302 
Water Lily Pond.—South of the lake in the Pinetum is a 
small pond which has long been dry. The bottom has now been 
pet with clay and made water-tight. It is supplied with 
ondensed water from the steam-engines at the waterworks. As 
the temperature of this is fairly warm it is hoped by S: means 
to be able to cultivate in the open air many tender aquatics. This 
a proved successful with the red Nymphwa Lotus, of 
India, and with Thalia dealbata and some other plants. Ii is > 
intended also to plant out the fine coloured water lilies raised by 
Mons. Latour-Marliac, which are an addition to modern open-air 
sein as notable as they are delightful. 
Tampico Jalap.—Ordinary Jalap, the * Pargo macho" of the 
Mexicans, is widely known as a medicinal substance, and the 
plant (Ipomoea Purga, Hayne), with purplish-pink flowers, is met 
with under nm not only in greenhouses in Europe, but to 
some extent as a field crop in the neighbourhood of the Cinchona 
Plantations, in de Nilgiris (Madras) and the Blue Mountains, 
amaica. Tampico Jalap, on the other hand, which has made its 
appearance in trade of recent years in considerable quantity, i8 
produced by a different plant (Ipomoea simulans, Hanbury). 
is stated to grow along the mountain ranges of the Sierra Gorda, 
in the neighbourhood of St. Luis de la Paz, from which town and 
the adjacent villages the roots are carried to Tampico, and thence 
shipped abroad. As Tampico Jalap was not represented amongst . 
the plants in the Economic Collections at Kew, an effort was made — 
to obtain a few tubers through the Foreign Office, who enlisted the a 
kind co-operation of Her Majesty’s Minister in Mexico. In 
November last, two ex of tubers were received in excellent - 
condition from Her Majesty's Consul at Vera Cruz, labelled res- E 
pectively * Tlacolulam ” = “ Tonayan,” and described as having | 
been M tained from these localities, “in the canton of Jalapa, in 
the state of Vera Cruz." The Tlacolulam tubers were distributed d E 
to the bótanical departments at Jamaica and the Nilgiris, and to — — 
the botanic gardens at Oxford, Cambr idge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, 
T 
lt was ; dt once noticed that both these tubers were not o ; 
from the locality where Tampico Jalap is collected, and now ye E 
is little doubt that they are gamer Jalap (Ipomoea Purga). This 
fact should be carefully noted by the recipients. Inthe meantime 
another effort is being es to obtain the tubers of the true. 
Tampico Jalap 
