32 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. 1 



colony, they began about that time to introduce in considerable 



number the useful plants of other countries. Among the many 



valuable things introduced, mention need only be made of 



r cinchona introduced in 1861, and forming the staple industry 



r of Ceylon for many years of cacao also an important industry 



i in the island of tea, now the staple export industry of the 

 colony, originally introduced by the gardens in 1832 or earlier, 

 but subsequently mainly brought in by private agency, and of 



I rubber, introduced from South America by the Indian Govern- 

 ment, aided by the Botanic Gardens of Kew, and now rapidly 

 becoming the second or third most important industry in Ceylon. 

 Without the aid of the Botanic Gardens, Ceylon would have 

 remained a small and unimportant "native" possession. In 

 the same way the West Indies owe many of their most 

 valuable crops to the Botanic Gardens there, and the Malay 

 Peninsula is becoming a rubber-country as the result of the 

 work done in the gardens of Singapore. But, for the future,, 

 this acclimatisation work will be done mainly in the new 

 countries, e.g. in tropical Africa, where cacao, introduced only 

 a few years ago, is already a very important industry. 



It is obvious that as time goes on, this introduction and 

 acclimatisation of foreign products in any one colony or posses- 

 sion must decrease in importance, for the simple reason that 

 most of the new products that can possibly be brought in are 

 now introduced, and the chance of finding anything of great 

 value becomes less with every year. Thus during the last 

 twenty years the Ceylon gardens have not been able to intro- 

 duce anything of much value, though they have been able to 

 bring in a few minor fruits, shade trees, and other things, and 

 during the present century great changes have come over the 

 organisation of the establishment, which has expanded into a 

 department of agriculture, to suit the changed needs of the 

 colony. 



The work of the colonial botanic gardens has of course been 

 mainly cooperative, the gardens exchanging plants with one 

 another, aided in the exchange by the central garden of Kew. 

 But, just as the acclimatisation work of the larger colonies, at 

 any rate, has sunk into comparative unimportance, and as the 



