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ginger (edible). By officials whom I requested to ascertain all about the varieties of 'Keung,' I was informed the Shang Keung" and "Tsz Keung' were the same plant, but were varieties, one being cultivated in a dry and the other in a wet soil. This is a good example of the variety of information one can extract from Chinese and from a dictionary. The dictionary gives 'Ko Leung Keung' as the zedoary.

Believe me, &c.,.

(Signed),

PERCY GROOM.

P.S.-Please utilise the information concerning Chinese ginger as you may think fit.

[Enclosure.]

Recently it has been suggested in the Kew Bulletin that Chinese ginger is the rhizome of Alpinia Galanga.

Mr. FORD, in his annual report for the Botanical and Afforestation Department of Hongkong for 1890, casts doubts on the conclusions thus arrived at.

To decide the question, I first obtained preserved ginger (dry, and in syrup), and I bought the natural ginger from street vendors. The specimens thus procured all agreed in structure, but they differed from Alpinia Galanga obtained from Mr. FORD (a cutting of the original plants sent from Swatow).

I then caused inquiries to be made concerning the manufacture of preserved ginger. The manufacturers stated that only one sort of plant rhizome was employed (Tai Yuk Keung), and no other sort of rhizome was ever mixed with it. In particular they stated that no variety of galangal rhizome (Leung Keung) was ever used in the manufacture of ginger.

Hence so far it was safe to conclude that whatever Chinese ginger might be, it could not be Alpinia Galanga.

It remained to test Mr. FORD's view that Zingiber officinale, Linn., was the source of Chinese ginger. At the end of October I ordered the head gardener of the College gardens at Whampoa to procure flowering specimens of the plant from which Chinese ginger (Tai Yuk Keung) was obtained. The flowering specimens thus obtained turned out to be a Zingiber; and Mr. FORD informs me that they are specimens of Zingiber officinale, Linn. I also had fresh ginger purchased in the market by my servants (for at that time of the year the manufacturers of preserved ginger have no fresh ginger). This agreed precisely in structure with the zingiber rhizome; and in both these rhizomes the starch- grains were alike (flattened discoid for the most part) and utterly different from the elongated club-like, almost rod-shaped, grains of Alpinia Galanga (Hongkong specimen). These two rhizomes also agreed in structure with those obtained earlier in the year, viz., the preserved and the natural ginger.

Finally I endeavoured to purchase other sorts of fresh zingiberaceous rhizomes in October and was unable to procure any. In all cases I was informed that the medicinal zingiberaceous rhizomes, and those used in flavouring, &c., came from distant parts and that only the ginger for preserving grew in the immediate neighbourhood. But without relying on this evidence, except confirmatory, it is safe to conclude that Chinese ginger is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale, as shown by anatomical observations, inquiries from the Chinese and observations on the flower. Mr. FORD, in his report, said: "The Chinese ginger is apparently more succulent, and the rhizomes are of larger size than the West Indian article, but there is no specific difference in the plant.

It is well known that zingiberaceous rhizomes vary in structure according to the circumstances under which they are cultivated; for example, in hot-houses, the sclerenchyma in the rhizomes of Zingiber officinale and Hedychium carneum is replaced by collenchyma, and other changes are visible. Hence I can only suppose that Professor PERCEVAL WRIGHT was unaware of these variations, or did not allow sufficient margin for them, in the histological observations which he surely must have made before allowing himself to say that the large flat ginger like masses sent to this country from China differed from anything that the ordinary ginger plant (Zingiber officinale) could produce.'

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Distribution and Interchange of Plants, Seeds, &c.

9. Seeds contained in 52 boxes, bags, &c., and weighing 28 lbs., 382 living plants, and 9 birds were received. The principal donors being-

Acclimatisation Society-Brisbane. Boehmer, L.-Japan.

Botanic Gardens--Bangalore.

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Natal.

Royal--Ceylon.

Kew.

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19

Cooke, Mrs.

Mauritius. Trinidad.

Saharanpur.

Singapore.

Creagh, His Excellency C. V.--Sandakan.

Damman & Co., Messrs.-Italy.

Foster, Mrs. P.

Humphreys, J. D.

Kwong On Tsan.

Ladies' Recreation Club.

Mackenzie & Co., Messrs.-Shanghae.

Martin, Lieut.-H.B.M.S. Leander.

Police Station--West Point.

Salmon, His Excellency Sir Nowell, V.C. Stringer, C. E. W.

Wicking, Mrs.