CIENCE 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 18, 1893. 



BOTANY IN JAMAECA. 



BY JAMES ELLIS HTJMPHEEYS. 



We are apt to think, when speaking of American botany 

 and botanists, only of those of the United States and 

 Canada, assuming that our southern neighbors, both con- 

 tinental and insular, have not yet reached that stage of 

 civilization that encourages the cultivation of the sciences. 

 And so far as those regions are concerned which have 

 felt the influence chiefly of Latin civilization, this is meas- 

 urably true. But some of the neighboring islands have 

 been under Anglo-Saxon rule for two centuries or more, 

 and have felt different influences. Not, indeed, that their 

 people, as a class, have been much affected by contact 

 with their rulers, but in the British islands the mother 

 country has especially fostered botanical study from an 

 early time, and British residents have carried with them 

 the scientific impulse. 



Jamaica has been a British colony for fully two hun- 

 dred years, and it is now more than one hundred since 

 its first botanic garden was established at Bath. At first 

 privately supported, it afterward received spasmodic gov- 

 ernment support. But eventually the site was abandoned 

 and a new location was chosen beside the Wag water and 

 among the beautiful hills of the interior nineteen miles north 

 of Kingston. From this time the support of the govern- 

 ment was constant and effective, and the Castleton garden 

 grew steadily in consequence, under competent directors 

 sent out from England. It has now an especially notable 

 collection of palms and orchids, besides its economic col- 

 lection. 



Meantime the Hope Gardens, near Gordon Town, and 

 six miles from Kingston, begun for private jDleasure 

 when the island was in the full tide of its prosperity from 

 the profits of sugar and rum, have been taken up by the 

 government and are destined to be the chief botanical 

 centre of the island. This collection is newer than that 

 at Castleton and therefore does not possess as many fine 

 sjDecimens and, in some other respects, does not equal it. 

 But most of the propagating and active work of the de- 

 partment is now done at the Hope Gardens. As must 

 inevitably be the case with most government establish- 

 ments, the chief work of the Botanical department of 

 Jamaica, as of other British colonies, is economic, the 

 study of the useful jjlants of the colony, their propaga- 

 tion and products. Its work is at present ably directed 

 by Mr. William Fawcett, E. L. S., formerly of the British 

 Museum. 



A third establishment in charge of the dei^artment is 

 the experimental Cinchona plantation far up the Blue 

 Mountains. Here, als'o, is the official residence of the 

 Director, in an almost ideal location and climate. Indeed, 

 it is said, to quite justify the enthusiasm of an admirer, 

 who called it "the loveliest spot in the British empire." 



This p)lace, called Cinchona, can be reached only by a 

 narrow bridle-path that runs twelve miles upward into 

 the heart of the mountains from Gordon Town. 



The department issues a periodical bulletin of the re- 

 sults of its work. 



Ever since the time of Patrick Bowne and Sir Hans 

 Sloane, the higher plants of the island have found devoted 



students. And among them must be specially mentioned 

 Grisebach, whose "Elora of the British West Indies," Lon- 

 don, 1SG.3, remains the only hand-book of the subject. 

 But the Thallojjhytes of the region have received little 

 attention and offer a very attractive field. 



The wife of the present energetic governor of the 

 island. Sir Henry Blake, some time since projjosed the 

 raising of a fund to establish a permanent marine biolog- 

 ical laboratory as a memorial to Columbus, who landed 

 on the island on his second voyage. The idea is an ad- 

 mirable one, bxit the j)roject remains, so far as can be 

 learned, in statu quo. A small and well-equipped labora- 

 tory at a suitable point on the island, open to the zoolo- 

 gists and botanists of the world, might be of the greatest 

 service in affording means for the collection and preser- 

 vation of the numberless tropical forms of life in which 

 Jamaica and the surrounding waters abound. A party of 

 zoologists from the Johns Hopkins University has this year, 

 for the second time, established a temjjorary laboratory at 

 Port Henderson on Kingston harbor; but I understand 

 that this choice of a location has been largely governed 

 by the presence of suitable accommodations. It will be 

 agreed that, in determining the site for a permanent lab- 

 oratory, the abundance of available vegetable, as well as 

 animal, life should be consulted. After a somewhat care- 

 ful examination of the marine flora of the easterly part of 

 the island, as far west as St. Ann's Bay, the writer can 

 say that several of the j)orts on the north side are far 

 more favorable, botanicallj', than Kingston harbor. And 

 perhaps no region is, on the whole, more favorably situ- 

 ated or richer in its vegetation than the neighborhood of 

 Port Antonio. This port has more frequent communica- 

 tion with the United States than even Kingston, from its 

 extensive fruit trade. And the journey from Europe to 

 Jamaica is less monotonous and less expensive, as well as 

 quite as quick, via the United States, as by the Koyal Mail 

 from England. 



Another factor of considerable importance lies in the 

 much cooler and more healthful climate of the north side 

 of the island, as compared with the south side. 



In Jamaica, then, the botanist finds evidences of past 

 and present activity in certain lines, and the sympathy 

 and aid of fellow workers. It is much to be hoped that 

 he may soon be able to find, also, the laboratory facilities, 

 which will enable him to study to the best advantage the 

 unsolved problems of tropical vegetation. 



INTRODUCTION OE WEEDS IN GRASS SEED. . 



BY THOSIAS A. WILLU.MS, STATE AGr'l COLLEGE, BBOOKLNGS, S. D. 



In the course of some experiments on forage plants, 

 which were begun last season on the Station grounds, 

 quite a large quantity of grass and clover seed was pur- 

 chased from various seedsmen, principally from Hender- 

 sons, of New York. At the time of sowing some of the 

 packages were found to contain more or less seed of vari- 

 ous weedy plants. The plots were watched closely, and 

 the following plants were found to have been introduced: 



Cruciferae. — Nasturtium palustre, (L.) D. C. ; Sisymbrium 

 officinale, (L.) Sco}?; Camelina sativa, (L.) Crantz; Brassica 

 arvensis (L.) B. S. P.; Brassica alba, (L.) Gray; Brassica 

 nigra, (L.)Koch; Brassica campestris, L. ; Erysimum cheir- 

 anthoides,L. ; Erysimum orientale (?) L. ; Diplotaxis tenui- 



