1897 | PUBLIC GARDENS AND PLANTATIONS OF JAMAICA 361 
tobacco, ramie, and five or six acres of teak. It is hoped that in 
time it may be possible to make it a geographical botanic garden 
with different sections for India, Australia, China, etc. Two and 
one-half acres are given up to the nurseries which contain about 
70,000 plants, such as cocoa, nutmeg, clove, orange, vanilla, 
cinnamon, Liberian coffee, rubber plants, etc. It is the distribu- 
ting center, and on an average 40,000 plants are sent out all 
over the island each year. The director has a residence, office, 
library, and herbarium in the garden. Elevation 600 feet; 
annual mean temperature 74.4° F.; average rainfall 51.54 inches. 
HILL GARDEN. 
The following account of the possibilities for usefulness of 
the Hill garden was written by me eighteen months ago. The 
ceremony, by His Excellency the Governor, of cutting the first 
sod of the new driving roads along the southern slopes of the Blue 
mountain range, inaugurated a new era of prosperity for a wide 
Stretch of country from Newcastle to the Cuna-cuna pass. The 
only means of communication, until quite lately, inall this region 
from one district to another and to the sea-coast road, was by 
bridle paths, a terror to nervous riders and impossible for invalids. 
The road connecting the plain of Liguanea with Gordon Town is 
So short that it scarcely counts when there is now a commence- 
ment of the construction of roads which are to be 100 miles in 
length. The only cultivation in these mountains on a large scale 
has been of coffee, and this industry has been seriously 
hampered by the expense and difficulty of transport. 
In 1868, Sir John Peter Grant with great foresight made the 
first attempt at another culture, one which could be carried 
On at higher elevations, namely of cinchona. The experiment 
was a complete success, for the government established the 
fact that cinchona could be grown in the island, and realized 
4 sum of about £17,000 by the sale of bark. But for the very 
reason that the whole region was without roads, planters hesi- 
tated so long about embarking in the new industry, that the 
. Solden opportunity was lost, the price of cinchona bark fell, and 
