76 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK 



Sir W. T. 



Thiselton- 

 Dyer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.E.S. 



YII. 



"Results" are simply the accomplishments of 

 ''uses." Reference may therefore be made to what has 

 been stated under in. 



A detailed record of what has been accomplished at 

 29iNov. 19 JO. j^Q^ jjj ^;jjg j^g^ quarter of a century would be a, 



voluminous document. It is only possible to indicate 

 salient examples. 



The amount of published scientific work turned out 

 from Kew has already been referred to. Two under- 

 takings of indispensable utility to botanists generally 

 which have been prepared at the herbarium deserve 

 especial mention. The Genera Plantarum of Bentham 

 and Hooker was published 1862-83. It consists of three 

 volumes, containing pp. 1,044, 1,279, and 1,258 respec- 

 tively. It defines the character of all known genera of 

 flowering plants, and is a generally accepted standard ; 

 it embraces 202 orders and 7,585 genera, including 

 95,620 species. It has largely supplied the basis for 

 similar comprehensive works in France and Germany. 



The Index Kewensis, published in 1893-5, is an 



indispensable complement to this. It records the names 

 of all published species of flowering plants, with the 

 place of publication and the geographical distribution. 

 The expense of preparation from materials afforded by 

 Kew was defrayed by the munificence of the family of 

 the late IVIr. Charles Darwin ; the work was printed by 

 the Oxford University Press. 



In 1886 a beginning was made in organising a system 

 of botanical stations in the West Indies in order to 

 promote new cultural industries. In 1898 the work 

 was taken over by the Imperial Government, and the 

 direction was entrusted to Dr. Morris, the lata 

 Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, as 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. In 1896 Dr. Morris had 

 been previously attached as expert adviser to the West 

 Indian Commission. At the suggestion of the Colonial 

 Ofiice his report on the agricultural resources of the West 

 Indies was republished in a more convenient form as an 

 appendix to the Kew Bulletin. 



In 1887 a commencement was made of a similar 



system of botanical stations in British possessions in 

 tropical Africa. This has been largely developed since. 



The object in either case is to create a peasant pro- 

 prietary and to instruct it in profitable agricultural 

 pursuits. 



The Curators of the stations, the plants to stock them, 

 and the necessary technical advice have all been fur- 

 nished from Kew. 



The history of the rubber trade in British possessions 

 on the West Coast of Africa affords a striking example 

 of the results of botanical enterprise. That on the 

 East Coast was created by Sir John Kirk in 1876. Sir 

 Alfred Moloney, impressed with the utility of botanical 

 knowledge in developing the resources of Tropical 

 Africa underwent a systematic course of botanical train- 

 ing at Kew. In 1882 he temporarily administered the 

 Government of the Gold Coast. His attention was 

 attracted by a plant which yielded rubber. He sent 

 specimens to Kew, where it was identified as a source 

 of rubber of excellent quality. At that time the export 

 of rubber from the colony was nil ; in 1893, as thei 

 result of this discovery, it was of the value of £200,000. 

 Sir Alfred Moloney suggested the establishment of a, 

 similar industry at Lagos. No progress was, however, 

 made till 1894, and in 1895 the export rushed up to a 

 value of £270,000. 



During the present year the first sample of Cacao 

 grown in any British African colony has been produced 

 at the Gold Coast Botanical Station, and exhibited by 

 Kew on its behalf at the Paris Exhibition, where it has 

 been awarded a bronze medal. 



These are merely illustrations. For full detail of 

 the Imperial work of Kew, in so far as they are matters 

 of public interest, .reference may be ,made to the 

 volumes of the Kew Bulletin. 



I may, however, quote the testimony of the Marquis 

 of Ripon, at the time Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, at the dinner of the Linnean Society, on May 

 24, 1895: — 



"Sir Hugh Low has spoken in most just terms of 

 services which have been rendered to the Colonies, 

 especially by Kew. I think my friend Mr. Thiseltoii 

 Dyer will not contradict me when I say that he has 



more to do with the Colonial Office than with any other 

 public department, and I was very glad to learn froro- 

 iiim recently that he found the mode in which wa 

 transact our business in that department not unworthy 

 of his praise. Great work has been done, and is being, 

 done, mainly through the exertions of Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer and Mr. Morris, and his assistants, to aid the. 

 Colonies in the introduction of new plants, and in tha 

 development and cultivation of those which naturally 

 belong to them. In all directions this is the case ta 

 day. On the West Coast of Africa at the present- 

 moment it is being done. It is only, you may say, the 

 commencement, but it is a commencement which is very 

 satisfactory in its progress and in its results up to the 

 present time, and which I hope may develop very 

 largely in the future. Then, again, we all know thai 

 in the West Indies great work has been done by those- 

 men — men, most of them I ought to say, who have, 

 been sent out from Kew to those Colonies. In Jamaica, 

 there is the fruit cultivation, which has become every 

 day more important, and which only requires tha- 

 establishment of further lines of steamers between 

 Jamaica and the United States to develop a etill 

 larger and more important trade. And again, almost 

 all our natural products have been, through the agencv 

 of Kew, introduced in Jamaica. I find that much good- 

 will has always existed among our friends in Kew ; 

 but we must bear in mind that one of the great works- 

 which has been undertaken by Kew is to educate th^ 

 Colonies to recognise the nature of their various- 

 natural products, and the advantage of introducing- 

 new products. But when you come to introduce new 

 products you encounter difficulties. There are culti- 

 vators of the old sort whose products are dying out, 

 and whose particular industry is falling away ; it is- 

 not very easy to induce those who are in that un- 

 fortunate condition to appreciate the labours of the' 

 man from Kew who comes down and introduces new 

 plants into their Colony which they see are gradually 

 ousting the old ones. But we must bear in mind that 

 this work is done not only in the Colonies, properlj 

 80 called, with which I am now connected, but also ort 

 a large scale in the great Dependency of which I once 

 had the honour of being the head, in India." 



It should be added that at the present time the 

 Colonial Office desires to be represented before the 

 Committee by one of its staff. Probably the India 

 Office would also wish to take a similar course. 



Mainly owing to Sir Joseph Hooker's early connec- 

 tion with India, the relations of Kew and the India. 

 Office have always been of the most intimate kind. 



The introduction of Cinchona into India in 1861 has. 

 steadily borne fruit under the skilful administration ot 

 Sir George King. Since 1893 a dose of five grains of 

 quinine can be purchased at every local post office iit 

 Bengal for about a farthing. This was followed in 

 1876 by the introduction through Kew of the principal 

 trees producing india-rubber in South America, at an 

 expense of upwards of £1,500. India-rubber of excel- 

 lent quality is now exported from British possession? 

 in the East, and the cultivation is to be taken up by 

 the Government of India on a large scale. 



In 1858 the Honourable East India Company trans- 

 ferred to Kew "the enormous collection of plants- 

 made under the order of the Indian Government by 

 officers of their service, and which had been accumu- 

 lating for thirty years in the cellars of the India 

 House." These, in addition to the large collections of 

 Sir Joseph Hooker himself, of Mr. C. B. Clarke, and 

 others, supplied the material for the, Flora of Britisln 

 India, commenced in 1875 by Sir Joseph Hooker, aide! 

 by a staff of botanists, and completed in 1897. India 

 was then supplied with a systematic record, not 

 merely of its indigenous plants as far as ascer- 

 tained, but of the botanical literature relating to them. 

 In 1874 Sir Dietrich Brandis had also prepared at Ke-^ 

 his Indian Forest Flora, which gives an admirabl.> 

 survey for the use of Indian forest officers of its lig- 

 neous plants. 



In 1873 Dr. Watt, since 1887 Reporter on Economic 

 Products to the Government of India, was selected by 

 Kew for service in India. His great Dictionary of 

 Indian Economic Products, in nine volumes (1889-96) 

 was largely inspired by Kew, and sweeps up all the 



