9 



five millions of these trees growing in India. In the 

 same way Ipecacuanha was saved from perishing by 

 finding a new home for it in Singapore. 



The coffee plant in India suffered from the fun- 

 gold pest, and in the West Indies from the voluta fly. 

 It was found by experiments at Kew that it could 

 be grown in Liberia, free from those pests, and the 

 Liberian coffee is now a prominent article of com- 

 merce. 



It would take more time than the brief space of 

 my remarks will admit to show what has been ac- 

 complished in Kew and other great establishments 

 of the kind in studying the causes injurious to vege- 

 tation and the way to avert them ; of the atmospheric 

 conditions essential to the growth of plants, and 

 where those conditions can be found in different 

 parts of the globe, and of the experiments that have 

 been carried on, and the successful and important 

 results that have followed. What I have said, I 

 think, will suffice to show the scientific value and 

 utility of a botanic garden of the kind I have stated, 

 particularly in this, the largest city of the Union. 



I will now say a few words respecting its value as 

 a place of public recreation for the numerous class 

 here that live by their daily labor, a class whose 

 opportunities for enjoyment are very limited, hav- 

 ing, as I have said, little leisure, and little means 

 beyond what is necessary for their support. They 

 constitute the greater part of the community, and 

 whose contentment with their lot is of the highest 



