80 
DX.—BOTANICAL ENTERPRISE IN EAST AFRICA. 
As pointed out in = Kew Bulletin for 1893,. p. 363, numerous 
notices have appeared in these pages recording the attempts made b 
means of the Botanic Station system to develop the material progress of 
the West African colon 
So far, however, it Ys not been em applied to the British 
possessions on the East Coast. ‘The transmission of tropical plants 
suitable for cultivation in ites territories is not unattended with difficulty, 
M to intending planters both in British East and in British Central 
Afric 
As dud, the i territory, ee Alexander Whyte, acting under 
the instructions of Sir Henry Johnston, K.C.B., H.M. Commissioner and 
is, however, some 400 miles from the coast, and plants transmitted 
from England can only reach it by the Zambezi. There is ever 
reason, however, to believe that the Shiré Highlands will become the 
seat of an important planting industry. Coffee was introduced as long 
ago as 1878. It has been cultivated with great success by the Messrs. 
Buchanaty and 30 estates “have been opened up.” Shiré Highland 
coffee commands a high price on the London market. 
The first attempt to establish a depót on the East Coast + was due to 
private initiative. 
As stated in the Kew Bulletin, 1892, p. 87, *during the time 
Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., was Agent and Consul-General at 
Zanzibar, he maintained at his own expense an experimental garden in 
which he tried every useful tropieal plant likely to be adapted to the 
climate. These were for the most part supplied from Kew 
Apart from this he took, from his first residence in the country, an 
enthusiastie interest in the botany of Tropical East Africa, and his 
collections of specimens of its little-known vegetation are amongst the 
most important available for the “ Flora of Tropical Africa" in 
preparation at Kew. 
He was not less interested in promoting industries that have since 
proved of the utmost value both to the natives and to Europeans in that 
part of the world. 
The utility of work of this kind fortunately does not cease with the 
removal of the hand that carried it on. The benefits that are still 
following passage in Mr. Alexander Whyte’s Report on Botanical Wor 
in British Central Africa, lately published by the Foreign Office, and 
already cited in the Kew Bulletin (1895, p. 187). 
* During the short stay of. Mr. J ohnston's EA at Zanzibar iu 
as Liberian pu Cialis, cassias, deri anonas, pakoili, mango, 
ere s Acre plants, pineapple shoots, &c., and. nearly all of 
ow doing well at Zomba. I also brought with mea supply 
of "ipee cacao € from the same garden or ' plantation, which plant w 
