Dave Wood reminisces about the old days:
In the “good old days” Kew Gardens had an interest in economic botany — mainly to support crops that could be add value to colonial agriculture. Ramie figures in the fascinating contents of the second volume of the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew … As an economic botanist I admit to never having heard of some of these species. And this “Bulletin” became “Kew Bulletin” — fine for taxonomists but of little use for economic crop production.
BTW, he also has something to say about the Ethiopian genebank.