' 313 
* would effect the d result, but it. would, Tapprehend, be against the 
“ spirit of the Customs Union Convention.” The Administrator, ir 
Sidney Vite fly ` renlises ‘the situation, but is unable at present to 
suggest a medy. *In of the conditions of the Customs Union,” 
ays, * an export dut by o wood could not be imposed in this territory 
4 MARI the ex press consent vi the Cape Colony and of the ee Free 
“ State. A preventive might at one time have been foun nd in Mr. A. H. F. 
* Dunean’s suggestion as er establishing a forest department ‘under 
* the Surveyor-General; but since some the finest fords in- the 
that “at Kuruman 32,183 morgen have been surveyed, and set apart as 
a Crown Reserve.” It is desirable in every way that this latter policy 
should be extended as much as possible. 
The Right Hon. zr John Lubbock has published a work in two 
n Pa 
“The germination of plants is certainly not the least interesting 
* portion of their life history, but it has not as yet attracted the 
* gitention it deserves he forms of cotyledons, and the fact that 
“ they differ so much from the subsequent leaves, had of course been 
“alluded to, more or less fully, i in botanical works, but no explanation 
** had been offered, and Klebs, in a Dg memoir, expressly states that 
* the problem is still an pem er these circumstances it seemed 
* to me that the subject was very pr dubito and it was evident that 
* Kew would afford unrivalled Hor oem for such an investigation." 
The work describes on a uniform plan a vast number of examples of 
germination drawn from all parts of tbe Vegetable page Toth and far 
surpasses in extent any previous investigation of the subject. The 
living material was almost wholly supplied by the Propet 
Department of the Royal Gardens. 
Corrvs TUBEROSUS, Benth. — A plant believed to be this species 
(=Plectranthus tuberosus, 5/7.) is cultivated in Java for the sake of its 
edible tubers. The same, or a closely allied tuberous labiate (Coleus 
parviflorus, Benth.), is said to be cultivated also in Ceylon. Recently, 
Saber of the Java plant were obtained from Dr. Treub, Director of the 
Botanical Gardens, Buitenzorg, and grown at Kew. The tubers were 
T , 
but small. They consisted of fleshy bodies broad at the top and 
` narrowing gradually toa point. They were of a light brown colour, and 
veraging in size about an inch and a half long and an inch in 
iameter. It is probable that the tubers attain a larger size in the 
tropics. A Polen trial will be made next year, and in a more sandy 
‘soil. When a sufficient number of the tubers has been raised at Kew 
they will be diatuibotad for trial in the lowlands of West Africa and the 
West Indies, where the ordinary potato, for which the Coleus tubers are 
t S 
labiate (.Plectranthus madagascariensis, Benth. ), deseribed in Baker's 
