the 

 Colonies, to the students charged with this work. 



In the latter part of his communication the writer deals 

 especially with the history of the organization of those scientific 

 institutions at home which occupy themselves with colonial 

 agriculture. Amongst these institutions are the Botanical 

 Institute and Colonial Museum of Rome, which is of particular 

 importance by reason of its collections of the flora of Eritrea; 

 the Royal Colonial Garden of Palermo with its magnificent 

 cultivation of tropical plants in the open; and the Italian 

 Colonial Agricultural Institute of Florence, of which the writer 

 is the founder and director, and which represents the largest 

 centre for colonial studies in Italy. 



