Botany. 511 



products of the world, as well as their movement in trade. It 

 also embodies many special articles on the history and advance- 

 ment of mineral industries, on the uses and occurrences of various 

 products, on methods of mining and smelting, and so on, many 

 of which are by specialists of the highest eminence in their 

 several branches. 



The book is of interest, not only to statisticians and those 

 engaged in mining and the related industries, but also to those 

 who desire to keep themselves informed on mining and metal- 

 lurgical topics from a scientific point of view. h. l. w. 



3. Catalogue of Minerals. George L. English. 16th edition, 

 1894, pp. 124. — This catalogue is more than an illustrated price 

 list of minerals. The classified list, with its alphabetical index, 

 constituting 78 pages, presents in classified order the names of all 

 the minerals and their varieties described in Dana's new " System 

 of Mineralogy," 1892 edition, with the chemical formula, hard- 

 ness and specific gravity of each. The catalogue will be useful 

 to all mineral collectors who wish to keep up with the progress to 

 the science. 



III. Botany. 



1. Vegetable Resources of India. — In the Kew Bulletin of Mis- 

 cellaneous Information for September, 1894, is an abstract of Dr. 

 George Watts' recent memorandum on the resources of British . 

 India. The following notes are of general interest : 



That part of British India treated of by Dr. Watt, comprises 

 about 700,000,000 acres, on which lives a population of more than 

 220,000,000. The total acreage under wheat is over 20,000,000 

 acres. "In 1891-92, under exceptional circumstances of demand 

 n Europe, Indian wheat was exported to the value of nearly 144 

 millions of rupees." 



Tea. — It is well known that the indigenous tea plant has proved 

 in India better than the acclimatized. The total acreage under 

 tea is 334,845 acres. 



The first commercial sale of Indian tea was in Calcutta more 

 than fifty years ago. The exports in 1891-92 were 120,000,000 

 lbs. In the same year Ceylon exported about 70,000,000 lbs., 

 and thus proves a formidable competitor. 



Coffee. — It is believed that coffee has been cultivated in India 

 for more than two centuries. The acreage is 125,000 acres: 



Sugar.— T)y. Watts gives an interesting account of the fluctua- 

 tions in the India sugar trade. There has been a steady decline 

 of the export trade in refined sugar since 1845. The production 

 of beet sugar in Europe has been : to close the markets which 

 formerly received the refined sugar of India, and in the second 

 place to " tbrow on the world large quantities as abnormally 

 cheap cane sugar, which sought an outlet in India." The raw 

 sugar in India, after making a correction for the foreign traffic, 

 comes to 2,600,000 tons, or, say, 28 lbs. per head of the popula- 

 tion. 



