THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June 1, 1900 
or algal origin. Some of the results of Dr. Cunning- 
ham's labours were published in the ' TransactioDa ' 
of the Linneau Society, and in a .series entitled the 
'Scientific Memoirs, by Medical Officers of the Indian 
Army.' To the 'Annals of the Botanic Garden, 
Calcutta,' Dr. Cunningham also contributed elaborate 
memoirs on the phenomena of Nyctitropism, and on 
the mode of fertilisation in an Indian species of 
Ficus {i . L'oxhurrjhii). There is no doubt that in 
the past Cryptogamic Botany has not been studied 
in India as it ought to have been and might have 
been. This discredit will, I hope, be soon removed; 
and I trust that, by the time the twentieth century 
opens, a Cryptogamist may have been appointed to 
the staff of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. The col- 
lecting of Cryptogams was not, however, altogether 
neglected in India in time past. For, from materials 
sent to England, Mitten was able to elaborate a Moss 
Flora of India, while Berkeley and Browne were en- 
abled to prepare their account of the Buiuji of Ceylon, 
Dr. George Wallich, in whom the Botanical genius 
of his father burnt with a clear though iiickeriug 
flame, did some excellent work amongst Desmids, and 
was among the earliest of deep-sea dredgers. 
Economic Botany has, on the other hand, by no 
means been neglected. It was chiefly on economic 
grounds that the establishment of a Botanic Garden 
at Calcutta was pressed upon the Court of Directors 
of the East India Company. And almost every one 
of the workers whose labours I have alluded to, has 
incidentally devoted some attention to the economic 
aspect of Botany. Roxburgh's 'Flora Indica ' con- 
tains all that was known up to his day of the uses 
of the plants described in it. Bluch of Wight's 
time was spent in improving the races of cotton grown 
in India. The Botanists of the Seharunpore Garden 
during the middle of the century were especially pro- 
minent in the branch of Botanical activity, iioyle 
wrote largely on cotton and on other fibres, on drugs, 
and on various vegetable products used, or likely to 
be of use, in the arts. These Botanists introduced 
into the Himalayas more than fifty years ago the 
best European fruits. From gardens which owe their 
origin to lioyle, Falconer, and Jameson, excellent 
apples grown in Gharwal and Kamaon are to day 
purchasable in Calcutta. Peaches, nectarines, grapes, 
strawberries, of European origin, are plentiful and 
cheap all over the North-West Himalaya, and are 
obtainable also in the submontane districts. Potatoes, 
and all the best European vegetables, were intro- 
duced long age ; and at Seharunpore there is still 
kept up a large vegetable garden from which seeds 
of most European vegetables are issued for cultiva- 
tion during the cold season in the gardens of the 
various regiments of the Queen's troops quartered in 
Upper India. More or less attention has been given 
in the past by GovernmentBotanists in India generally 
to the improvement of the cultivation of flax, hemp, 
rhea, tobacco, henbane, dandelion, vanilla, sarsa- 
parilla, coffee (Arabian and Liberian), cocoa, ipeca- 
cuanha, aloes, Jalap, indiarubber, Japanese paper-mul- 
berry, cardamoms, tapioca, coca, tea, and cinchona. 
Only to three economic enterprises, however, have I 
time to allude in any detail. These are (1) the 
cultivation of tea, 12) the introduction of cinchona, 
and (3) the formation of the Forest Department. 
But before proceeding to the consideration of these 
I wish to give a short account of the inauguration 
of the office of Reporter on Economic Products. Up 
to the year 1883 there had been no special Govern- 
ment department in India for dealing with questions 
connected with the natural products of the Empire. 
"Whatever has been done prior to that date f and the 
amount was by no means unimportant) was the re- 
Bult of isolated and uncoordinated effort. In 1883 the 
Government of India founded a department for dealing 
with the Economic Products of the Indian Empire, 
and under the title of Reporter on these products 
they were fortunate enough to secure Dr. George 
Watt, a member of the Bengal Educational Service. 
Dr. Watt iB an accomplished and able Botanist. He 
has collected Indian plants largely, and has made 
numerous notes both in the field and in the bazaar. 
The great work which, on the initiative of Sir Ed- 
ward Buck, Secretary to the Department of Revenue 
and Agriculture, and of Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, of 
Kew, Dr. A'att began and carried to a successfnl 
leunination was the compilation of his ' Dictionary 
of Economic Products,' in which valuable book is 
collected all that is known of almost every Indian 
product, whether vegetable, animal, or mineral. The 
study of Economic Botany is now pursued in India 
as part of a highly specialised system of inquiry 
and experiment. Dr. Watt has a competent staff 
under him in Calcutta, one of whom is Mr. D. Hooper 
well known for his original resea)ches into the pro-' 
perties of various Indian drut,s Dr. Watt has ar- 
ranged in Calcutta a magnificent museum of econo- 
mic products, and there is no doubt the economic 
resources of the empire are now being studied with 
as much energy as intelligence. 
Tea cultivation is one of the enterprises in the 
introduction and development of which Botanists took 
a very leading part. The advisability of introducing 
the industry was first pressed on the attention of 
the Bast India Company by Dr. Govan (of Saharun- 
pore), and in this he was seconded bv Sir Joseph 
Banks as President of the Royal Society. Royle in 
1827, and Falconer slightly later, again "urged it as 
regards the North-West Himalaya. In 1626 David 
Scott demonstrated to rather unwilling eyes in Calcutta 
the fact that real tea grows v.ild in Assam. In 1835 
Wallich, Griffith, and McClelland were deputed by 
Government to visit Assam, to report on the indi- 
genous tea. In the year 1838 the first consignment 
of Indian-grown tea was offered for sale in London. 
The consignment consisted cf twelve chests containing 
20 lb. each. This first sample of 210 lb. was favourably 
reported upon. I.ast year th.- exports of tea from 
India to all countries reached I'll njillions of pounds 
besides 120 millions of pounds exported from Ceylon ' 
The introduction of cinchona into India originated 
purely with the Government Botanists. As everybody 
knows quinine, and to a le'is extent the other alka- 
loids present in cinchona baik. are practically the only 
remedies for the commonest, and in some if its forms 
one of the most fatal, of all Indian diseases, viz. 
malarious fercr. The sources of supply of the cinchona 
barks in their native countries in South America 
were known to be gradually failing, and the price 
of quinine had for long been increasing. The advis- 
ability of growing cinchona in the mountains of 
British India was therefore passed ^ipon Government 
by Dr. Boyle in 1835. and he repeated his sugges- 
tion in 18-17, 1853, and 185G. DrI Falconer, in^his 
capacity of Superintendent of the Botanic 'Garden 
Calcutta, made a similar suggestion in 1852 : and his 
successors at Calcutta, Dr. T. Thomson and Dr. T, 
Anderson, in turn advocated the proposal. In 1858 
Government at last took action, and, as the result 
of the labours of Sir Clements Markham and ' Sir 
W. J. Hooker, of Kew, the medicinal cinchonas were 
finally, in the period between 18G1 and 186.5, suc- 
cessfully introduced into British India - on the Nilgris 
under Mr. Mclvor, and on the Sikkim Himalaya under 
Dr. T. Anderson. Various experiments on the bpst 
mode of utilising the alkaloids contained in red 
cinchona bark resulted in the production in 1870 
by Mr. Broughtou, Quinologist on the Nilgiri plan- 
tation, of an amorphous preparation containing all 
the alkaloids of that bark. This preparation was 
named Amorphous Quirdne. Somewhat later (1875) a 
similar preparation, under the name of Cinchona 
Febrifuge, was produced at the Sikkim plantation by 
Mr. C. H. Wood, the Quinologist there; and of these 
drugs about fifty-one tons had been distributed 
from the Sikkim plHntntion up to the end of last 
year. The preparation of pure quinine from the 
yellow cinchona brrks, so successlully grown in the 
Sikkim plantation, long remained a serious problem. 
The manufacture of quinine had hitherto been practi- 
cally a trade secret. And when the Indian Govern- 
ment had succeeded in providing the raw motcrial 
from which a cheap quinine might be made for dia- 
