imported and native species, all of which have absorbed a 

 great portion of the activity of the Directors and their 

 assistants; this transformation is, moreover, in accordance with 

 the modern policy of Botanical Institutes. 



Before Italy possessed Libya or Somaliland or Eritrea, the 

 Palermo climate had already presented Sicily with the orange 

 and lemon, themselves an inestimable source of wealth. It 

 has already given the impetus to studies of the most important 

 varieties of cotton, bananas, pineapples, etc. Subsequently 

 the studies of acclimatization underwent a further develop- 

 ment, and were directed to the most varied plants having an 

 agricultural, economic, and social interest. From this arose 

 an immense volume of work evidenced by the numerous pub- 

 lications and notices inserted in the Bulletins of the Botanical 

 Garden and the Colonial Garden of Palermo. 



Up to the year 1906 the studies of acclimatization possessed, 

 with a few exceptions only, the character of scientific investi- 

 gations. After that time they were directed to those specu- 

 lative purposes which made it incumbent to establish, from 

 the experimental field, the fundamental economical data for 

 each of the crops experimented with. In this way, and in 

 consequence of the positive results obtained, the first demon- 

 stration fields were started, of which those relating to cotton 

 assumed a development extending all over the island. 



This was the work of propaganda, carried on by word of 

 mouth, for introducing crops which answered the requirements 

 of the land, the climate, and the market. 



Naturally the selection of the species to be experimented 

 with brought about, for reasons easily understood, a synonymy 

 between exotic and colonial plants, the more so if it is con- 

 sidered that, in the same way as Sicily represents the link 

 between Italy and Africa, the Colonial Garden forms in its 

 studies and in its aims the link between the flora of the two 

 countries connecting colonial and home agriculture with each 

 other. 



The questions to which the Garden has chiefly directed its 

 attention may be summarized as follows : 



1. Investigations of summer forage plants. 



2. Utilization of arid lands. 



3. Introduction of industrial crops. 



The first is intended to promote the raising of cattle and 

 the consequent production of manure, the second aims at the 

 utilization of extensive strips of shore where the outcropping 

 rock makes any of the ordinary crops impossible, and the last 

 tends to introduce to the island industries which depend on 

 vegetable products. 



In dealing with these three questions, the Colonial Garden of 



