4 
PREFACE. 
very early date, some of Portuguese, some of Dutch, and 
still more of English times. A large number of plants 
have been introduced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, and 
many by enterprising planters and others, within the last 
fifty years. All these, even when they have not proved suc¬ 
cessful, will be included wherever information is available. 
The information given is necessarily brief, but it is hoped 
that it may be sufficient to answer the many questions of 
daily recurrence which are asked about economic plants and 
products. Those who require further details will find them 
in the numerous works quoted in the different chapters 
below, and by consulting the files preserved in the public ' 
consulting room of the Economic Museum at Peradeniya. 
The Library of the Peradeniya Gardens contains most of 
the works mentioned below, and an excellent collection of 
books on agriculture and planting, as well as nearly all 
important journals. 
It has been our endeavour throughout to make the infor¬ 
mation as practical as possible, and to point out the general 
principles of botanical economic work for the benefit of the 
general public. Economic Botany is as yet too much in the 
stage of being a heterogeneous assemblage of facts with but 
few general scientific principles. We have endeavoured to 
indicate that there are some general laws underlying the 
mass of facts, though it be perhaps too soon to claim for the 
subject the rank of a science. 
This work is of course chiefly a compilation from innu¬ 
merable sources, and we can only express our indebtedness 
to these sources—books, letters, friends, &c.—in a general 
way. We are specially indebted to a large number of local 
friends, officials, and others, for much information on local 
native products. 
We shall be greatly obliged to any one who will point 
out errors in the work, or aid us with information on local 
products. The order in which the work will appear will 
be seen by looking at the introductory chapter. 
Peradeniya, October 25, 1901. 
J. c. w. 
H. W. 
