1897 | PUBLIC GARDENS AND PLANTATIONS OF JAMAICA 367 
across them near the John Crow mountains where no botanist has 
ever been since his time. The soil at Bath is alluvial, deep and 
rich. The rainfall is heavy, being on the borders of the district 
which is classed by Maxwell Hall as having the heaviest fall, 
Viz., Over 100 inches in the year. 
The garden is only a remnant of Nathaniel Wilson’s garden, 
but is maintained by government as a small arboretum. It 
contains several trees of great interest and beauty, and is much 
more tropical in its aspects than any of the other gardens. Ele- 
vation 70 feet; mean annual temperature 79-85° F. 
THE FLORA. 
Jamaica is a paradise for the botanist, whether he specializes in 
alge, fungi, mosses, ferns, or flowering plants. Of ferns there are 
about 450 species, and of flowering plants 2180 species; a num- 
ber of both are endemic. Among the flowering plants are not only 
those found everywhere in the tropics, but types from North, 
Central, and South America, and the other West Indian islands. 
Forty-four new species of mosses from a limited area in the 
Blue mountains have just been described in Bulletin de l Herbier 
Boissier. A synopsis of the ferns is now appearing in the Audletin 
of Botanical Department, Jamaica. Grisebach’s Flora of the British 
West Indies is the only book that gives a connected account of 
the flowering plants. The flora of the whole of the West Indies 
is being thoroughly worked up now by Professor Urban, assist- 
ant director of the botanic garden of Berlin. The results of his 
labors appear in Engler’s Botanische Jahrbiicher. The monographs 
in continuation of De Candolle’s Prodromus also contain later 
work than Grisebach’s. In the Jahrbuch of the botanical gardens 
of Berlin Dr. Mez has published a monograph of the American 
Lauracee, including those of the West Indies. 
ELEVATIONS. 
The following table gives a general idea of the area in square 
_ miles embraced in the different zones of elevation, above sea 
level, in the several parishes : 
