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Ipecacuanha, but the exact form of the plant under cultivation and the 

 particular district in which it is grown are not stated in text hooks, 

 Some of the Johor root was examined by Mr. F. Ransom and reported 

 to be practically as rich in alkaloid as that received from Brazil. 

 As the attempts to grow Ipecacuanha in India and elsewhere on a 

 commercial scale failed it became a point of some interest to determine 

 the particular form or variety of the plant that succeeded so well 

 in the Straits Settlements." Specimens of the plant were received 

 by Mr. Holmes from Mr. Wray and Mr. Pfenningwerth. Mr. Holmes 

 goes on to point out that two forms of the plant were known in 1871 

 when Prof. J. M. Balfour in an article read before the Botanical 

 Society of Edinburgh described them as cultivated in Edinburgh 

 Botanic Gardens. One, originally sent hy Mr. Mackay of Liege 

 to Sir W. Hooker, had a shrubby stem, firm leaves not undulate 

 at the edge, with a short style. The other sent from Rio de Janeiro, 

 was herbaceous, with thinner leaves undulated and fringed with hairs. 

 The flowers were not seen but were probably long styled. The Selangor 

 plant has firm leaves, oblong lanceolate (rather than oval as in 

 Mackay 's plant) slightly scabrous, and the stamens and style equal in 

 length. This plant is therefore distinct from either of the other two. 

 The plants formerly cultivated in the Singapore gardens and obtained 

 from Kew were certainly herbaceous. Ipecacuanha seems to have 

 been first introduced to the Straits Settlements by Murton in 1875. 

 The plants were brought from Ceylon. But whether the Selangor, 

 or called as they were at first, the Johor plants, w 7 ere derived from 

 these or obtained elsewhere I cannot say. 



" Mr. Pfenningwerth states that the cultivation is very slow work. 

 The plant seems to grow well but does not produce root in abundance. 

 The first crop off fresh soil is a fairly good one but on trying to raise a 

 second, it invariably turns out very poor, although all kinds of manure 

 have been tried to enrich the land but without apparently restoring 

 to the soil the necessary ingredients for luxuriant growth." He then 

 quotes from Mr. Macnab, as to the growth of the plant. %t The stem is 

 of slow growth and although cuttings, root freely in five or six weeks 

 when inserted in white sand kept somewhat moist, very few cuttings 

 are obtainable so that propagation from sections of the rhizome even if 

 only one sixteenth of an inch thick give the best results. These can 

 be readily propagated if placed in a horizontal position over the surface 

 of a pot prepared with drainage and white sand and kept moist and placed 

 in a warm propagating bed under a hand glass. In a few weeks the 

 root cuttings begin to swell, and show signs of budding chiefly on the 

 upper edge of the cut surface. These leaf buds are first nourished by 

 the sap in the cut rhizome but as they begin to elongate some filmy 

 roots are protruded from the under surface. When this is the case 

 the root sections may be cut into as many pieces as there are buds 

 and each potted separately in open free fibrous soil with a slight mix- 

 ture of sand. In Brazil the Poayero or collector of Ipecacuanha root 

 when he pulls up the roots breaks them at certain points leaving suffi- 

 cient of the thickend rhizome to produce young plants and fills the 

 holes whence the plants have been pulled, so that in 3 or 4 years, the 

 plants may recover their growth. The plant flowers in February and 



