THE CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION 5 2 3 



In August, 1903, the Jamacian government, having abandoned Cin- 

 chona cultivation, decided to lease the Cinchona property. Through the 

 suggestion of the late Lucien M. Underwood and the writer, and by the 

 prompt action of Director X. L. Britton and Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Cin- 

 chona was leased by the New York Botanical Garden. It was maintained 

 by the garden as a laboratory, and as a substation for the propagation of 

 tropical plants. The director of the garden also placed the laboratory 

 and other equipment at the disposal of botanical investigators, of whom 

 more than thirty have worked at Cinchona during the past ten years. 



In the last decade, it is true, several other botanical laboratories, all 

 of them primarily for experiment-station work, have been organized in 

 the American tropics. Two of these were maintained by commercial 

 organizations in Mexico. Of the other three, two, at Miami, Florida, 

 and Mayaguez, Porto, Bico, are supported by the United States, and a 

 third, at Paramaribo, is maintained by the government of Dutch Guiana. 

 At none of these has much botanical research thus far been carried on, 

 except the economic agricultural work of the regular staff members. 



It is thus evident that the interest of American botanists desiring a 

 tropical laboratory has centered about Cinchona for the past two decades. 

 There is good reason to believe that this interest will continue and in- 

 crease. When, therefore, it was learned that Cinchona, the only station in 

 the western tropics for the study of pure botany, was not to be again 

 leased by the New York Botanical Garden, the Botanical Society of 

 America, meeting in Cleveland, attempted to secure the continuation of 

 the use of the Cinchona station for American botanists. For this pur- 

 pose a committee was appointed consisting of D. S. Johnson (chair- 

 man), N. L. Britton and D. H. Campbell, and an appropriation was 

 made to pay a year's rental, if this should be necessary, while more per- 

 manent arrangements were being perfected. Before the committee had 

 had opportunity to act, it learned of the prospect that the Jamaican 

 government would make the privileges of Cinchona available for Amer- 

 ican investigators. The publication of this account of Cinchona, and 

 its advantages as a botanical station, may serve to indicate the interest 

 of the committee in its work, and its appreciation of the encourage- 

 ment given to botanical investigators of our country by the Jamaican 

 government. 



Location 



The Hill Garden, or " Government Cinchona," as it is commonly 

 called by Jamaican planters, is a reservation of many thousand acres, 

 where the cinchona tree, from which Peruvian bark and quinine are ob- 

 tained, was introduced 45 years ago. Here, and on the neighboring pri- 

 vate plantations, it was grown for profit, until the cheaper labor and 

 transportation in the parts of India and Java devoted to this crop greatly 

 lowered the price of the bark. 



