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The first regular paper of the evening was by Dr. Underwood 

 on "The Botanical Gardens of Jamaica." He outlined the his- 

 tory and described the present condition of each of the four 

 public gardens of Jamaica, illustrating his remarks with numerous 

 photographs. The first garden established was at Bath, in 1779. 

 This is at the eastern end of the island where the climate is 

 hot and very humid. It was virtually abandoned many years 

 ago, but a number of interesting trees are still standing. The 

 location was not fully satisfactory, and in 1863 another garden 

 was established at Castleton in the Wag Water Valley, twenty-five 

 miles north of Kingston. This is now probably the finest and 

 most interesting botanical garden in the West Indies. It contains 

 a very notable collection of palms, said to include 180 species. 

 In 1 868, another garden was established at Cinchona on one of the 

 spurs of the Blue Mountain range at an elevation of nearly 5,000 

 feet. It was intended to test the practicability of the growing of 

 cinchona for its bark on a commercial scale, but many other 

 trees and plants adapted to high altitudes in the tropics were 

 planted and for some years .it was the headquarters for the 

 botanical work of the island. Owing to its inaccessibility still 

 another garden was established in 1873 a ^ the Hope plantation 

 in the outskirts of Kingston on the south side of the island. 

 This is now the headquarters for the botanical and agricultural 

 departments of Jamaica, and besides its features as a botanical 

 garden proper it is used as a nursery for propagating economic 

 plants for distribution to the planters of the island and as an 

 agricultural experiment station for the investigation of various 

 agricultural problems. 



The second paper was by Dr. Howe on " The Flowering of 

 the Adirondack Lakes," a phenomenon caused by the growth 

 of one of the minute blue-green algae, specimens of which were 

 exhibited. The substance of this paper appeared in the October 

 issue of Torreya. 



Dr. Britton spoke of the recent discovery by Mrs. Goodrich 

 at Syracuse of Phacelia dubia, a plant new to the New York State 

 flora. This discovery extends the known range of the plant sev- 

 eral hundred miles to the northward. 



