416 BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE, NORWICH. 



1868. The calumba plant seems to be of easy culture, and no reason 

 appears why it should not be cultivated for the sake of its 

 medicinal root in any country possessing a hot climate and a 

 moist, rich soil. 



Delusive ac- But though I am thus advocating the culture of certain 

 medicinal plants, there is a vastly larger number, the culture of 

 which, with a view to profit, it would, I firmly believe, be a 

 delusion to attempt. Drugs already cheap, abundant, good ; 

 drugs in small demand ; drugs which are comparatively unes- 

 sential, or well represented by others ; those that are only 

 procurable from plants or trees which arrive but slowly at 

 maturity; those which, like sarsaparilla, are only found in 

 regions uninhabitable to civilised man; these, I say, we can 

 afford to let remain products of the forest, some of them to 

 disappear before the axe of the colonist, a few to hold their 

 places in the interstices of cultivation as the companions of 

 more important and useful plants. 



Now, gentlemen, let me conclude,- for I cannot but remember 

 that there are gentlemen present who have to bring forward the 

 results of their original experiments, while I have been entertain- 

 ing you with only a narration of the labours of others. A duty, 

 however, remains, and that is a pleasing one of tendering my 

 cordial thanks, in which all my fellow-visitors will join, to our 

 Norwich friends for the excellent arrangements they have made 

 for our meeting, and for the kindliness and hospitality with 

 which we have been received. 



