THE PLANT. Q 



vation existing there to be verified, and the results 

 which it has produced, as well as under what con- 

 ditions can be obtained the greatest quantity of 

 seeds, having in consideration the vigour of the plant, 

 the time of harvest, the price, and the guarantees 

 of origin and quality." 



To^botar^iSj^Q^fm^j^abic^ is a species coming 

 under the class Pentandria Monogynia of Linnaeus, 

 and the family Rubiacece, though by some it is 

 placed among the Cinchonacece, with a good show 

 of reason ; but this botanical quibble matters little. 

 It is, in cultivation, a shrub of close and systematic 

 growth. Where allowed to follow its own natural 

 instincts, in uncleared jungle or old and forsaken 

 plantations, it grows to a height of fourteen to 

 eighteen feet, and is then a tall, slight bush, with 

 a straight stem free of branches for the greater 

 part of its height ; and an abundance of fine, 

 fibrous roots underground, with a deep-penetrating 

 and all-important " tap root," whose welfare is 

 bound up with that of the plant. Dwarfed by the 

 pruning-knife of the cultivator, it rarely exceeds 

 an elevation of^six feet in light sandy soils, and 

 nine feet in the very richest. The latter is an 

 unusual height, and as a matter of experience, I 

 have noticed, when riding through the best-managed 

 estates of Lower India, that the topmost twigs of 

 the plants have rarely been higher than my knees 

 when bestriding a hill pony, which would be some- 

 thing less than five feet from the ground. If 



