304 



SIR CHARLES BRUCE^ G.C.M.G., ON 



province, and all the members of the staff of the Botanic 

 Department. Local societies were formed by voluntary action 

 in every part of the island, and were affiliated to the Central 

 Board of Agriculture. They receive all the publications of the 

 Society, and every information that can be of use to cultivators 

 is sent out in thousands of leaflets in Sinhalese and Tamil to 

 the local societies. Every member pays a subscription, and 

 the feeling of self-respect is preserved. Instructors are 

 appointed by the Central Board, who, on invitation, are 

 prepared to attend any meeting of local societies, and give 

 practical instruction upon any matter under consideration ; and 

 the staff of the Botanic Department, who from the first have 

 placed their services unreservedly at the disposal of the Society, 

 answer readily any questions submitted to them, and of them- 

 selves issue valuable advice that strikes the director, the 

 chemist, the mycologist, or the entomologist as being of service 

 on the general question, or in the event of the occurrence of a 

 pest or disease. The result has been quite equal to my 

 •expectations. I will not say beyond them, for my experience 

 has shown me that if the people believe that there is a hond 

 fide anxiety to assist them they will respond. In May, 1907, 

 the latest date for which 1 have statistics, there w^ere 1,200 

 members of the Central Society, and fifty-two local branches 

 had been established with an aggregate membership of 4,000. 

 Numbers of native gentlemen came forward, some giving con- 

 siderable sums, others sufficient areas of land for experimental 

 stations." 



In estimating the value of the institutions organised since 

 the foundation of the Imperial department of Agriculture for 

 the West Indies, it must not be overlooked that they are the 

 result of the indefatigable labours of Kew, where with a brief 

 intermission, four men. Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Wilham Hooker, 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, have for 

 nearly a century in face of formidable obstacles urged the 

 organisation of local agricultural and forest departments as 

 -corollaries of Kew. 



The Imperial Institute. 



It was not till 1893 that Kew found a co-operative agency 

 to follow up the commercial results of activity in the tropics. 

 In that year the Imperial Institute was opened as a memorial 

 to commemorate the fiftieth year of the reign of Queen 

 Yictoria. The functions of the Institute as a central department 



