209 
plants catalogued, foreign ones introduced, the best selected, gos acre 
woods adopted to in diee d way neues and assist the colon 
EE 
first-class establishment, where plants are cultivated whose products can 
be used in the industries, such as rubber and camphor trees, gum pestes 
&e. ese are introduced into the neighbouring Dutch colonies. 
Laboratories have been established, pamphlets are published, and photo- 
graphs = ed to advertise the useful plants of the colonies ‘and their 
ets 
= The English have accomplished still more. The large botanical 
garden at Kew, known all over the world, is in correspondence with eighty 
similar establishments in English possessions—India, Guiana, Canada, 
Ceylon, &e. From each Kew receives plants, seeds, &e., which are cul- 
tivated with great care, not only in samples, but in sufficient number to 
e sent later to other colonies. The Germans, at Berlin, and the 
Belgians at Jembloux, have similar institutions. 
“ There is nothing more difficult then to transport plants, and, on the. 
other hand, nothing more useful. The majority of industrial Ls 
i S > ‘ 
coffee cultivated only in its cradle, Arabia? Has not the cacao 
first found in hon been carried to Java, and the vanilla plant, of the 
same place, to Réunion. The advantage of transporting jute, now the 
monopoly e ‘India, rubber, quinine, gum, and clove-producing trees, as 
well as ornamental plants, to climates where the conditions would be 
favourable, i is obvious. It will be found, however, that very few seeds 
retain their eee qua ye enough to permit a c e 0 
loeality, espeeially when the voyage is of some duration, for instance, 
from Indo-China to the Antilles or the Congo. The plants themselves 
are too delicate to be transported. A bot anical garden that can receive 
them and allow them to recuperate, as it were, from the voyage, before 
continuing to their destination, i is indispensable to scientific nodes: 
development of the colonies. 
Fodder Plants in British Guiana.—In the Dee for the ei 
1895-6 by the Superintendent of the Botanie Gard t Georgeto 
British Guiana, attention is drawn to the un suitability: of Alfalfa, die" 
Spanish name of the plant known in this count ey as Lucerne (.Medicago 
poema for cultivation in tropical countries. e experiment in 
son) in other parts of the tropies. On the other hand interesting 
partieulars are given of isse that have Boch entirely satisfactory. 
These are described as follow 
ot of Bahama grass (6 edis Dactylon; Pers.) taken from one 
of the huh that had | never been manured, in 12 mowings in the year 
gave ar aggregate of 22 on an acre. 
Para grass (Panicum muticum, Forsk., P. barbinode, Trin.) that had 
been reaped on the same ground for several years in succession, without 
manure, ploughing, or replanting, i in five mowings in the year gave 
41} tons per acre. 
