16 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



that has distinguished our importing and manufac- 

 turing industries. Exceptions to this statement 

 must be admitted in justice to the successful cultiva- 

 tion of the true medicinal Rhubarb (Rheum officinale, 

 Baill.), first introduced by the illustrious Daniel 

 Hanbury, and of the Opium Poppy (Papaver somni- 

 ferum, L.), by the Messrs. Usher, at Bodicott, near 

 Banbury, and to that of the Sugar Beet (Beta mari- 

 tima, Willd., var. altissima] at Lavenham in Suffolk. 



The greatly increased variety of raw materials 

 now imported may, undoubtedly, be in part attri- 

 buted to the adoption of Free Trade, and in part, 

 also, to the series of International Exhibitions which 

 were, with so much foresight, originated by the Prince 

 Consort, and which have been so materially promoted 

 by the interest evinced by his Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales. 



From the Exhibitions of 1851, 1862, and 1886, and 

 from those at Paris in 1855 and 1867, large additions 

 were made to the Kew collection; and in 1880 the 

 entire series of specimens illustrating Economic 

 Botany in the India Museum was transferred to 

 Kew, where no less than 4,000 of them were selected 

 for exhibition. 



The Great Exhibition of 1851 was, moreover, the 

 immediate cause of the appearance of the first 

 popular work devoted to the entire field of Economic 

 Botany the late Professor T. C. Archer's < Popular 

 Economic Botany/ published in 1853, a very useful 

 little work, from which, even at this distant date, the 

 present writer has gathered much useful information. 



The discovery of the art of vulcanizing caoutchouc 



