93 



REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF THE 

 TROPICAL LABORATORY. 



Report to the Board of Scientific Directors of the New York Botanical 

 Garden by DR. L M. UNDERWOOD, Professor of Botany, Columbia 

 University* 



It is now just ten years since serious agitation was first aroused 

 among American botanists relative to a tropical Botanical Labora- 

 tory. Commencing in November, 1896, the Botanical Gazette 

 published a series of editorials on the subjectf and a commis- 

 sion was appointed to consider Jamaica with special reference 

 to such an establishment, two of the members of the commission 

 actually visiting the Island early in 1 897. For various reasons 

 the interest waned, and no further steps were taken until, in 

 response to the present writer} the buildings at Cinchona were 

 leased from the Jamaica Government by the New York Botanical 

 Garden for a period of ten years from August, 1903, and thus 

 an outfit practically ready for occupancy was secured where 

 American botanists could take advantage of all needed facilities 

 for tropical work under the most favourable circumstances. 



Cinchona takes its name from the extensive plantations of that 

 tree which were installed by the Jamaica Government over forty 

 years ago with the intention of producing its drug on a commer- 

 cial scale. So far as leased by the Garden, Cinchona consists of 

 a six-roomed house with accessory kitchen, store room, and stable, 

 three office buildings suitable for dormitories and capable of 

 housing eight or ten people in addition to the house proper with 

 its four large sleeping apartments, two low green houses sufficient 

 for cultivation under glass of such plants as require more moist- 

 ure than that afforded by the outside atmosphere, and two 

 laboratories large enough to accommodate nearly a dozen 

 workers. These buildings form the greater part of the govern- 

 ment experiment station established in 1874, which under Sir 

 Daniel Morris (1879-1886) and later (1886-1897) under the Hon. 

 William Fawcett was the residence of the government botanist 

 and the centre of botanical work in the Island. The physical, cli- 

 matic and floral conditions at Cinchona, as well as the sanitary 

 conditions of the location, demand attention as forming the real 

 basis for recommendation as a tropical laboratory where students 

 accustomed to a more temperate climate may desire to study for 

 a longer or shorter period. These may be summarised topically : 



1. Location. — Cinchona is situated on a spur of the Blue Moun- 

 tain range on the southern (xerophytic) exposure at an elevation 

 of 4,950 feet above the sea. It is most easily reached from King- 

 ston via Gordon Town which is connected with Kingston by one of 

 Jamaica's splendid carriage roads, and from which two good bridle- 

 paths lead to Cinchona either over Content Gap or past Guava 



* Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. Vol. VII, No. 83, pp. 250-225. 



t Botanical Gazette, 22 : 415-416, 494~495- 1896; 23; 47-48, 126-127, 202-203. 

 1897. Cf. also letters on the subject in same journal, 22: 496-497. 1896; and 23 

 50-51, 54, 129, 207-208, 291. 1897. 



t Cf. Journal N. Y. Bot. Gard. 4: 109-119. 1903. 



