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three-quarters of that amount. Our calculation is that from 
each acre of coffee or tea land kept in full cultivation five 
natives (men, women, and children), derive their means of 
subsistence. It is no wonder that with a population nearly 
doubled during the planting era, four or five times the 
quantity of cotton cloth is consumed, and ten times the 
former quantity of food is imported into the island.* 
How a Botanic Garden can help the Colonies. 
It is in selecting the plants for new colonies or old ones 
that have been ruined by neglect, or in helping to bring into 
cultivation plants valuable economically that run the risk of 
being exterminated in their native localities, that the help 
and advice of a botanic garden is required, particularly for 
the correct identification of the best species. Take for 
instance cinchona, india-rubber, and gutta percha. 
Cinchona.— In temperate climates quinine is one of the 
most useful of drugs, and in tropical climates it is now used 
universally in curing and warding off fever. Quinine and its 
allied alkaloids are the product of the bark of trees of the 
genus Cinchona , which is restricted in a wild state to a 
narrow belt of the Andes of South America at an elevation 
of between 2,000 and 8,000 feet above sea level, particularly 
along their eastern declivities, from latitude 19° S. in Bolivia 
to latitude 10° N. in Venezuela. Here of course tliev are 
very difficult of access, and they are getting destroyed 
rapidly, C. succirubra for instance, which was found formerly 
in all the valleys that open on the plain of Guyaquil, is now 
almost confined to the western slopes of Mount Chimborazo. 
In 1860 an expedition was sent out under Mr. Clements 
Markham, to the Andes, to procure living plants and seeds 
for conveyance to India, and, after many adventures and 
disappointments, its efforts were crowned with success. 
There are in the genus about thirty-six species, differing 
from one another in their climatic constitution, and still 
more in their economic value ; but they are very difficult of 
botanical determination, because the primary types are linked 
to one another by puzzling intermediate forms. 
The Dutch sent out an expedition to the Andes under 
Hasskarl in 1854, but unfortunately a large proportion of the 
plants which they obtained proved to belong to C. Pahudiana , 
a species of very small medicinal value. In the Indian 
plantations four distinct species have been planted 
* “ Ceylon,” by W. Ferguson, F.L.S., pp. 83, 84. 
