524 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



together will give the northern visitor at first a detached, exotic feel- 

 ing, as of mere existence in a curious, new, and infinitely surprising 

 out of doors. With most of us there will cling to first impressions of 

 luxuriant tropical life a kind of glamour that lessens little in retro- 

 spect. 



In the midst of the most charming and favorable surroundings 

 the colonial government of Jamaica has established several public 

 gardens, which not only have value as places of recreation, but serve 

 also very diverse purposes of scientific and economic usefulness. The 

 history of their beginnings and growth is not uninteresting, espe- 

 cially since for a century and a half the Government has rather 

 consistently followed a broad policy of official support in these under- 

 takings. 



EARLY EFFORTS. 



The first botanical garden in Jamaica was established nearly 150 

 years ago by Mr. Hinton East as a private enterprise upon his 

 estate near the present village of Gordontown, about 9 miles from 

 Kingston. This attempt must have been successful, for we find a 

 committee of the legislature in 1774, under the inspiration of the 

 governor, Sir Basil Keith, recommending the appropriation of £700 

 for the purchase by the Government of land suitable for a botanical 

 garden and of £300 for the annual salary of a botanist. Accordingly, 

 in the following year an estate named Enfield, adjacent to Mr. East's 

 garden, was purchased by the Government and placed under the 

 charge of Dr. Thomas Clarke, who came out from England to assume 

 the new position of island botanist. Clarke seems to have entered 

 upon his new duties with much enthusiasm, introducing during the 

 next few years such useful tropical plants as the camphor tree (Cin- 

 nanomum carnphora), the Chinese tea plant (Thea sinensis), the 

 litchi {Nephelium UtcM), the sago "palm" {Cycas ci/vincdis) , the 

 clove tree {Eugenia caryopkyllata) * and the akee {Blighia sapida). 

 The last-mentioned tree is to-day common in many parts of the 

 island. Its beauty consists not only in its rich glossy foliage but in 

 the strongly contrasting, large, scarlet fruits, which, splitting down 

 the side, show each three large, shining, deep black seeds upon a 

 background of fleshy white pulp which partially surrounds them; 

 this is known as " akee," and when cooked is a favorite dish of the 

 inhabitants, both whites and blacks. Its consumption is attended 

 with risk, unless well-ripened fruits are used. 



BATH GARDEN. 



Some dissatisfaction being expressed as to the suitability of En- 

 field as a site for a permanent garden, an act was passed in 1778 for 

 the purchase of a small tract of land bordering the historic little 



