524 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Lying on a rugged spur stretching southward two miles from the 

 main ridge of the Blue Mountains, the Cinchona reservation extends 

 upward from the cleared slopes at the 4,500-ft. level to the well-wooded 

 peaks 6,100 feet high, in the main range itself. Practically all the Blue 

 Mountan country above the 4,500-foot level is reserved by the gov- 

 ernment as a water shed, and thus forms an immense area of mountain 

 forest that may be used for floristic exploration and ecological study. At 

 a spot commanding a remarkable prospect, on the shoulder near the south 

 end of the spur, stands the Cinchona residence and laboratories, situ- 

 ated at an altitude of 4,900 feet. The house is the highest dwelling of 

 any pretensions anywhere in the West Indies. 



HlSTOKY 



The idea of developing a hill garden, or " European garden," as he 

 called it, was conceived by a governor of the colony, Sir Basil Keith, in 

 1774. He planned especially to introduce the cultivation of European 

 vegetables in the cool, moist hill country. The plan was first realized 

 in 1869, through the energy of a later governor, Sir John Peter Grant, 

 whose primary object was the encouragement of the culture of Peruvian 

 bark, coffee and tea. Here, in the early seventies, scores of acres were 

 cleared and planted with seedlings of several species of Cinchona. 

 These were derived from plants brought out of Peru in 1860 by Clem- 

 ents Markham. In 1874 the Jamaican government organized at Cin- 

 chona an experiment station, which became the center of botanical 

 work in the island. A director's residence, other dwellings, offices, lab- 

 oratories, greenhouses, servants' quarters and stables were erected. A 

 beautifully planned garden was developed about these buildings, and 

 planted with hundreds of subtropical and temperate-zone plants. 



Here was stationed during the prosperous days of cinchona culture, 

 nearly the whole botanical staff of the Department of Public Gardens 

 and Plantations. For seven years, under Sir Daniel Morris (1879- 

 1886), and eleven years under the Hon. William Fawcett (1886-1897), 

 the staff was engaged in agricultural and in some purely botanical re- 

 searches. Methods of propagating, cultivating, harvesting and curing 

 cinchona, tea, etc., were studied. At a lower altitude experimental 

 plantations were made of oranges, orris root, forage plants, and fiber 

 plants such as China grass, which showed that these can be grown suc- 

 cessfully in the Hills. The staff included a trained English gardener, 

 William Nock, brought over to demonstrate the possibility of cultivating 

 ' English " vegetables in these higher parts of the island. This ex- 

 periment was entirely successful, and in consequence the natives now 

 grow these vegetables, then carry them as head loads for 15 or 20 miles 

 over the mountain trails to the Kingston market. Besides these purely 

 agricultural investigations, important taxonomic studies were made of 



