PREFACE. 



The Jamaica Government having offered a premium 

 for the best Text-Book of Tropical Agriculture specially 

 adapted for the use of the colleges and higher schools 

 in that colony, the author sent in the manuscript of a 

 portion of this book — under the motto Respice fifiem — 

 to compete for the premium. The committee appointed 

 to decide the question adjudged the premium to the 

 author's manuscript, on the condition that he carried 

 out a promise to extend the book by adding several 

 chapters treating of most of the cultivated tropical 

 plants not noticed in the original work. This was done, 

 and the book was published by the Government of 

 Jamaica last year. 



In the preface to the Jamaica edition the author ex- 

 pressed the hope that the work would prove serviceable 

 to peasant proprietors, to owners of small estates, and 

 to intending settlers in tropical countries. This hope 

 appears likely to be realised ; whilst the commerdations 



