192 KEW GARDENS 



too kindly to "square face" gin and to the 

 gramophone that drowns the notes of his native 

 guitar. Here we may indulge due disgust over 

 outlandish intoxicants : the hemp-plants yielding 

 "bang" and "hashish," which are in the East 

 what gin and absinthe are in the West; the 

 poppy, that is a drug to us but elsewhere a 

 ruinous dissipation ; the coca leaves, the chewing 

 of which gives a Bolivian Indian strength to go 

 on for leagues without food, " but thereof comes 

 in the end despondency and madness " ; the kava 

 root of the South Seas, which, first well chewed 

 by strong-jawed young men or girls, then 

 steeped in water, gives an infusion like soapsuds 

 flavoured with Gregory's powder, a luxury not 

 much appreciated by white men, especially after 

 seeing its preparation, and usually denied to 

 women and youngsters, but ceremoniously 

 presented in coco-nut shells to the grave and 

 reverend seniors, whom a skinful of it affects 

 with a peculiar drunkenness, in the legs rather 

 than the head. 



Many medicinal plants here will give us new 

 ideas or old qualms : the liquorice root, yielding 

 what is still in our country districts known as 

 " Spanish juice " ; the senna shrubs, that flourish 



