THE HOPE BOTANICAL GARDENS. 20/ 



mental grounds and nurseries. Here may be seen plots of 

 guinea-grass (Paiiiciiiii iiiaxiiiniui ), the chief forage crop of 

 Jamaica; cassava (Maiilhof iifilissiina) , one of the most valuable 

 sources of starch: and the ippi-appa palm {Carhidovica gracilis), 

 from which hats similar to panamas are made. Some notion of 

 the diversity in tropical agriculture may be had from the large 

 variety of economic plants grown here, all of which are to a 

 greater or less extent planted in various parts of Jamaica, the 

 number including sugar-cane, cofifee, bananas, pimento (allspice), 

 oranges, limes, grape-fruits, shaddocks, tobacco, chocolate, vanilla, 

 kola, mangoes, pine-apples, sisal-hemp, rubber and ginger. 



Lluch of the work of the Public Gardens consists in supplying 

 planters with young plants of cofifee, chocolate, nutmeg, etc., at a 

 price which is merely nominal, and since there are no nurseries in 

 the island, this is a very important service. The plants are rooted 

 in bamboo pots, which are made by cutting stems of Bainhnsa 

 Tulgaris of about three inches diameter into sections about seven 

 inches long, in such a manner that the partitions at the nodes of 

 the stem form the bottoms of the pots. In these cheap receptacles 

 the plants are readily handled and shipped. 



In the centre of the garden stands the administration building, 

 in which is the ofifice of the Director and the library of the Depart- 

 ment. The library is quite complete in works on tropical agri- 

 culture and systematic botany ; is well filled with all the texts* and 

 general works in the various fields of botany ; and has a good 

 representation of the leading journals. On the lower floor is a 

 small museum and the herbarium of the department. The her- 

 barium cases are all made of dififerent native woods and are an 

 interesting exhibit in themselves. The sheets which they contain 

 bear a very complete collection of Jamaican flowering plants, 

 ferns, mosses and hepatics, including types or co-types of all the 

 more recently described species of higher plants native to the 

 island, together with a representation of the flora of the neigh- 

 boring islands. 



