606 
NATURE 
British India. And it is in the Kew Herbarium that are to be 
found the types of an overwhelming proportion of the new 
species described for the first time in that monumental work, 
The Kew Herbarium is therefore to the Indian botanist the most 
important that exists. I must apologise for diverging for a 
moment to remind you what a type specimen is. It is the very 
one on which an author has founded any species to which he 
has given a name. And in order to determine absolutely what 
is the specific form to which the author meant his name to 
apply, it is often necessary to examine his type. This necessity 
increases in urgency with the extension of our knowledge of the 
flora of the world. 
The preservation in good condition of a type specimen is 
therefore, from the point of view of a systematic botanist, as 
important as is the preservation to the British merchant to the 
standard pound weight and the standard yard measure on 
which the operations of British commerce depend. ‘‘ Types” 
also stand to the systematic botanist much in the same re- 
lation as the national records do to the national historian. 
The latter are guarded in the Record Office, I understand, 
with all the skill which the makers of fire-proof, damp-proof 
and burglar-proof depositories can suggest. If, however, the 
type of a species happens to be deposited at Kew, what are the 
probabilities of its preservation? Such a type at Kew is incor- 
porated in what is admittted to be in every sense the largest 
and, forits size, the most accurately named, the most easily con- 
sulted, and therefore the most valuable herbarium in the world, 
the destruction of which would be a calamity commensurate 
in extent with that of the burning of the library at Alexandria. 
One might therefore reasonably expect that a people who rather 
resent being called a ‘‘ nation of shopkeepers”? would feel pride 
in providing for this priceless national collection a home which, 
although perhaps somewhat inferior to that provided for the 
national historical records, might at least be safe from fire. 
This expectation is not fulfilled. The infinitely valuable Kew 
Herbarium and library have no safer home than an old dwelling- 
house on Kew Green, to which a cheap additional wing has 
been built. The floor, galleries and open inner roof of this 
additional wing are constructed of pine coated with an inflam- 
mable varnish, and on the floor and galleries are arranged 
cabinets (also made of pine-wood) in which the specimens 
(which are mounted on paper) are lodged. The provision of a 
fireproof building, capable of expansion as the collections ex- 
tend, is surely not beyond the means of an exchequer which last 
year netted over one hundred and six millions sterling of 
revenue. On behalf of the flora of India, I venture to express 
the hope that the provision of a proper home for its types may 
receive early and favourable consideration by the holders of the 
national purse-strings. But India is by no means the only por- 
tion of the Empire interested in this matter, for the types of the 
Australasian floras, those of a large part of the North American 
flora, and those of many species inhabiting countries outside 
British rule or influence, find their resting-place at Kew. The 
safe custody of the Kew Herbarium is, therefore, not merely a 
national, but a cosmopolitan responsibility. 
In this Address I have hitherto made little reference to crypto- 
gamic and economic botany. As regards cryptogamic botany 
there is little to relate. Except Griffith, no Indian botanist of 
the earlier of the two periods into which I have divided my 
sketch ever did any serious work amongst non-vascular crypto- 
gams. During the second period two men have done gallant 
work under difficulties which no one who has not lived in a 
tropical country can thoroughly appreciate. I refer to Drs. 
Arthur Barclay and D, D. Cunningham. The former made some 
progress in the study of uredinous fungi, which was cut short by 
his untimely death ; while the latter, in addition to his bac- 
terial and other researches connected with the causation of 
human disease, conducted protracted investigations into some 
diseases of plants of fungal or algal origin. Some of the results 
of Dr. Cunningham’s labours were published in the Zyansactions 
of the Linnean Society, and in a series entitled the ‘‘ Scientific 
Memoirs, by Medical Officers of the Indian Army.’ To the 
“* Annals of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta,” Dr. Cunningham 
also contributed elaborate memoirs on the phenomena of nycti- 
tropism, and on the mode of fertilisation in an Indian species of 
Ficus (#, Roxburghiz). There is no doubt that, in the past, 
!yptogamic botany has not been studied in India as it ought to 
have been and might have been. This discredit will, I hope, 
soon removed; and I trust that, by the time the twentieth 
century opens, a cryptogamist may have been appointed to the 
NO. 1564, VOL. 60] 
staff of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. The collecting of crypto- 
gams was not, however, altogether neglected in India in times 
past. For, from materials sent to England, Mitten was able to 
elaborate a moss flora of India, while Berkeley and Browne 
were enabled to prepare their account of the fungi of Ceylon. 
George Wallich, in whom the botanical genius of his father 
burnt with a clear though flickering flame, did some excellent 
work amongst Desmids, and was among the earliest of deep-sea 
dredgers. 
Economic botany has, on the other hand, by no means been 
neglected. It was chiefly on economic grounds that the estab- 
lishment of a botanic garden at Calcutta was pressed upon the 
Court of Directors of the East India Company. And almost 
every one of the workers whose labours I have alluded to 
has incidentally devoted some attention to the economic aspect 
of botany. Roxburgh’s ‘‘ Flora Indica” contains all that was 
known up to his day of the uses of the plants described in 
it. Much of Wight’s time was spent in improving the races of 
cotton grown in India. The botanists of the Seharunpore 
garden during the middle of the century were especially 
prominent in this branch of botanical activity. Royle wrote 
largely on cotton and on other fibres, on drugs, and on various 
vegetable products used, or likely to be of use, in the 
arts. These botanists introduced into the Himalayas more 
than fifty years ago the best European fruits. From gardens 
which owe their origin to Royle, Falconer and Jameson, excel- 
lent apples grown in Gharwal and Kamaon are to-day purchas- 
able in Calcutta. Peaches, nectarines, grapes, strawberries, of 
European origin, are plentiful and cheap all over the North- 
west Himalaya, and are obtainable also in the submontane dis- 
tricts. Potatoes, and all the best European vegetables, were 
introduced long ago ; and at Seharunpore there is still kept up 
a large vegetable garden from which seeds of most European 
vegetables are issued for cultivation during the cold season in 
the gardens of the various regiments of the Queen’s troops 
quartered in Upper India. More or less attention has been 
given in the past by Government botanists in India generally 
to the improvement of the cultivation of flax, hemp, rheea, 
tobacco, henbane, dandelion, vanilla, sarsaparilla, coffee 
(Arabian and Liberian), cocoa, ipecacuanha, aloes, jalap, india- 
rubber, Japanese paper-mulberry, cardamoms, tapioca, coca, 
tea and cinchona. Only to three economic enterprises, how- 
ever, have I time to allude in any detail. These are (1) the 
cultivation of tea, (2) the introduction of cinchona, and (3) the 
formation of the Forest Department. But before proceeding to 
the consideration of these I wish to give a short account of the 
inauguration of the office of Reporter on Economic Products. 
Up to the year 1883 there had been no special Government de- 
partment in India for dealing with questions connected with the 
natural products of the Empire. Whatever had been done 
prior to that date (and the amount was by no means 
unimportant) had been the result of isolated and unco- 
ordinated effort. In 1883 the Government of India founded 
a department for dealing with the economic products of 
the Indian Empire, and under the title of Reporter on 
these products they were fortunate enough to secure Dr. 
George Watt, a member of the Bengal Educational Service. 
Dr. Watt is an accomplished and able botanist. He has col- 
lected Indian plants largely, and has made numerous notes both 
in the field and in the bazaar. The great work which, on the 
initiative of Sir Edward Buck, Secretary to the Department of 
Revenue and Agriculture, and of Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, of 
Kew, Dr. Watt began and carried to a successful termination 
was the compilation of his ‘* Dictionary of Economic Products,” 
in which valuable book is collected all that is known of almost 
every Indian product,. whether vegetable, animal or mineral. 
The study of economic botany is now pursued in India as part 
of a highly specialised system of inquiry and experiment. Dr. 
Watt has a competent staff under him in Calcutta, one of whom 
is Mr. D. Hooper, well known for his original researches into 
the properties of various Indian drugs. Dr. Watt has arranged 
in Calcutta a magnificent museum of economic products, and 
there is no doubt the economic resources of the Empire are now 
being studied with as much energy as intelligence. ; 
Tea cultivation is one of the enterprises in the introduction 
and development of which botanists took a very leading part. 
The advisability of introducing-the industry was first pressed on 
the attention of the East India Company by Dr. Govan (of 
Seharunpore), and in this he was seconded by Sir Joseph Banks 
as President of the Royal Society. Royle in 1827, and Falconer 
[OcroBER 19, 1899 | 
