July 27, 1871. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



Eng^Iac^l, the establisliment of such a one at Eew is looked forward to 

 with much interest by both collectors and nurserymen. Of the latter, 

 two of the most eminent, Messrs. Lawson, of Edinburgh, and Dickson 

 ^nd TurnbuU, of Perth, have presented to the Royal Gardens speci- 

 mens of every species and variety that was to he found in duplicate in 

 their extensive collections. Mr. M'Nab, of the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Oardens, has also sent many valuable plants for this department. 

 Many thousand loads of good loam from the lake bed have been carted 

 ■to those parts of the grounds, especially on the east side, where the 

 soil is excessively poor, preparatory to forming new plantations, and 

 -the rest of the soil has been put round the roots of the troes wherever 

 it was thought advisable. 



3. I^'TEItcHANG■E OE LiviNG PLANTS A^D Seeds. — The demands 

 -apon this establishment, especially from India and the Colonies, for 

 "tropical and temperate plants and seeds ; and from planters, forest and 

 garden superintendents, for information of all sorts, increase annually ; 

 and these demands are of so miscellaneous a nature that it is often 

 difficult to keep up with them. 



Sis more active and intelligent young gardeners have been sent to 

 -the Cotton, &c., plantations in India, in which counti^ there are up- 

 wards of thirty former Kew employes engaged in various departments 

 oi horticulture and arboriculture. A skilful gardener has been sent to 

 the Botanic Gardens in Jamaica, which are being revived under the 

 "Snergetie government of his Excellency Sir J. P. Grant; and another 

 to take charge of the Agri- Horticultural Society's Garden at Madras. 



The success of the Cinchona experiment is now fully established in 

 the Sikkam- Himalaya, the Neilgherries, Khasia Mountains (East 

 Bengal), Ceylon and Janiaica. The bark from the first-named locali- 

 ties has commanded a price equal to the Peruvian in the_ English 

 market ; nineteen cases of red bark from Darjeeling having been 

 bought by Messrs. Howard & Sons for Is. ^d. per lb., which these 

 gentlemen inform me is what South American bark of the same age 

 -would have fetched. No less than a ton of prepared bark has been 

 sent to London Irom Ceylon, the produce of seeds sent to Dr. Thwaites 

 from Kew in 1861. 



I was assured by the late Dr. Anderson, Superintendent of the 

 Calcutta Botanic Garden, and the successful introducer of the plant 

 into Sikkim, that it will in a very few years be produced there in any 

 ■ quantity at the rate of 3rZ. per lb. 



I continue to have demands for Cinchona seed from many quarters, 

 which I am enabled to supply from seeds ripened in the Ceylon planta- 

 tion under Dr. Thwaites's superintendence. 



Great exertions are being made by the Indian Government to intro- 

 •duce the Ipecacuanha plant into India ; in which operation this estab- 

 lishment has been called upon to take an active part. This is due, 

 partly to the limited and uncertain supply of the drug received from 

 America, and more to the revival of the old practice of administering it 

 in large doses m cases of dysentei-y, upon which it acts as a specific. It 

 is a singularfact, that the introducers of the Ipecacuanha into European 

 j)ractice, the Brazilian traveller Marcgrav and the physician Piso (in 

 164S), explicitly stated that the powder is a specific cure for dysentery, 

 in doses of a drachm and upwards ; but that this information appears 

 mever to have been acted upon till 1813, when Surgeon G. Playfair, of 

 the East Indian Company's service, wrote testifying to its use in these 

 doses. Again, in 1831, a number of reports of medical officers were 

 published by the Madras Medical Board, showing its great effects in 

 hourly doses of five grains, till frequently one hundred grains were 

 (given in a short period ; testimony whic-h, notwithstanding its weight, 

 ^■was doomed to be similarly overlooked till quite recently, when it has 

 been again brought directly under the notice of the Indian Govein- 

 anent, which is making very vigorous efforts to introduce the culture of 

 4he plant into suitable districts of India.* 



The numbers of plants, seeds, &c., sent out, is as follows : — 



Hardy trees and shrubs 149-i I Packets of seeds 4911 



Stove and greenhouse plants 5186 | Ward's cases 34 



Herbaceous plants 1317 | Recipients 150 



The receipts have been: — 



Hardy trees and shrubs 671 I Seed packets 2676 



Stove and gi'eenhouse plants 1409 Ward's cases 30 



Herbaceous plants 12i9 I Donors 152 



S599 I 



The greater proportion of plants sent out has been to Jamaica, 

 ■Ceylon, India, Australia, Algeria, the United States, and to continental 

 gardens ; of seed to all the colonies, and the United States ; and of 

 Ward's cases to the West Indies, Australia, and Natal. 



A very extensive correspondence was commenced last year with H. 

 Capron, Esq., the active commissioner of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture of the United States of America, by which means a vast number 

 of American seeds, and especially of Californian and Kocky Mountain 

 trees, have been procured and distributed to the colonies. 



* I am indebted for most o£ these facts to my friend, Dr. Christison, 

 F.R.S., who informs me that he has habitually referred to them in his 

 courses of University lectures, and has long wondered how it was that 

 medical men should have so long and so obstinately shut their eyes to 

 this truth. The merit of proposing the introduction of the Ipecacuanha 

 plant into India, is, I believe, due to Dr. Jlurray, Director of the Medical 

 Staff of the Indian army, and the operation was being energetically con- 

 ducted by Dr. Anderson, late Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic 

 Gardens, who at the period of his untimely death (in October last), had 

 lirocured a large quantity of plants for transport to India. 



Messrs. Booth, of Hamburgh, have presented a second selection of 

 the rarer European and American forest trees of their nurseries to the 

 Arboretum, including many kinds that are not to be found in English 

 collections. It is a curious fact that the rage for introducing Coni- 

 ferous trees into English parks and gardens has almost extinguished 

 the culture of all but a few deciduous trees ; and I have now to apply 

 to foreign nurseries for the rarer Maples, Oaks, Ashes, Limes, Poplars, 

 &c., which were so extensively planted in English parks in the early 

 part of this centui-y, and which when the Kew Arboretum was made in 

 1840-50, were to be procured at the suburban nurseries. Messrs. Lee, 

 of Hammersmith, have promised a full set of their hardy deciduous 

 trees, &c., and Mr. W. Paul, of Waltham Cross, and others, have most 

 liberally supplied many deficiencies. 



Besides the above, the following contributions are of special value, 

 or interest — viz. 



Mr. C. F. Carstensen, H.B.M. Vice-Consul, Mogador; the true 

 Euphorbium of commerce, the drug of which has been imported into 

 Europe for upwards of two thousand years, whereas the plant pro- 

 ducing it was never previously known to Europeans. Seeds of the 

 Argan tree. 



M. Kuffmann, Botanic Gardens, Moscow ; live plants of the drug 

 Sumbul, from Central Asia, another important medicine, whose origin 

 was previously unknown. 



A third hitherto unknown plant, yielding a drug of the greatest 

 value, has been for the first time introduced into Europe during the 

 past year — namely, the true medicinal Rhubarb, from Western China ; 

 of which a healthy live plant has been received from the Jardin d'Ac- 

 climatation of Paris. 



4. Mu3eu:ms. — The substitution of printed for written labels through- 

 out the collections is being proceeded with. An improved method of 

 mounting the specimens of seed-vessels, cones, ifcc, is being carried 

 out, which will greatly facilitate their inspection, and at the same 

 time improve the appearance of the collection. Methylated spirit is 

 being used for preserving the fleshy fruits instead of acetic acid, which 

 it is found does not permanently prevent decomposition. 



5. Herbariuh atsd Libhaut. — About ten thousand specimens have 

 been received, chiefly as donations, in this deparment. 



(Signed) Jos. D. Hookee, Director. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. - 

 The Vice-Cbancellor Sir K. Malics has made an alteration 

 in the constitution of the Managing Committee of the Oxford 

 Botanic Garden. A petition was presented by the XJoiversity 

 of Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Liddell, 

 and the Professor of Botany there, Mr. M. A. Liwson, for the 

 purpose of obtaining a variation of a scheme made in pursuance 

 of a Master's report, dated in 1833, whereby a perpetual com- 

 mittee, consisting of the Yice-Ohancellor, the Proctors for the 

 time being, and the Regius Professor of Physic, with " the seven 

 seniors residerwfc upon the physic line," was established for the 

 management of the Physic Garden at Osford, in accordance 

 with the will of Dr. William Sherrard, made in April, 1728. 

 Dr. Sherrard by his will gave £3000 for the maintenance of a 

 Botany Professor of the Physic Garden at Oxford, upon con- 

 dition that the University should settle a perpetual fund for 

 maintaining the garden. A suit was instituted shortly after Dr. 

 Sherrard*3 death, in which it was settled that the University 

 should pay £150 a-year for keeping up the garden in question, 

 and the Eoyal College of Physicians were appointed visitors of 

 the gardens. It was now proposed that the Committee consti- 

 tuted as above mentioned should be replaced by three resident 

 members of Convocation, who should be nominated by the 

 Yice-Chancellor and Proctors of the University, subject to the 

 approbation of Convocation, and should hold of&ce for ten 

 years, and be styled " Curators of the Botanic Garden." The 

 Yiee-Chancellor approved the proposition, and made an order 

 to carry it into efiect. 



It will be perceived by our advertising columns that a 



supplemental Hose Show will be held at the Crystal Palace on 

 August 5fh, but we have been favoured with no further informa- 

 tion on the subject. 



The Cultivation of the Poppy in China, which Las 



been more than once prohibited by Imperial edicts, appears to 

 be increasing everywhere, and becoming a profitable trade. In 

 Szechuen, where the climate is warm and the season early, two 

 crops at least are produced'on the same ground annually. The 

 seed of the Poppy is sown in February, the plants flower in 

 April, and the fruits are so far matured by the middle of May, 

 that the juice is collected, and the stalks removed and burnt 

 directly after; but previous to this the second crop, which may 

 be either Indian Corn, Cotton, or Tobacco, is sown, so that al- 

 most by the time the Poppy is cleared from the fi-fld the new 

 crop makes its appearance. The profit derived from the eultiva- 

 t on of the Poppy is not only the result -of a fair market value 



