Abstract
THE CALCUTTA BOTANICAL GARDENS.— Dr. King's report on the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, for the year ending March 31, 1875, to which we have recently referred (vol. xii. p. 541), contains some interesting notes on the cultivation of useful plants, especially the Para rubber plant (Hevea braziliends) and the Ipecacuanha (Cephalis ipecacuanha). With regard to the former, Dr. King is of opinion that the plants will not thrive in that part of India. Mr. Collins, in his report on the Caoutchouc plants, describes the Heveas as growing in their native country in situations where the heat is not generally above 87′ Fahr. in the afternoon, and below 74° at night, and shows, on the authority of Wallace, that the temperature in the caoutchouc districts during three years only once reached to 95°, the greatest heat being about 2 P.M., when it ranges from 89° to 94°, and never lower than 73° The meteorological returns for Calcutta show a wide difference between the Brazilian and the Indian climates. Another Caoutchouc plant, however, the Vahea madagascariensis, Boj., a climbing apocyneous shrub, native of Madagascar, promises to thrive much better than the Hevea. The fact of the plant being of climbing habit militates considerably against its value as a cultivated plant, owing to the difficulty in providing supports as well as in obtaining the caoutchouc. Nevertheless, it is a kind highly valued in the English market, realising a price next to Para rubber. With regard to Ipecacuanha, which has been shown to require much care and attention as to soil and situation, we learn that a number of sets of plants were put out during the early part of the year at different spots at low elevations in the Cinchona reserve at Sikkim; warm, well sheltered situations, with good virgin soil, were chosen. “Some of the plants thus put out were protected by the natural shade of the forest, others by a sloping thatch of grass. Until the arrival of the cold weather all went well, but the unusually low temperature that prevailed during that season was fatal to the majority of the plants.” Dr. King further says that he is “driven reluctantly to the conclusion that it is doubtful whether ipecacuanha can be successfully cultivated as an out-door crop in Sikkim.” Further trials, however, are to be made before its experimental cultivation is recommended to be abandoned.
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Botanical Notes . Nature 13, 117 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/013117a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013117a0