Cultivated Plants of the Future. 
611 
questions of cheapness of production, and of subsequent preparation 
for use, have thus far militated against success. There may be much 
difference between the profits promised by a laboratory experiment 
and those resulting from the same process conducted on a commercial 
scale. The existence of such differences has been the rock on 
which many enterprises seeking to introduce new fibres have been 
wrecked. 
In dismissing this portion of our subject it may be said that a 
process for separating fine fibres from undesirable structural 
elements and from resin-like substances which accompany them is 
a great desideratum. If this were supplied, many new species would 
assume great prominence at once. 
V. Fragrant Plants. 
Another illustration of our subject might be drawn from a 
class of plants which repays close study from a biological point of 
view — namely, those which yield perfumes. 
In speaking of the future of our fragrant plants we must dis- 
tinguish between those of commercial value and those of purely 
horticultural interest. The former will be less and less cultivated 
in proportion as synthetic chemistry by its manufacture of per- 
fumes replaces the natural by the artificial products ; for example, 
coumarin, vanillin, nerolin, heliotropin, and even oil of winter- 
green. 
When, however, one has seen that the aromatic plants of 
Australia are almost free from attacks of insects and fungi, and 
has learned to look on the impregnating substances in some cases 
as protective against predatory insects and small foes of all kinds, 
and in others as fungicidal, he is tempted to ask whether all the 
substances of marked odour which we find in certain groups of plants 
may not play a similar role. 
It is a fact of great interest to the surgeon that in many plants 
there is associated with the fragrant principle a marked antiseptic 
or fungicidal quality ; conspicuous examples of this are afforded by 
species of Eucalyptus, yielding eucalyptol, Shjrax, yielding styrone. 
Thymus, yielding thymol. It is interesting to note, too, that some 
of these most modern antiseptics were important constituents in the 
balsamic vulneraries of the earliest surgery. 
Florists’ plants and the floral fashions of the future constitute an 
engaging subject, which we can touch only lightly. It is reasonably 
clear that while the old favourite species will hold their ground in 
the guise of improved varieties, the new introductions will come in 
the shape of plants with flowering branches which retain their 
blossoms for a somewhat long period, and especially those in which 
the flowers precede the leaves. In short, the next real fashion in 
our gardens is probably to be the flowering shrub and flowering tree, 
like those which are such favourites in the country from which the 
Western world has gladly taken the gift of the chrysanthemum. 
Twice each year, of late, a reception has been held by the Emperor 
