MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



79 



hive sanctioned the publication of a monthly bulletin, 

 which can be purchased for a small sum." 



Publication Tvas originally intended to be "occasional." 

 It has not been found practically possible to keep up an 

 absolutely regular monthly issue. This, however, has 

 been approached as nearly as circumstances would allow. 



Tlie original intention was to confine the Bulletin to 

 colonial and commercial information. The suggestion of 

 a larger scope having been raised in Parliament, espe- 

 cially with regard to reports on expeditions, the materials 

 collected by which had been entrusted to Kew, to notices 

 of interesting plants or objects received and the important 

 plants sent out, Mr. Phinket further decided that the 

 " Bulletin . . . should be made the vehicle of all 

 prijited matter suitable for its pages, which it is desirable 

 to issue from" Kew. As a sequel the BvUctin became, 

 what it remains, a continuous record of Kew work in all 

 its various aspects. 



BoTAiac Stations. 



The establishment and development of the institutions 

 known as Botanic Stations belongs almost entirely to the 

 period under review. These stations were first suggested 

 in 1885 to meet the special requirements of the smallei 

 islands in the West Lidies {E.B., 1887, June, pp. 1-12) 

 where "' a great want was felt for reliable information on 

 the culture of new economic plants and plain practical hints 

 as to the best means to be employed for rendering them 

 of the great'est value " (p. 7). This information was in- 

 tended to be supplied by a regular system of bulletins 

 supplemented by the maintenance of stations with 

 nurseries attached for supplying seeds and plants. The 

 officers iu charge of the stations were men selected mostly 

 from Kew, with sound knc«vledge of gardening and 

 capable of showing experimentally the conditions under 

 which tropical economic plants might best be utilised as 

 objects of remunerative industry. 



The scheme met with the approval of the late Earl of 

 Derby, and has been supported by successive Secretaries 

 of State. 



The details of its Morking have devolved largely on 

 Kew, which had been continuously'drawn upon for men, 

 plants, advice, and information. 



The first Botanic Stations were started at Grenada an. I 

 Barbados, in 1886. Tliese were soon followed by similar 

 stations at St. Lucia (1889), Dominica, and other islands 

 in the Leeward Group (1889), St. Alncent (1890), and 

 afterwards at British Honduras (1894). There are now 

 nine stations in all in the West Indies. 



The Grenada station was established on a spot just 

 outside the town of St. George, described by the Governor 

 as a " good site, well watered, accessible, and apparently 

 suitable in every way." The first grant was £300, with 

 a further sum of £1,000 towards establishing and laying 

 out the garden and providing a house for the curator. The 

 objects of this garden were stated as follows : " To intro- 

 duce and distribute plants of great economic value, to 

 supply practical hints respecting new and promising in- 

 dustries, and to develop and improve existing minor in- 

 dustries" {E.B., 1887, June, p. 12). An account of the 

 interesting station at St. Yincent, established on the site 

 of the old botanic garden that existed from 1765 to 1823, 

 was given, with a drawing of the curator's house {K.B., 

 1892, p. 92). Several references are made to the excel- 

 lent work done at the Botanic Garden at Dominica, which 

 promises to be one of the most attractive and useful in the 

 West Indies {K.B., 1893, p. 148). 



Following the example of the West Indies, there have 

 been established five Botanic Stations on tlie West Coast 

 of Africa. The earliest was started at Lagos by Sir Alfred 

 Moloney in 1888 ; the next at Aburi on the Gold Coast. 

 in which Sir W. Brandford Griffith took a deep personal 

 interest, in 1890. Since then stations have been estab- 

 lished both at Gambia (1894), in the Xiger Coast Pro- 

 tectorate (1891), and at Sierra Leone (1895). A further 

 station has been established in Fiji by the efforts of Sir 

 John Thurston (1889). The results attained by these 

 Botanic Stations have been so promising that a stroncf 

 wish has been expressed by the local authorities to obtain 

 similar institutions at Bermuda, Bahamas, and Seychelles. 



Feitit Teade. 



One of the most interesting developments in Colonial 

 enterprise in recent years has been the increasing trade 

 in fruit. Jamaica led the way, largely owing to the en- 

 couragement of the late Sir Anthony Musgrave. bv 

 supplying the United States wi^h bananas and oranges 



that hitherto had had no local commercial value. The 

 Jamaica fruit trade is now of the annual value of more 

 than half a million sterling, and employs a con.siderable 

 number of vessels whollv engaged in it. The trade in 

 fruit between the Southern Colonies of the Old World (tho 

 Cape and Australia) and the mother country is another ^^ ^, 

 instance of commercial activity in a new direction. It is - '_ 

 not yet ten years old, but the value of the fiuit annually 

 imported is very considerable. The first steps in this 

 direction were undertaken on the suggestion of Kew, 

 and led to the excellent display of fruit made at the 

 Colonial and Indian Exhibition" in 1886. This showed 

 su strikingly the capabilities of the Australian Colonies 

 and the Cape to ship fresh fruit to this country during the 

 winter months that considerable etfort was made to 

 establish what is now regarded as an important trade. 



In the Bulletin for the years 1887 and 1888 will be 

 found a summary of information not accessible in any 

 other form in regard to the capabilities of various parts of 

 the Empire for the production of fruit. This was brought 

 together through the aid of reports obtained by the Secre-- 

 taiy of State for the Colonies, and is stiU the mosti-, 

 authoritative source of information on the subject. The-, 

 etforts now being made to ship various tropical fruits from 

 the West Indies direct to this country is another direction 

 in which great results may ultimately be attained. The 

 popular taste for the consumption of bananas is in-* 

 creasing. It has been shown that many of such fruits 

 can be brought to the home country in a fresh condition 

 and find a ready market. 



Information is also given respecting certain kuids that 

 have r)eeii introduced with the aid of Kew from the West 

 to the East Indies {K.B., 1887, Augusi, p. 1). Among 

 these the Tree Tomato, the Chocho, and the Cherimoyer 

 have proved useful additions to the fo.'l supply of hill 

 stations in India and Ceylon. On the ^..b'T hand, new 

 varieties of bananas and mangoes, the Durian and the 

 Mangosteen, have been transferred from the East to the 

 West Indies. 



Decades Kewknses. 



Under the title of "Decades Kewenses " uescriptions of 

 plants new to science have reached the .thirtieth decade. 

 These are based on specimens contributed from every 

 region on the earth's surface from the extreme heights 

 of Tibet to the shores of the remotest islet in the Pacific 

 Ocean. Further, owing to the increased impulse to ex- 

 ploration and commercial enterprise in Tropical Africa, it 

 was thought desirable to publish at once, but in a separate 

 series, orief diagnoses of new species. This has been 

 done in the " Diagnoses Africanse " (1894 to 1895). 



Floeas. 



Besides these the vegetation of special regions inves- 

 tigated at Kew as the result of collections communi- 

 cated by expeditions and travellers, appear under 

 numerous headings as the Flora of the Solomon Islands 

 {E.B., 1894, p. 211; 1895, pp. 132, 159; of Aldabra 

 Islands {K.B., 1894, p. 146); of Formosa {K.B., 1896, 

 p. 65) ; of St. Vincent and adjacent islets (K.B., 1893, 

 p. 231) ; of the Gambia Delimitation Commission (K.B., 

 1891, p. 268 ; 1892, p. 45) ; of the Sikkim-Tibet frontier 

 (1893, p. 297); of Tibet {K.B., 1894, p. 136); of the 

 Hadramaut Expedition {K.B., 1894, p. 328; 1895, p. 

 315 ; Siam plants {K.B., p. 1895, p. 38). Amongst in- 

 vestigations of the economic products of various regions 

 are articles on the Agricultural Industries of the Gambia 

 (K.B., 1889, p. 242); Economic plants of Madagascar 

 (K.B., 1890, p. 200) ; Agricultural resources of Zanzibar 

 (E.B., 1892, p. 87) ; Economic plants of Sierra Leone 

 (K.B., 1893. p. 167); and Plant industries of Lagos 

 {K.B., 1893, p. 180). 



Oechids. 

 The cultivation of orchids is one of the most promi- 

 nent features of English horticulture. Every part of 

 the world is ransacked for them by collectors. Of no 

 family of plants have more species been got together in 

 a living state, and in no country are a greater number 

 maintained under cultural conditions than in En<^land 

 During his lifetime, the late Dr. Eeichenbach, Professor 

 of Botany at Hamburg, was the acknowledged authority 

 for their nomenclature. On his death in 1889 vigoroua 

 public pressure was brought to bear on Kew to take up 

 his work. This was done, though not without difficulty 

 m addition to its other duties, and in 1891 the publica- 

 tion of technical- descriptions of new species was com- 

 menced. Twenty decades of " new orchids " have been 

 published in the Bulletin. 



S!ir W. T. 



Th iselton- 



iJyer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.R.S. 



1900. 



