﻿432 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [junk 



A NEW BOTANICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY 



IN THE TROPICS. 



In the year 1901 I paid a visit to the colony of Surinam (Dutch 

 Guiana), and as a result of this voyage a scientific laboratory will be 

 opened this year in Paramaribo. A botanist and a chemist will be con- 

 nected with this laboratory, one of them with the title '* agricultural 

 inspector for the Dutch West-Indian colonies." I wish to draw the 

 attention of American botanists to this laboratory, because it will con- 

 tain a room, 9 by 4.5 meters, where foreign naturalists will have the 

 opportunity for research work. 



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It is needless to argue here on the advantages of a botanical 

 research laboratory in the tropics ; the experience of the botanical gar- 

 den at Buitenzorg speaks for itself. But for many scientific men in 

 the States Buitenzorg is too far away, and on the other hand there are 

 several problems which can be studied only in tropical x\merica. 



For this reason I should like to give here a few more particulars 

 about this laboratory. It will be built in the small experiment garden 

 now existing, which is in great part uncultivated, with an interesting 

 secondary forest. In the vicinity may be found tidal and swamp forests. 

 The large rivers of Surinam are the means of communication with the 

 interior; there is a service of regular steamers on some of them. In 

 the neighborhood of the coast are the European cacao and sugar 

 estates. Bordering the rear of these estates are primeval forests, which 

 cover a great area of the colony; they are perhaps more luxuriant than 

 any in the world. Moreover, the botanist will find large and interest- 

 ing savannas, and he who can go farther into the interior (the easiest 

 way will be to visit some of the ^old fields) may gather many Podo- 

 stemaceae in the rapids of the upper part of the rivers. Epiphytes 

 (among these especially Bromeliaceae, Orchidaceae, Cactaceae, Ficus), 

 lianes, cauliflorous trees, myrmecophilous trees, Loranthaceae and other 

 parasites — in one word, all the many ecological characteristics of the 

 tropics with their damp climate — may be seen in their highest degree 

 of development here. 



Though malarial fever may occur in the interior of Surinam, Para- 

 maribo is almost free from it, and generally speaking it is a healthy 

 town. Yellow fever is almost extinct; since 1867 there has been only 

 one small epidemic, in 1902. From ray own experience I feel quite 

 certain that naturalists will be kindly received by the inhabitants and 

 will get a great deal of help from private persons as well as from 

 officials. 



