226 
raised in Parliament, especially with regard to reports on expeditions, 
the materials collected i which had been entrusted to Kew , to notices 
sd Ed plants or objects received and the important plants sent. 
; Mr. Plunket further decided that the “ Bulletin should 
made the vehicle of all printed matter suitable for its pages, w which 
it is desirable to issue from” Kew. Asa sequel the Bulletin became, 
what it remains, a visas record of Kew work in all its various. 
aspects. 
Boranic STATIONS. 
The establishment and development of the institutions known as. 
Botanic Stations Doonan almost entirely to the period under review. 
These stations were first suggested in 1885 to meet the special require- 
ments of the smaller islands in the West Indies ( K.B., 1887, June 1-12) 
where “a great want was felt for reliable information on the culture of 
new economic plants and plain practical hints as to the best means 
to be employed for rendering them of the greatest value” (p. 7). 
This information was intended to be supplied by a regular system of 
gardening and capable of showing experimentally the conditions under 
which tropical economic plants might best be utilized as objects of 
remunerative industry. 
The scheme met with th rd approva: £ we i Earl of Derby, and has 
EE ditate of fea wo. "Working have devolved Ad on Kew, which has 
been ario drawn upon for men, plants, advice, an information n. 
'The first Botanic Stations were started at Grenada and Pithados in 
x These were soon followed by similar stations at St. Lucia (1889), 
Dominica and other islands in the Leeward Group (1889), St. Vincent 
(1890), and afterwards at British ko pias (1894). There are now 
nine stations in all in the West Indi 
The Grenada station was established on a spot just outside the town 
of St. George, described by the Governor asa “ good site, well watered, 
accessible, and apparently suitable in every way.” ‘The first grant was 
300/., with a further sum of 1,0007. towards establishing ena laying out 
the eim and providing a house for the curator. ' jects of this 
garden were stated as follows: **'To introduce and distribute plants of 
grent economie value, to supply practical uice reponi new and 
promising industries, and to develop and improve existing minor 
industries” (K.B., 1887, June 12). An account ‘of the catered station 
at St. Vincent, established on the site of the old botanic garden that 
existed from 1765 to 1823, was given with a drawing of the curator’s 
house (K.B., 1892, 92). Several en are made to the excellent 
work done at the Botanic Garden at Dominica, which promises to be 
one of the most attractive and useful in the West Indies (K.B., 1893, 
148). 
following the example of the West Indies, there have been estab- 
lished five Botanic Stations on the West Coast of Africa, The earliest 
. was started at Lagos by Sir Alfred Moloney in 1888 ; the next at Aburi 
on ad Saat | Coast, t which Sir W. Brandford Griffith took a deep 
. perso 1890. Since then stations have been established 
both at vatis "Gambia uie in the Niger Coast Protectorate (1891), and 
. At Sierra Leone (1895). A further station has been established in Fiji 
* Dy the torts of Sir John Tomt (1889). The results attained by 
