364 | BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ NOVEMBER 
These are a few of the cultures which may be taken up when 
roads are made. The prosperity of Jamaica will advance by 
leaps and bounds with the increased production rendered pos- 
sible by means of communication, and a temperate climate all 
the year round will be available for invalids, within a few hours’ 
drive of Kingston. But these benefits will also attract settlers 
from England when it becomes known that we have a Florida 
and a California in an island under British rule, with all the 
advantages of those climates and none of the disadvantages. 
Elevation 3000 to 6300 feet; annual mean temperature at 4900 
feet is 62—-67° F.; average rainfall, 105-114 inches. 
CASTLETON GARDEN. 
The drive from Kingston of nineteen miles, though a long 
one, is full of interest. The start is made in the fresh cool air of 
dawn ; the road leads through the plain of Liguanea with a view 
of the hills in the distance, bright with the ever-changing hues 
of early daylight. Then the ascent becomes steeper, passing by 
settlers’ groves of cocoa, coffee, and bananas, with a sprinkling 
of oranges, akees, sugar-cane, annatto, and yams. The road 
passes over the crest at an elevation of 1360 feet at Stony hill ; 
thence down into the valley of the Wag water, with broad 
alluvial stretches covered with tobacco, cultivated by Cubans; 
along the winding river fringed with clumps of graceful bamboo 
plumes, and its banks hidden by masses of creepers ; past the 
rocks by the roadside covered with ferns, mosses, the scarlet 
“dazzle,” and the blue Jamaican “forget-me-not,” until Castle- 
ton is reached, where art shows nature at its best by world-wide 
selection and harmonious combination. 
At the principal gate stands one of the most superbly beau- 
tiful of all trees, the Amherstia nobilis, which, when in flower in 
the spring, is worth crossing the ocean to see. Further on we 
see Norantea guianensis climbing over a large tree, and — : 
with long spikes, not of flowers but of nectar-secreting 
Mesua ferrea attracting attention not so much by its large fra: — 
— white flowers as hy the red color of the bag — oe 
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