NOTES ON ECONOMIC PLANTS, 



STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 



To his Annual Report on the Forest Department for 

 1886, Mr. CANTLEY, Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, 

 Singapore, has added some notes on Economic Plants — notes 

 to which it seems desirable to give wider publicity than can 

 be obtained by incorporation in a volume of tl Proceedings of 

 the Legislative Council."" They are, therefore, reprinted 

 here. 



The introduction of trees and plants into countries in which 

 they are not indigenous often involves, if the acclimatisation 

 is successful, a growth of nomenclature which creates puzzles 

 for future philologists. " Tobacco " and " ananas " have 

 gradually been adopted, in varying forms, by all the languages 

 of the East, but what are we to say of " jamrose" the name 

 given in Mauritius to one of the jambu family, perhaps the 

 rose-apple (jambosa vulgaris), which seems to be an odd 

 mixture of the Malay and English words? 



In Penang, where the cho-cho (sechium edule ) is called 

 " the Bainie fruit," a name has been established which will 

 perhaps find a place some day in dictionaries and glossaries. 

 The vegetable in question was first grown at Bellevue on 

 Penang Hill in 1865 by the Recorder, Sir BENSON Maxwell, 

 to whom one ripe specimen was presented by Mr. ROBERT 

 BAIN_, a merchant in the island. The name of the new pro- 

 duct was not known, and it was christened by the children of 

 the family after the donor. The plant has grown freely on 

 Penang Hill ever since, and is known both to Europeans and 

 natives in Penang by the name invented in the nursery of 

 the Recorder's family. 



What is now being done by a Government Department in 



