17 
Tenens ance it would have been easy to have satisfied him on that 
point. But as his view of the case has been communicated to the 
D 'iblie prints, and practically amounts to a charge of bad faith against 
a member of the Kew staff, it seems desirable to record Mr. Harrison's 
claims along with the other facts of an interesting history. 
A very few points in his letter to the * Manchester Examiner " seem 
to require a Mis. of comment. 
i. Mr. Harrison complains of the views expressed by Mr. Morris in 
official communications to the Colonial Office on the quud subject of the 
improvement i in the cag It is only fair to say that these letters 
were written in my name and under ir Am eee and that I am 
officially cose for the views they ex 
ii. Mr. Harrison complains of the putlieation of his letter of September 
17, 1888, ftot g the discovery of t minal fertility of the 
sugar-cane in the Kew Bulletin for Decent! E as he ic E it as a 
private Bren I did not do во; I regarded it as an official 
communication from a Government official on a matter of very great 
importance, which had for some time engaged our attention, and I 
directed its publication. 
iii. The accusation that Mr. Morris or any member of the Kew staff 
* tacitly allowed the credit belonging to an investigation which he 
* neither iei eda norin any way assisted in, to be ‘entirely ascribed 
“ to himself” seems to me hi ei in the face of == publication of 
Mr. Harrison’s poem of his own results in these pages. The 
newspaper press of the United Кабы is large, and no one can be held 
responsible for what is stated in it by unauthorised persons. Nothi ing 
whatever was known at Kew of the article in the “ Manchester Exa- 
miner " nor down to s day do we possess a copy of it 
iv. What Mr. Morris, and for that matter Kew, -— — in investi- 
gating the matter, is quite correctly stated by Mr. Harr 
A copy of Dr. Benecke's pamphlet did not reach e" till August. 
13, 1890. The history of Soltwedel’s work is, however, given in such 
a convenient form in a letter from Mr. H. Winter, the former director of 
the Samarang Experimental Station, to Mr. George Stade of Berlin, 
published in the extremely useful journal, the “Sugar Cane,” for De- | 
cember last, that I do not hesitate to reproduce it. Mr. Winter was 
“ on the spot during most of the time when the experiments were being. 
made by Dr. Soltwedel.” 
Н. WiwTER, Esq. to С. Ѕтлре, Esq. 
Dear Sir, Berlin. 
zoo have asked me, with reference to the statements i n the 
longer able to speak for ‘himself.* 
Mr. Morris’s supposition, that “the publication of the Java experi- 
* ments will probably now claim precedence over all others with whic 
* Dr. Soltwedel died December 17th, 1889, from syncope of the heart. 
U 65221, B 
