ON THE CULTIVATION OF JaLAP. 
653 
To this account may be added a few lines extracted from a letter received 
from a valued correspondent of my own in Mexico, to whom I am also indebted 
for more than a hundred living tubers of the jalap plant. 
“The tubers of Jalap require a deep rich vegetable soil (debris of the 
“ leaves of Pinus^ Quercus, Alnus^ etc.), and as they grow at an elevation 
“ of from 7000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean, they can stand 
“a good deal of cold and even frost during the night. In the daytime 
“ from 60° to 75° Fahr. is their almost daily warmth. Around Cordova, 
“ the plant will not succeed, the climate being too warm. I would advise 
“ you to plant some of the tubers out in the free air, treating them like 
“ Dahlias, that is to take up the roots in October, and plant them again in 
“ March or April. Although the plants may not flower or ripen seeds, the 
“ tubers will grow in size, and what is more important, will multiply 
“ underground ad injinitiim. If Jalap-roots so far have failed in Europe, 
“it is because they have been treated as hothouse plants.” 
Having these data regarding the climate and soil which are natural to the 
jalap- plant, we must next consider what regions offer conditions sufficiently 
similar to render the culture of the plant probably successful. It is plain from 
the accounts I have quoted that a humid climate having a temperature rising in 
summer to about 75° F. and sinking in winter to the freezing point, is that 
which the plant naturally affects ; and this is confirmed by the fact that the 
plant thrives perfectly well in the open air during the summer months, in gar¬ 
dens in the south of England, but that it will not endure unprotected the 
severe frosts of winter. Whether the great altitude above the sea-level at 
which it occurs in Mexico, is an indispensable condition for its complete deve- 
lopmeiit, is a point on which we have no information. 
In Cornwall and in some localities in Devonshire, as well as on the southern 
side of the Isle of Wight, it is probable the jalap-plant would thrive in the open 
ground as a garden-plant during the whole year, and it is very desirable that 
experiments should be made to determine this point. In Madeira it would pro¬ 
bably also succeed well if planted in situations sufficiently elevated. 
But if it be necessary to select the situation in the British dominions which 
for climate and elevation above the sea-level presents conditions most nearly 
resembling those of the jalap yielding region of the Mexican Cordillera, we 
must, I think, look to some localities in India ; and of those that can be named 
the Neilgherry Hills in the jMa<lras Presidency offer perhaps the greatest com¬ 
bination of advantages for attempting the cultivation of jalap. Not only is 
there a Government garden at Ootacamund where the plant might in the first 
instance be cultivated, but there are numerous other localities in the neighbour¬ 
hood, slightly differing in climate and soil, where experiments might be carried 
on. To these advantages must be added the fact that Ootacamui d i'i the habi¬ 
tual residence of numerous intelligent Europeans, whose attei tion has been 
specially directed, in connexion with Cinchona-culture, to those ciicumstances 
of soil, climate, planting etc., on which the successful introduction of a foreign 
plant is dependent. 
There are doubtless other localities in India, as for instance certain regions in 
the Himala)'a, in which the culture of the jalap-plant might advantageously be 
attempted, but until a supply of the roots is abundant, it will probably be wise 
to restrict experiments to one spot. 
It must not however be supposed that no attempts to cultivate jalap have 
hitherto been made, though it may be safely asserted lhat none have resulted i i 
obtaining for the market a better supply of the drug. In Mexico as 'Schiede 
relates, the Indians were commencing in 1829, to cultivate the plant in their 
gardens ; and I have been informed by a London druggist that some of the jalap 
