20 



Bloodwood tree, Eucalyptus corymbosa, of New South Wales, 

 which yields a valuable timber. On the opposite side is a 

 handsome evergreen tree, Elaeodendron glaucum, a native 

 of India. 



Here is a little path leading to the Curator's office, 

 Garden laboratory, Agricultural pupils' class room, the 

 nursery sheds, potting and packing nouses, etc. A visitors 

 book is kept at the office, and visitors should apply to the 

 Curator for any information about economic plants. The 

 nurseries are not open to the public, but may be seen by 

 permission of the officer-in-charge. In them many thousands 

 of seedlings of cacao, coffee, nutmegs, mangoes, etc. are raised 

 annually, and distributed to planters at cost prices. Large 

 nurseries for the raising of plants of limes, oranges, grape-fruits, 

 and other plants which do not require shade in their early 

 stages of growth, cover an area of several acres, and are 

 situated near to the Roseau River, about a quarter of a mile 

 from the office, and at Morne Bruce, a plateau on the hill 

 immediately behind the Gardens. Full information on the 

 subject is given at page 51.. 



The work which is carried on in the nurseries is not 

 conspicuous to the visitor, although it occupies the greater 

 portion of the time of the skilled labour of the Garden. 

 Nevertheless, it is most valuable work, which has produced 

 in the past and will produce in the future, marked improve- 

 ments in the quality of the crops of Dominica. 



Several noteworthy plants are to be found in the short 

 space between the office and the point at which the road 

 branches. On the left is a fine tree of Cinnamomum 

 Camphora, a native of China and Japan, now cultivated on a 

 large scale in Formosa, from the wood of which the well-known 

 camphor of commerce is obtained by distilling. It should 

 here be mentioned that this particular tree is one of the oil- 

 bearing type, although of the same species as that which 

 yields the solid camphor of commerce. This important 

 difference existing within the tree affords no outward 

 indication to enable an observer to distinguish one from the 

 other. The only means of discovering the true camphor 



