THE HOPE BOTANICAL GARDENS. 



203 



the Department of Public Gardens and Plantations. East Indian 

 competition eventually made the growing of Peruvian bark un- 

 profitable, and shifting economic conditions rendered it more 

 important that the department give its attention to the develop- 

 ment of lowland growths. The old Hope sugar plantation had 

 been used by the depart- 

 ment since 1874 as a 

 nursery for sugar cane 

 and teak, and it was 

 selected as a site for tlie 

 development of a new^ 

 garden which should be 

 at once the headcjuartcrs 

 of the department, a 

 park, a nursery and a 

 botanical garden. With 

 an annual rainfall of but 

 fifty-one inches, it is not 

 an easy matter to main- 

 tain a fine sod at Hope or 

 to raise moisture-loving 

 plants, and indeed the 

 freshness a n d beauty 

 w^hich the garden dis- 

 plays would be impos- 

 sible if it were not that 

 the water reservoirs for 



the supplying of Kingston are hard by the garden and can be 

 liberally used. 



Although the garden at Castleton is more tropical in aspect 

 than Hope, none of the island gardens are more beautiful. A 

 forty-minute trolley ride from Kingston brings us to the main 

 entrance of the Hope gardens, where we traverse a long avenue 

 of Cassia Siamca to reach the proper entrance to the grounds. 

 From this spot where the garden first bursts upon the eve it is 

 seen at its best, and there are few visitors who do not pause there 

 in surprise and admiration. Stretching away toward the centre 



Fig. 30. 



A Castilloa Rubber Tree in the 

 experimental grounds. 



