THE PUBLIC GARDENS AND PLANTATIONS 
OF JAMAICA.:* 
WILLIAM FAWCETT. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Jamarca is about ninety miles south of Cuba. Its most west- 
ern point is nearly directly south of Toronto, as it lies between 
78° 20’ 50" and 76° 11’ W. long. It is situated between 18° 
32’ and 17° 43’ N. lat., so that it is only one to two degrees 
nearer the equator than the City of Mexico (19° 25’), anda 
little farther from the equator than Belize. It is a very small 
island, being only 144 miles long and forty-nine miles wide in 
its broadest part ; its area amounts only’to 4,207 square miles, 
of which very little is flat, and a great deal is not suitable for 
cultivation, 
The aboriginal name of Jamaica was Xaymaca, denoting “‘a 
land covered with wood, and watered by shaded rivulets.” 
The character expressed by the name is what one might expect 
to find in an island with lofty mountains, its shores bathed by 
the Gulf stream, and lying in the path of the trade winds. The 
§eneral trend of the mountain ranges being at an angle to the 
direction of the prevailing winds, there is considerable precipita- 
tion nearly all the year round in some parts, while in other dis- 
_ tricts a small amount of rain falls during a few days only in two 
Months of the year. 
: _ The general features of the landscape and of the flora which 
‘clothes it have been developed by the position of the island, and 
its geological history. The lowest strata containing fossils are 
ne Hippurite limestone of the Cretaceous series. Below this 
there is a series of metamorphosed shale, sandstone and con- 
_ Slomerate, with dikes of intrusive diorite, syenite and granite. 
- oC for the Botanical Society of America, Toronto meeting. 
