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CapTain A. W. Hirxi.—The Assistant Director has, with the 
concurrence of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, been 
deputed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to visit and 
report on the Botanic Gardens, Victoria, Cameroons, and also 
to visit Nigeria. He sailed on January 19th, and is expected 
to be absent some three months. 
WILLIAM ‘aig Ta —We record with deep regret the death of 
Mr. W. Harris, F.L.S., which occurred in Kansas City, U.S.A., 
on October ith, 1920. Mr. Harris entered the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew, in June, 1879, and was appointed Superintendent 
of the King’s House Garden, Jamaica, on August 29th, 1881. 
Mr. W. Fawcett, who was for many years Director of Public 
Gardens and Plantations, Jamaica, has kindly furnished us with 
the following account of Mr. Harris’s work in Jamaica. 
“When I succeeded Sir Daniel Morris as Director in 1887, 
Harris was in charge of Castleton Garden, the chief Botanic 
Garden. On my first visit to this garden, I was struck with its 
excellent condition and the order and neatness that prevailed. 
This was the dominant feature in all Harris’s work. Besides the 
King’s House and Castleton Gardens, there are others in charge 
of the Department—all of which were for atime under Harris’s 
superintendence—the Hill Garden, situated at an elevation of 
5,000 ft., adjacent to the Government Cinchona Plantations, the 
Parade Garden or Victoria Park, situated in Kingston, and the 
old Botanic Garden at Bath, 44 miles from Kingston, which is 
still kept up for the sake of the magnificent old trees, palms, and 
other plants, some of them planted by Dr. Clarke in 1779 and 
subsequent years, others by Dr. Dancer in 1788 to 1798, and 
others by the Kew gardener, Nathaniel Wilson, from 1846 to 
1860. Besides these gardens the Government kept up a trial 
plantation of numerous varieties of sugar cane on an old sugar 
estate called Hope, about 5 miles irom Kingston. Harris was 
moved from Castleton to Hope in 1887 to commence the forma- 
tion of a new botanic garden. In 10 years it had developed 
into a large garden with 6 acres of lawns, 3} acres of ornamental 
borders, also ferneries and glasshouses for delicate plants; 
collections of orchids, roses, crotons and palms; plantations 
covering 7} acres of the chief economic plants as well as 6 or 
7 acres of teak. Harris was for the first four years engaged in the 
laying out of this garden.. Then followed nine years of work 
in the Hill Garden. It was then that it was possible to send 
him out on collecting tours in search- of specimens for the 
Herbarium. He had shown a capacity for such work, and it 
was a great pleasure to be able to satisfy his enthusiasm and 
t the same time to benefit the Herbarium. He became an 
snared field botanist with great and accurate knowledge of 
the local flora. He described one of his tours in a communication 
to the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle ’ (3rd ser. xix. 1896, pp. 134, 197, 
