74 
London  Botanic  Gardens. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Phaim. 
I    February,  190G. 
nomic  plants  and  the  necessary  information  for  their  successful 
cultivation  on  a  commercial  scale.  The  botanic  stations  were  first 
established  in  the  West  Indies,  and  subsequently  in  the  West  Afri- 
can possessions.  In  1898  the  botanic  establishments  of  the  West 
Indian  Islands  (Barbadoes,  Leeward  and  Windward  Islands )  were 
placed  under  a  special  department  of  agriculture  in  charge  of  Sir  Daniel 
Morris,  K.C.M.G.,  as  commissioner. 
In  illustration  of  the  role  played  by  Kew  in  the  introduction  of 
economic  plants  into  the  Colonies,  cinchona  and  coffee  may  be  taken 
as  examples. 
The  introduction  of  cinchona  into  India,  as  is  well  known,  was  due 
primarily  to  the  efforts  of  Clements  R.  Markham  and  his  associates, 
who  were  deputed  by  the  Government  to  collect  young  cinchona 
plants  and  seeds  in  the  Andes.  These  were  forwarded  to  Kew,  and 
"  upon  the  Royal  Gardens  devolved  the  duties  of  receiving  and 
transmitting  the  seeds  and  plants  to  India,  of  raising  a  large  crop  of 
seedlings,  of  nursing  the  young  stock,  .  .  .  and  of  recommend- 
ing competent  gardeners  to  take  charge  of  the  living  plants  from 
their  native  forests  to  the  hill  country  of  India,  and  to  have  the  care 
of  the  new  plantations  there.  Further,  with  the  sanction  of  the 
Indian  and  Colonial  Governments,  it  was  arranged  that  our  West 
Indian  Colonies  and  Ceylon  should  be  supplied  with  a  portion  of 
the  seeds  "  (Abstract  from  Sir  William  Hooker's  report  to  Parlia- 
ment for  1 861).  The  result  is  too  well  known  to  require  further 
comment. 
The  work  undertaken  by  Kew  in  connection  with  coffee  covered 
a  still  wider  range.  In  1862  a  coffee  disease  made  its  appearance 
in  Ceylon.  The  Government  instituted  an  inquiry,  and  a  botanist 
from  Kew  (Marshall  Ward)  was  dispatched  to  Ceylon  to  investigate 
the  disease.  His  reports  having  shown  that  it  was  impossible  to 
combat  the  disease,  Kew  undertook  to  introduce  a  variety  of  coffee 
from  West  Africa,  known  as  Liberian  coffee,  which  was  of  a  more 
resistant  nature,  and  from  1874  to  1876  large  consignments  of  seeds 
and  of  seedlings  raised  at  Kew  1  were  forwarded  in  Wardian  cases  to 
Ceylon,  India,  Singapore  and  the  Seychelles.  Investigations  were 
concurrently  instituted  on  the  habits  of  the  plants  in  their  original 
habitat,  and  the  results  were  published  in  an  official  report. 
1  These  operations  are  carried  on  in  forcing-houses  situated  at  the  back  of  the 
Curator's  office.    (See  Plate  X.)    They  are  not  open  to  the  public. 
