348 CULTIVATION OF JALAP. 



1867. vation of jalap. Not only is there a Government garden at 

 Ootacamund, where the plant might in the first instance be cul- 

 tivated, but there are numerous other localities in the neighbour- 

 hood, slightly differing in climate and soil, where experiments 

 Advantages might be carried on. To these advantages must be added the 

 Ootawmund ^ ac ^ ^ ia ^ Ootacamund is the habitual residence of numerous in- 

 telligent Europeans, whose attention has been specially directed, 

 in connection with cinchona-culture, to those circumstances of 

 soil, climate, and planting, on which the successful introduction 

 of a foreign plant is dependent. 



There are doubtless other localities in India, as, for instance, 

 certain regions in the Himalaya, in which the culture of the 

 jalap-plant might advantageously be attempted, but until a 

 supply of the roots is abundant, it will probably be wise to re- 

 strict experiments to one spot. 



It must not, however, be supposed that no attempts to cultivate 

 jalap have hitherto been made, though it may be safely asserted 

 that none have resulted in obtaining for the market a better 

 Experiments supply of the drug. In Mexico, as Schiede relates, the Indians 

 iU J vatFon Ulti " were commencing in 1829 to cultivate the plant in their 

 gardens ; and I have been informed by a London druggist that 

 some of the jalap now found in the market is derived from cul- 

 tivated plants. The late Dr. Eoyle states that he sent plants 

 obtained from the Royal Horticultural Society and from Dr. 

 Balfour, of Edinburgh, to the Himalayas, where he hoped they 

 would soon be established. 1 In 1862 I forwarded to Mr. N. 

 Wilson, Curator of the Botanic Garden, at Bath, Jamaica, a 

 jalap-plant of which he wrote to me in October 1863, that it 

 was growing luxuriantly at an elevation of 2,000 feet, and that he 

 had no doubt the plant could be cultivated on the mountains of 

 Jamaica as an article of commerce. 



The culture of Exogonium purga, Benth., is also being 



1 Manual of Mat. Med. and Therap. ed. 1853, p. 553. In Birdwood's 

 Catalogue of the Economic Products of the Presidency of Bombay, Bombay, 

 1862, it is stated at p. 57, that Exogonium purga, Benth., is " cultivated on 

 account of Government at Hewra." I am, however, assured that there is 

 some error in this statement, and the plant does not now exist in the Hewra 

 garden. 



