THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept,  i,  .1896. 
156 
In  consequence  of  there  not  being  a glazed  conser- 
vatory, the  public  never  see  the  Oarden  fern  col- 
lection, which  has  to  be  kept  in  nursery  houses  near 
the  Curator’s  quarters.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
official  year  much  v.'as  done  towards  thinning  the 
large  arear^ planted  with  trees  to  tlie  south-west  of 
the  great  Banyan.  During  the  year  an  interesting 
addition  to  the  Garden  trees  was  made  in  the  shape 
of  a rooted  cutting  of  the  sacred  /Jo  tree  of  the 
temple  at  Budha  Gaya,  under  a predecessor  of  which 
Sakra  Muni,  the  founder  of  the  Buddhistic  faith, 
lived  and  taught.  This  interesting  historic  and  religious 
relic  was  presented  by  Mr.  G.  A.  Grierson,  ph.d.,  lately 
Magistrate  of  Howrah.  It  has  been  planted  on  an 
island  in  the  large  lake  ne.ar  the  big  Banyan,  from 
which,  when  it  grows  up,  it  will  be  well  seen,  and 
at  the  same  time  it  will  not  be  easily  accessible. 
2.  Economic  Pl.ynts. — At  the  request  of  the  Re- 
norter  on  Economic  Products  to  the  Government  of 
India,  patches  of  two  species  of  filida  were  cultivated 
in  the  Garden,  with  the  view  of  testing  the  value 
of  their  fibres  for  weaving  an  i cordage.  The  crops 
grown  on  these  patches  were  made  over  to  the  officer 
jnst  mentioned.  At  his  request  also  quantities  of 
young  plants  of -Id// atorfn  r«.s/ca  were  prepared  in  the 
nurseries  for  issue  to  tea-planters,  a decoction  of  the 
leaves  of  this  plant  having  a popular  reputation  as  a 
powerful  insecticide.  A few  experiments  were  made' 
in  the  nurseries  by  the  Curator,  Mr.  B.  L.  Proud- 
lock,  with  the  view  of  testing  the  meidts  of  this  decoc- 
tion. The  results,  however,  were  of  a somewhat  doubt- 
ful nature.  The  demands  for  rheea  plants  were  less 
numerous  than  in  former  years,  and  the  distribution 
during  the  year  was  proportionately  small.  Many 
hundreds  of  fruit  and  timber  trees  were  issued  to 
public  officers  in  all  parts  of  the  Province.  The 
Director  of  Laud  Records  and  Agriculture,  having 
been  for  some  time  desirous  of  obtaining  a botanical 
report  on  the  various  races  of  wheat  grown  in  Ben- 
gal, and  being  unable  to  supply  adequate  materials 
for  a study  of  the  subject,  it  was  suggested  that  a 
portion  of  the  Sibpur  Experimental  Farm  should  be 
devoted  during  the  cold  weather  of  1895-!t()  to  raising 
"wheat  from  samples  of  seed  supplied  from  the 
' Tarious  wheat-growing  districts.  This  suggestion  was 
acceded  to  by  Mr.  Maepherson,  and  Dr.  Prain  has 
daring  the  cold  season  made  observations  on  the 
samples  of  wheat  grown  in  the  plot  of  ground  thus 
placed  at  his  disposal.  His  report  on  the  races  grown, 
and  on  their  relationship  to  the  names  they  bear  in 
the  different  districts,  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
Director  of  Land  Records  and  Agricult'ure  at  an 
early  date. 
2.  Hf.ubarium. — Work  in  the  Herbarium  was 
carried  on  with  vigour;  and  during  the  year  17,403 
specimens  were  received,  while  11,093  carefulljf- 
named  specimens  of  Indian  plants  were  issued  to 
various  scientific  institutions  all  over  the  world. 
The  chief  donors  to  the  Herbarium  were  the 
. Director  of  the  Royal  Garden,  Kew,  who  contributed 
1,974  specimens,  and  the  Keeper  of  the  Botanical 
Department  of  the  Natural  History  Museum,  London, 
who  transmitted  1,129  duplicate  specimens  not 
required  by  that  institution.  Prom  Dr.  Engler, 
Conservator  of  the  Royal  Herbarium,  Berlin,  were 
received  .'112  specimens,  and  from  the  authorities 
of  the  Botanical  Museum  of  the  University  of 
Vienna  1,000.  Dr.  Hans  Schinz,  Director  of  the 
Botanic  Garden  at  Zurich,  contributed  5.58  ; and  the 
veteran  Baron  Von  Miieller,  Government  Botanist  in 
Melbourne,  augmented  his  former  munificent  dona- 
tions by  100  specimens  during  the  past  year. 
From  American  botanists  large  contributions  were 
received  ; the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington 
having  sent  1,134  specimens,  while  Messrs.  Pringle 
contributed  431  Mexican  specimens,  Mr.  Heller 
344,  and  Mr.  Nash  (of  Columbia  College,  New 
York)  703  specimens.  The  Government  of  the 
Straits  Settlements  contributed  850  specimens, 
collected  chiefly  in  Malacca  : and  Mr.  B.  H.  Man, 
to  whom  for  many  previous  years  the  Aerbarium 
has  been  greatly  beholden,  sent  257  from  the 
Andaman  Islands.  Among  officers  of  the  Indian 
Forest  Department  who  made  presentations,  there 
lia,ve  to  be  mentioned  Mr.  J.  Syko^  G-vmble, 
an  old  and  valued  contributor,  who  last  year  sent 
-15(i  9]iecimens  from  Debra  Dun;  Mr.  W.  A.  Talbot, 
who  sent  29  from  Canara  ; Mr.  R.  L.  Heinig,  who 
sent  8 from  the  Sundarbans  ; and  Mr.  J.  II.  Lace, 
who  sent  bsO  from  the  extreme  North-West  Him  i- 
laya.  hroni  Mr.  .1.  A.  Gammie,  of  the  Government 
Cinchona  Plantation,  172  specimens  were  received; 
while  his  son,  Mr.  G.  A.  Gammie,  having  made  a 
tour  in  the  Sundarbans  with  the  Forest  Officer  of 
that  Division,  brought  back  509  specimens  jointly 
collected  by  Mr.  Heinig  and  himself.  To  the  Direc- 
tor of  the  Botanical  Survey  of  Northern  India  (Mr. 
.1,  F.  Dulhie)  the  Herbarium  is  indebted  for  669 
specimens  contributed  during  the  year  ; while  the 
late  Mr.  M.  A.  Lawson,  Director  of  the  Botanical 
Survey  of  Madras,  sent  300  species  from  Tra- 
vancore ; and  Mr.  Marshall  Woodrow,  Director  of 
the  Bombay  Botanical  Survey,  sent  34  species  col- 
lected in  the  Deccan.  A large  number  of  speci- 
mens numbering  3,068)  were  brought  in  by  native 
collectors  working  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  R. 
Pantliug,  of  the  Cinchona  Plantation  ; while  578  were 
got  from  Abdul  Kholil,  a native  collector  working  in 
the  Shan  Hills.  The  chief  recipients  of  the  named 
plants  issued  from  the  Herbarium  during  the  year 
were  the  Director  of  the  Herbarium  at'Kew;'the 
Keeper  of  the  Botanical  Department  at  the  British 
Museum;  the  Directors  of  the  University  Herbaria 
at  Edinburgh,  Aberdeen,  Cambridge,  Berlin,  Zurich, 
Florence,  Vienna,  Utrecht,  Leiden,  Upsala,  and  Mel- 
bourne; the  Directors  of  the  Botanic  Gardens  at 
Buiteuzorg  (in  .lava),  Singapore,  Peradeniya  (Ceylon); 
.M.  C.  Da  Candolle,  Geneva;  the  Director  of  the 
Museum  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  Paris;  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington; 
the  Directors  of  the  Botanical  Survey  of  Northern 
India  and  of  the  Government  Museum  at  Perak  of 
the  College  of  Science,  Poona,  and  of  the  Museum’  at 
Madras.  Full  lists  of  both  receipts  and  issues  will 
be  found  in  Appe'.'.dices  V and  VI  of  this  report. 
4.  IJolanical  puhlicaiions. — During  the  year  the  fiist 
part  of  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Annals  of  the  Garden 
was  published.  This  part  is  occupied  by  detailed 
descriptions  tatd  figures  of  a hundred  species  of 
new  and  little  known  Indian  orchids  by  the  illus- 
trious and  veteran  botanist.  Sir  Joseph  D.  Hooker. 
Sir  Joseph  has  been  engaged,  as  Goveruiuent  are 
aware,  for  the  past  five  and  twenty  years  on  the 
preparation  of  a IGora  of  British  Jndia.  In  the  course 
of  his  elaboration  of  the  family  of  Orchidace<r.  for  that 
monumental  work,  he  had  at  his  disposal  the  whole 
of  the  materials  of  the  Calcutta  Herbarium,  in- 
cluding the  coloured  drawings  made  by  the  Garden 
artists.  These  drawings,  which  have  been  accumu- 
lating since  nearly  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
were  found  by  Sir  Joseph  so  useful  that  he  recom- 
mended the  publication  of  a selection  of  them,  and 
generously  undertook  to  supply  the  descrip’tions 
himself.  The  result  is  his  Century  of  Indian  Orchids, 
which  forms  the  first  part  of  the  fifth  volume  of 
our  Annals.  Towards  the  end  of  the  year 
there  was  also  published  the  fii-st  part  of  the  sixth 
volume  of  these  Annuls.  This  part  is  occupied  by 
an  account  of  a very  important  research  in  vege- 
table physiology  by  Dr.  1).  D.  Cunningham,  Pro- 
fessor of  Physiology  in  the  Medical  College,  Cal- 
cutta. Dr.  Cunningham  devoted  much  of  his  leisure 
time  during  a period  of  several  years  to  making  ob- 
servations of,  and  experiments  connected  with,  the 
phenomena  popularly  known  as  slee]>  and  sensitiuiti/ 
in  plants.  The  results  of  those  reserches  go  to 
prove  that  the  great  majority,  if  not  all,  of  the 
transient  spontaneous  movements  of  the  higher 
vegetable  organisms  are  dependent  on  purely  physi- 
cal processes.  The  memoir  is  a most  exhaustive  one 
and  is  illustrated  hj  drawings  from  Dr.  Cunning- 
ham’s own  pencil.  In  the  same  (lart  of  the  Annals 
is  also  included  an  account,  by  the  same  author 
of  a dosti  uctive  vegetable  blight.  Dr.  Pr.iin,  Curator 
of  the  Herbarium,  contributed  the  following  papers 
to  various  scientific  journals  : — On  Milula,  a neir  yenus 
of  Jj  liacea’.  from  the  Eastern  llinialaya  (in  Bcientinc 
Memoirs  hy  Medical  Oi/irers  of  the  Army  of  India);  An 
account  of  the  yenus  .\rgemone  (In  the  Journal  of 
Botany) ; -1  Revision  of  the  yenus  Chelidonium  (in  the 
