534 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



Kingston, but the precipitation is greater, amounting to 47.5 inches 

 annually. The grounds contain 177 acres, of which about 30 is main- 

 tained as an ornamental garden attached to the residence. The ap- 

 proach is by an avenue lined with stately royal palms (Roystonea) 

 and trees of the willow fig {Ficus benjamina) , with borders of 

 massed ornamental shrubs and creepers in noteworthy display. In 

 the garden proper, adjoining the house, are ferns and many rare 

 tropical palms and orchids. Numerous tropical fruit trees and 

 economic plants are under cultivation, and here also are many tropi- 

 cal water lilies and the surpassing Victoria regia of South America. 



An attempt has been made not only to indicate in a general way 

 the main interesting features of the several botanical gardens of 

 Jamaica and their diversity in so far as climate, composition, and 

 usefulness are concerned, but also to show how consistent has been 

 their support and development over a long period of years, how con- 

 stantly the agricultural needs of the inhabitants have been kept in 

 mind, and how for nearly 150 years this effort has been dictated by 

 considerations of singular breadth and of understanding as to the 

 fundamental part that purely botanical investigations must neces- 

 sarily play in the welfare of the people and their struggle toward 

 material prosperity. 



It was in 1797 that Dr. Thomas Dancer, elected " physician of the 

 bath of St. Thomas the Apostle" 15 years earlier, was appointed 

 " island botanist." His duties were defined as follows : 



To collect, class, and describe the native plants of the island ; to use his 

 endeavors to find out their medicinal virtues ; to discover if they possess any 

 qualities useful to the arts ; and annually to furnish the House with a correct 

 list of such plants as are in the botanic gardens, together with r-uch information 

 as he may have acquired relative to their uses and vii'tues. 



The objects here sought, through systematic botany, were primarily 

 medical, but the spirit which prompted this legislation has been 

 widely reflected in the support since given to botanical and agricul- 

 tural projects. This attitude as to the proven value of tropical 

 botanical gardens is admirably expressed in a report of Mr. William 

 Fawcett, director of public gardens and plantations, in 1892, when in 

 commenting upon the work of the gardens department and its chief 

 aims and possibilites, and particularly of the need of intelligent self- 

 help and cooperation, he wrote : 



The increase in the variety of cultural products and the humanizing influence 

 of ornamental plants are matters of appreciation in every part of the country 

 from mountain to seacoast. Every person who obtains plants and grows them, 

 from the sugar planter who makes trial of different varieties of cane to the 

 small settler who grows a nutmeg plant, is making experiments which are of 

 direct benefit to himself and indirectly to his neighbors and to the district. 



