5-0 



NA TURE 



[October 14, 1897 



227) may bring into profitable use stretches of vegetation in 

 the tropics that have hitherto been regarded as perfectly useless. 

 Amongst new economic plants should be mentioned Coffea 

 j-/e«^///iy//a, the highland coffee of Sierra Leone {K.B., 1896, 

 189), which in certain localities may prove a formidable rival 

 of the Arabian coffee. 



The publication of a note on Jarrah timber {K.B., 1890, 188) 

 has led to the extended use of this and similar Australian hard 

 woods for the purpose of paving the carriage-ways of London 

 Streets instead of the cheaper but less durable white pine. The 

 collections of Australian timbers in Museum III. were of special 

 service in this direction. 



A paper on Natural Sugar in Tobacco {K.B., 1896, 49-55) 

 recorded some scientific facts of great novelty and interest, and 

 solved an important fiscal problem. 



Drugs. 



Many little-known drugs have been investigated. The seeds 

 of Sophoi'a secundiflora have a singular use among the Indians of 

 Mexico, where they are taken as an intoxicant. Half a seed is 

 said to produce exhilaration followed by sleep lasting two or 

 three days [K.B., 1892, 216). 



Derris elHptica, now growing in the Economic House at Kew, 

 yields the Malayan fish poison known as " Aker Tuba " {K.B., 

 1892, 216). From the account given of Natal Aloes and of the 

 plants supposed to yield this product (A'./^., 1890, 163) it appears 

 that it differs in some important respects from the more com- 

 monly known Cape Aloes. The discovery of the plant, also in 

 the Kew collection, yielding the true Star Anise of commerce 

 is noticed (A'. i9., 1888, 173). The manufacture of quinine in 

 India, and the wide distribution at a nominal price of this 

 valuable medicinal agent amongst the natives {K.B., 1890, 29), 

 is one of the most important services which European rule has 

 rendered to the Indian Empire. Paraguay ]2.hoxax\(i\.{Ptlocai-pus) 

 is discussed (A'.i?., 1891, 179) from materials sent to this country 

 by H.M.'s charge d'affaires at Buenos Ayres in 1 88 1. The 

 origin of myrrh and frankincense is discussed in considerable 

 detail {K.B , 1896, 86), while the first authentic information 

 respecting the district whence Siam Benzoin or Gum Benjamin 

 of commerce is obtained is the subject of another article {K.B., 

 1^95) 154)- Next to Gum Benjamin, Siam Gamboge is the most 

 interesting of Siamese products {K.B., 1895, 139). The peculiar 

 Ai Camphor prepared in China from a shrubby composite, a 

 species of Blumea, is described (with a plate) from information 

 supplied by Dr. Augustine Henry {K.B., 1895, 275^. The 

 plants yielding the leaves known as coca, and the drug cocaine, 

 with their characteristics, are discussed {K.B., 1889, i), with a 

 suggestion that a plant long cultivated at Kew {Erythroxylon 

 Coca, var. novo gra^iatense) might be suited for cultivation at a 

 lower elevation than the type. The little-known Iboga root of 

 the Gaboon and Bocca of the Congo, possessing tonic pro- 

 perties, is traced to Tabernanthe Iboga, Baill. {K.B., 1895, 

 37) ; the tree yielding the Ipoh poison of the Malay peninsula 

 is identified with that yielding the Upas poison of Java {K.B., 

 1891, 24) ; but the remarkable point is brought out that while in 

 Java the Upas tree {Anliaris toxicaria) furnishes a very effective 

 arrow poison, in the Malay peninsula the juice of what is 

 regarded as an identical species is apparently innocuous, and the 

 defect is remedied by the use of arsenic. 



Food Grains. 

 A series of articles on the food grains of India by Prof. A. H. 

 Church, F.R.S. (1888 to 1893), supplements the information 

 contained in his published handbook on the same subject. The 

 materials for these investigations were supplied from the Museums 

 of the Royal Gardens. 



Miscellaneous Notes. 

 In 1891 a series of miscellaneous notes was begun, in which 

 were recorded appointments on the Kew staff as well as those 

 made on the recommendation of Kew by the respective 

 Secretaries of State to Colonial and Indian Botanical Gardens. 

 The notes also included a record of contributions made to the 

 gardens, herbarium, and museums, the movements of expeditions 

 and travellers engaged in botanical exploration, notices of Kew 

 publications, and facts of interest connected with the daily work 

 of the establishment. Liter there were added paragraphs on 

 general economic subjects too short to appear as separate 

 articles. The detailed index now published will afford the 

 means of reference to these scattered notices. 



NO. 1459, VOL. 56] 



Appendices. 



The Appendices remain to be noticed. Of these three have 

 been regularly issued at the end of each volume since 1891. 

 Previously the information contained in them had appeared as 

 one of the monthly numbers of the Bulletin, (i) Lists of seeds 

 of hardy herbaceous and of trees and shrubs offered in exchange 

 by Kew to Colonial, Indian, and foreign botanical gardens ; (2) 

 Lists of new garden plants annually described in botanical and 

 horticultural publications. These are indispensable to the 

 maintenance of a correct nomenclature in the smaller botanical 

 establishments in correspondence with Kew, and afford informa- 

 tion respecting new plants distributed from this establishment 

 in regular course of exchange with other botanic gardens ; 

 (3) Lists of the staffs of the Royal Gardens, Kew, ard of 

 botanical establishments at home and in India and the Colonies 

 in correspondence with Kew. 



In Appendix HI., 1890, will be found a complete index to 

 the Reports on the Progress and Condition of the Royal Gar- 

 dens, Kew, from 1862 to 1882. This index is useful as a means 

 of easy reference to the numerous notices respecting economic 

 and other plants. 



Corrections. 



In so varied a range of subjects some amount of error, it is 

 hoped not considerable, doubtless exists. A few statements 

 which subsequent research have shown to be probably erroneous 

 must be corrected. 



The case of poisoning from Turnsole {Chrozophora tinctoria) 

 described in A'. ^9. , 1889, 279-280, was in all probability not due 

 to that plant, but to Datura .Stramonium. 



The source of the well-known Chinese preserved ginger, 

 which in K.B., 1891, 5, was attributed to Alpinia Galaiiga, 

 ultimately appeared to be, as pointed out mK.B., 1892, 16, the 

 ordinary commercial ^AAni, Zingiber officinale. Some mistake 

 had been made apparently in the plants transmitted to Kew as 

 yielding the commerical product. 



The figure of a Mtisa given in A'.B., 1894, 247, as Musa 

 F e hi mdiy be identical with that species. But all that is certain 

 about it is that it represents AI. See7nanni of Baron von 

 Mueller. 



THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE ON 

 SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 

 TN opening a new technical college at -Darlington on Friday 

 last, the Duke of Devonshire made some valuable remarks 

 upon the advantages of scientific instruction, and the need for 

 the organisation of secondary education. Subjoined are a few 

 extracts from the Times report of the address. 



Science and Art essential to Commercial 

 Prosperity. 

 The case for technical education, and for the improvement of 

 technical education, the case for the adequate provision of the 

 scientific and artistic education of our people, is within our 

 judgment essential to the continued efficiency of our manufac- 

 turing and commercial interests, without the prosperity of which 

 the people could not continue either to prosper or even to exist. 

 Science and art now enter so largely into the practical conduct 

 and management of every one of our industries that a knowledge 

 of the principles of science and of art is as indispensable to their 

 successful conduct as the possession of bodily strength is neces- 

 sary for the working of the raw materials. Take the case of 

 the industries in which you yourselves are specially interested — 

 the mining, the iron, and the steel industries. Science enters 

 into every operation by which you extract coal or iron from the 

 earth ; science enters into every process by which you convert 

 coal into coke, into every operation in which iron ore, with the 

 aid* of coke, is converted into iron. Again, into every process 

 in which the iron is converted into steel, and into every 

 one of those processes by which steel is converted into 

 the thousand articles in which it serves the purposes of 

 the community, it is science and science only which has 

 created, and which continues to improve, those vast and powerful 

 machines by means of which the heat which is generated from 

 coal is converted into power, and applied to the service of man. 

 In every one of these processes — to speak only of those with 

 which you are most familiar in this district — improvement and 

 development are constantly taking place ; and if in any respect 



