109 
of Edinburgh, Session 1872 - 73 . 
trouble and anxiety, and will insure an easy and rapid propagation 
of the plants. We may expect thus to secure for India a large 
supply of this invaluable remedy for dysentery. 
In reference to the Ipecacuan plants recently sent to India in 
Wardian cases partly in earth and partly in moss, as well as in 
boxes with moss, Dr Henderson at Calcutta reports (18th March 
1873) that the 120 plants of Ipecacuan taken by him from the 
Edinburgh Botanic Garden, have increased to 620 in three and 
a-balf months and are all thriv- 
ing. The smallest possible slice 
of the rhizome ygth of an inch 
thick will form a plant. He has 
scarcely lost a single cutting. 
Mr Andrew T. Jaffray at Dar- a 
jeeling, writes on the 19th March 
to the effect that he has now 
7000 plants of Ipecacuan in cul- 
tivation. 
In my communication last 
session to the Boyal Society I 
stated that Mr Bobert Lindsay, 
foreman in the propagating de- 
partment of the Botanic Garden, 
had discovered that the petiole of 
the leaf of the Ipecacuan plant 
when put into the soil was 
capable of producing roots and 
buds. He has carried out the 
experiment fully, and I have to 
report the results. He states 
that leaves of Ipecacuan plants were removed with the petioles 
on 27th June 1872. Some were taken off close to the stem, 
while others were cut off above their attachment to the stem. 
They were inserted in sandy soil, and placed in a warm moist 
propagating house, and both gave out roots. 
In about three weeks, the end of the petiole where it had been 
broken off or cut, was cicatrised and formed a rounded pea-like 
swelling. Shortly afterwards small fibrous roots were produced. 
