64 
Nell’ultima parte della communicazione |’Autore si intrat- 
tiene appunto a parlare della storia dell’organizzazione degli 
Istituti scientifici metropolitani, che si occupano di agricoltura 
coloniale. Tra questi l’Istituto Botanico e Museo Coloniale 
di Roma, importante soprattutto per le collezioni della flora 
eritrea, il R. Giardino Coloniale di Palermo colle sue magni- 
fiche colture di piante tropicali in pien’aria e l’Istituto Agricolo 
Coloniale Italiano di Firenze, di cui l’Autore é il direttore 
fondatore, e che rappresenta il massimo centro di studi 
coloniali in Italia. 
[ TRANSLATION. ] 
THE STUDY OF COLONIAL AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 
The writer refers to the ever-increasing interest of Italian 
students in the problems of colonial agriculture, which kept 
pace with the expansion of Italy abroad, not only by the occu- 
pation of colonies under direct dominion in Africa, but also 
by the increase of agrarian emigration to oversea countries. 
In this communication are discussed the principles on which 
the Experimental Agricultural Departments in Eritrea, Somali- 
land, and Tripoli have been founded; a survey is given of the 
principal scientific commissions which have visited the Italian 
possessions with a view to gaining a knowledge of the re- 
sources and physical characteristics of these possessions, and 
to initiating researches in order to establish the possibility of a 
suitable colonization of the land. In this manner the agricul- 
tural, zootechnical, and forestry problems, as well as those 
relating to the great factors of agrarian production in Italian 
colonies, are now on the way to being solved. In the mother 
country the Colonial Agricultural Institutes have been devoting 
themselves, for some years, to the scientific study of the 
material sent home, by the Colonial Governments and the 
Colonies, to the students charged with this work. 
In the latter part of his communication the writer deals 
especially with the history of the organization of those scientific 
institutions at home which occupy themselves with colonial 
agriculture. Amongst these institutions are the Botanical 
Institute and Colonial Museum of Rome, which is of particular 
importance by reason of its collections of the flora of Eritrea; 
the Royal Colonial Garden of Palermo with its magnificent 
cultivation of tropical plants in the open; and the Italian 
Colonial Agricultural Institute of Florence, of which the writer 
is the founder and director, and which represents the largest 
centre for colonial studies in Italy. 
