March 2, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
71 & 
venired to show that, in order to make the acquisition of 
botanical knowledge pleasant as well as profitable, we 
should first cultivate a taste for flowers, and gain a know¬ 
ledge of the plants commonly met with, and a general 
knowledge of the characteristics of Natural Orders. 
He also explained vernation or prefoliation, showing 
living specimens to illustrate the several varieties of 
leaf-arrangement in the leaf-hud. 
The next meeting is arranged for March 5th, when a 
paper on “The Salts of Mercury and Iron ” will he read 
by Mr. Cooper. 
IJromiinp flf Sthntifif Smcfes. 
SOCIETY OF ARTS. 
The Study of Economic Botany, and its Claims 
Educationally and Commercially Considered.* 
BY JAMES COLLINS, F.B.S. EDIN. 
Curator of the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum. 
[Continuedfrom paye 695.) 
Let us for a few minutes direct our attention to the 
two duties of a merchant—those of extending and im¬ 
proving present and opening up fresh sources of supply. 
No systematic efforts are made by our merchants, as a 
whole, to search the earth for its treasures. There are, 
happily, a few, though very few exceptions to this rule. 
“ The noblest and vilest of substances, gold and guano,” 
as Professor Wilson well expressed it, “ are stumbled 
upon hap-hazard. With a kind of mad patience, we go, 
year after year, to the same source for products, without 
trying to ascertain if they are present elsewhere, and we 
are daring and reckless enough unceasingly to scour 
strange lands and seas. But of what avail is all this, if 
we only guess at the value of the strange objects we en¬ 
counter, without a thought about taking action to ascer¬ 
tain its possible utility Y” What a gain to the world is 
a new land carefully explored, and its products promi¬ 
nently brought to notice ! Many new lands are looked 
upon in the same light in which the whole of Africa was 
formerly, as— 
“ Barren sand, 
"Where nought can grow, because it raineth not; 
And where no rain can fall to bless the land, 
Because nought grows there.” 
But a mere glance at the ‘ Flora of Tropical Africa,’ now 
publishing, reveals such floral riches as to require no 
prophetic foresight to predict for it a great commercial 
future. 
In exploring new lands, sufficient attention is not paid 
to this question. The chief aim of exploration is the 
increase of geographical knowledge; hut every science 
should have a present and direct, though it always has 
a future and indirect, practical end, that of bringing the 
new lands within the pale and under the beneficial in¬ 
fluences of civilization. Every such explorer is a pioneer 
of commerce. But how much sooner would such a re¬ 
sult be brought about if the traveller always used his 
best efforts to collect all the information respecting pro¬ 
ducts and specimens of the products themselves on every 
possible occasion, and thus hastened the practical results 
of his toils and hardships ? On all our exploring expe¬ 
ditions, there should be an economic botanist appointed, 
to give his special attention to this very important prac¬ 
tical inquiry. But it is frequently thought sufficient to 
collect strange objects, and little attention is given to 
those objects which are likely to prove of practical value. 
This assuredly should not be. 
Residents abroad can be made the means of no end of 
good. Often at their very doors are materials in great 
* Read on Wednesday Evening, Feb. 14. 
abundance, which could be utilized in our own country 
if the requisite knowledge existed to rightly direct in¬ 
quiries. But it often happens that, where products are 
sent home, for lack of proper information accompanying 
them, no result is achieved. How different it would be 
if that same correspondent had received a preliminary 
training, even of an elementary character ? But much 
of this would be remedied if proper instructions were 
sent out. Often, when appeals for information to resi¬ 
dents or intended residents in a foreign country are 
made, the answer is, “ Give me instructions what to look 
for, and what kinds of samples should be sent.” In the 
case of one product alone, namely, india-rubber, to which 
I have paid much attention, I have frequently been 
appealed to for instructions as to what kind of specimens 
should be collected, and how collected; and at the re¬ 
quest of Mr. Silver, who takes a warm interest in every¬ 
thing both scientifically and commercially connected 
with the subject, I wrote a series of instructions pur¬ 
posely for his correspondents abroad. But such things 
require to be done systematically, and on a large scale. 
Much good would accrue to commerce if general instruc¬ 
tions, or instructions drawn up to suit each country, 
were printed and circulated amongst our consuls and 
other public and private individuals abroad. 
Every one who has had opportunities for observing 
the commerce of this country, must have noticed from 
time to time various substances, forwarded by sanguine 
collectors or merchants, who perchance have seen the 
substance used by the natives of the place, or observed 
that it existed in great abundance, the object being to 
ascertain if they were of any use, or, as it is termed, to 
“ try the market.” But amid the press of other busi¬ 
ness, yielding a certain present money value, or in the 
presence of powerful rivals, in the face of which it may 
or may not be of value, it is almost impossible to obtain 
any recognition, and is speedily lost sight of and for¬ 
gotten,—a result enough to damp the ardour of most 
persons. There are many points which have to be 
considered in sending a new substance, and have to be 
provided for before success can he obtained. Some sub¬ 
stances may be useful, and in great abundance, but they 
would cost more than their value to bring them to a 
market. Others, again, are of sufficient value to more 
than repay the cost of transport from a foreign port to 
this country, but from the absence of carriage, and the 
dearth or absence of labour, they cannot be utilized. 
Many valuable timber-trees labour under this disadvan¬ 
tage. Efl’orts should be made in such cases to remove, 
if possible, these drawbacks, by placing such substances 
under conditions more favourable. Even where there is 
no difficulty in the transport, and no dearth of natives, 
the greatest difficulty is experienced in getting the na¬ 
tives to stir an inch, or undertake any labour, unless 
their own sweet will inclines them, or their wants, often 
more artificial than natural, impel them. It is almost a 
proverb amongst traders that wants, or even vices, have 
to be created, in order to furnish incentives to labour 
beyond that required in order to obtain the few yards of 
European cloth which they covet, to substitute tor that 
of their own manufacture, or that the produce and shade 
of their own vine and fig-tree supply them with. Other 
substances, again, are sent, for which there is no imme¬ 
diate or present demand ; and though they may be better 
suited for a purpose than one in use, yet the difficulty of 
establishing a new trade, and bringing about a substi¬ 
tution, is so great‘with a people so conservative and 
strongly prejudiced as we are, that rarely does the ori¬ 
ginal importer meet with anything but loss. Deficiency 
of information, however, does more than anything else 
to injure and retard the introduction of a new substance. 
The difficulty of obtaining information respecting a new 
substance is very great. Often the only information 
sent amounts to this, “ is it good tor anything Y and 
the specimen itself has been selected with such an ab¬ 
sence of judgment, and is often of so fragmentary a cha- 
