PREFACE 



Although the products of the plant world are of enormous commercial importance and enter 

 largely into the every-day life of all of us, nevertheless it has hitherto been impossible to 

 obtain an inexpensive illustrated book, written in English, affording a general summary of 

 information concerning the useful plants of the world and their commercial utilisation. Works 

 dealing with special groups are available, and innumerable papers on plant products are to be 

 found in the publications of our economic and scientific departments at home and in the 

 Colonies. This literature, however, is not readily available to a very large number of enquirers 

 who desire a comparatively brief account of perhaps several important products. Illustrations 

 of many economic plants, and of the methods employed in their cultivation and in the 

 preparation of their produce, are even more inaccessible. 



The World's Commercial Products presents this information in English for the first 

 time, accompanied by a wealth of illustrations many of which are entirely new. Every effort 

 has been made to keep the book free from technicalities, and the plants are, as far as possible, 

 referred to by their common names, although the scientific names are usually given as well, 

 since they are often indispensable in determining exactly the plants referred to. The coloured 

 plates will often be of assistance in depicting scenes to which full justice cannot be done in 

 " black and white," but all the illustrations are from photographs, and can be depended upon 

 as portraying faithfully the scenes they represent. Maps have been added showing the 

 distribution of the principal cultivated plants, and many useful lessons may be drawn 

 from them. 



One of the authors has spent some six years in the tropics, in Ceylon, the West Indies, and 

 West Africa, engaged in economic botanical work, and much of the matter is described from 

 first-hand knowledge. In addition, the copious literature referred to below has been freely 

 drawn upon, and special acknowledgments are due to the publications of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew, the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, the publications of the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, the Agricultural Journal of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Ceylon, Sir George Watt's " Dictionary of the Economic Products of India," 

 Spon's " Encyclopaedia of Arts and Manufactures," Lewkowitsch's " Oils and Fats, - ' 

 Greenish's " Materia Medica," Wright's " Para Rubber," the International Sugar Journal, 

 Noel Deer's " Sugar Cane," Willis's J Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns," 



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