BRIEFER ARTICLES 



THE CINCHONA STATION 



The lease of the Cinchona Station by the Smithsonian Institution on 



behalf of a group of contributing American botanists was interrupted by 



conditions existing during the war. It has now been resumed, and the 



laboratory will be available for American botanists during the coming 

 year. 



This tropical laboratory, in a well kept botanical garden containing 

 many exotic trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous perennials from all 

 quarters of the earth, is located at 5000 ft. elevation, on the southern 

 slope of the rugged Blue Mountains of Jamaica, within half an hour's 

 walk of an undisturbed montane rain forest. 



The dry ridges and sunny valleys of the south side of the Blue 

 Mountains offer many types of peculiar ferns, epiphytic bromeliads, 

 grasses, mistletoes, and lianes. In the rain forest of the north side are 

 to be found many species of liverworts, mosses, and ferns, the latter 

 ranging from the very diminutive epiphytic species of Poly podium, only 

 an inch or two in height, to the scrambling species olPteridiunitGleichenia, 

 or climbing Lomaria of many yards in length, and the great tree ferns, 

 40 ft. in height. There are also many interesting native species of trees, 

 shrubs, and vines which together make parts of the forest a practically 

 impenetrable jungle. There are great stretches of the northern slopes 



Mountains 



botanist 



the 



coast can make their headquarters in Kingston, and such workers have 

 always had the use of the library, herbarium, and laboratory at Hope 

 Gardens. These gardens also contain a fine collection of native and 

 introduced tropical plants, offering much material for morphological 

 and histological study. Cacti, agaves, and other xerophytic plants of 

 the seacoast, and the algae of the coral reefs along the shore, afford still 

 other types of vegetation of great ecological, developmental, and cy to- 

 logical interest. Castleton Garden, the third botanical garden of the 

 island, has a very different climate from either Cinchona or Hope, for it 

 is located in a hot steaming valley, 20 miles north of Kingston, where 



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347] [Botanical Gazette, vol. 96 



