50 



' One plantation gave a very good quality, another a tobacco 

 similar to that grown about Santiago de Cuba, and the other a 

 strong but flavourless leaf, each differing according to the soil 

 and climate, although all were cured in the same way. It was not 

 until they had obtained a correct analysis of the soil of the 

 Vuelta Abajo, together with a record of the temperature and other 

 meteorological phenomena, that they met with any degree of 

 success, and indeed it is only now that they have been able to 

 secure a property having all these conditions. 



'This year's crop appears better than last, and Messrs. Soutar 

 are confident that the next will be equal to the finest Vuelta Abajo. 



' I have had much pleasure in forwarding several large orders to 

 Messrs. Soutar from Vienna, and I am convinced that if, through 

 these orders, they obtain a footing in Germany, a prosperous fu- 

 ture will be in store for them.' 



Sir John Peter Grant, the Governor of Jamaica, with whose name 

 the increasing prosperity of Jamaica will ever be associated, 

 reports that ' in the Castleton Gardens, plots of Manilla, Havana, 

 Kentucky, and Latakia tobacco have been grown. The first and 

 last of these tobacco plants seem to thrive peculiarly well. The 

 sudden spring that the cultivation of tobacco has just taken in this 

 colony, renders the question of tobacco seed one of great interest 

 and importance. Our garden must possess all the most highly 

 prized varieties of this plant. But from all I can learn, Jamaica 

 has as good a right to send tobacco seed abroad as any other place 

 has. I have heard of a preference being given to the seed of 

 Jamaica plants to seed imported from Havana of the same variety, 

 and I have heard of Cuban settlers here who have pronounced the 

 quality of some leaf now growing here, upon plants where the 

 cultivation happened to have been attended to with the needful 

 care and skill, to be already equal in size and quality to that of 

 the best Cuban leaf. 



' For a few years past the Superintendent of our Botanic Gar- 

 den has been distributing here small packets of tobacco seeds at 

 the rate of 200 packets a year. -These packets contain five va- 

 rieties of seed, originally procured from Kew. 



' I cannot mention Kew without observing that infinite as has 

 been the services of Dr. (now Sir) J. D. Hooker to every part of 

 the British Empire, there is no spot in that Empire which has 

 greater reason for gratitude to that eminent man than this island 

 of Jamaica.' 



In his Report on the Botanic Gardens for 1873-4, Mr. R. 

 Thomson writes as follows : — 



' At the request of the Government, Her Britannic Majesty's 

 Consul-General at Havana forwarded in September a bag of the 

 famous, and scarcely to be obtained, Vuelta Abajo tobacco seed, 

 weighing upwards of 20lb. This made up the quantity I possess- 

 ed to 30lb., which was advertised for public distribution, gratis. 

 Upwards of 100 applications were made for it, and fifty-four of 

 the earliest applicants received each a packet of about |lb., the 

 others receiving smaller ones. Many of the applicants stated 



