128 ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 



The first beginning of an experiment station at Hope was in 1874,, 

 under Mr. Robert Thomson. The Government came into possession 

 of 200 acres of land there in 1873, and determined to transfer the new 

 varieties of cane received from the botanic gardens of Mauritius and 

 Martinique and planted in the small garden at Castleton to the ample 

 area at Hope. Nearly 18 acres were put under cane in 1874, and 5 

 more in 1875, and during the same year 10 acres were planted in teak. 

 A small nursery was also formed. In 1885 Dr. Morris, at that time 

 director, proposed that the land around the nursery should be made 

 into a public park at a cost of £5,000, though he thought a botanic 

 garden could not be carried on without a system of reservoirs for the 

 storage of water. However, Gov. Sir Henry Norman decided, as 

 there were no conveniences for people traveling cheaply from King- 

 ston at the time, that there should be no outlay except gradually in 

 improving the garden. 



In 1897 the Government transferred the present director with 

 office and herbarium from Cinchona to Hope, with the intention of 

 making it the central botanical establishment of the island. Since 

 that time the garden has gradually been formed and extended. 



The following plants are grown for experimental purposes, and 

 also for use in teaching agricultural principles, and the best methods 

 of dealing with these tropical crops : Sugar cane, coco, coffee, tobacco, 

 banana, nutmeg, citrus, grapevine, pineapple, yam. sweet potatoes, etc. 



Practical instruction is given in the garden to apprentices, to boys 

 from the industrial school, to students at training colleges, to ele- 

 mental school-teachers in their vacation, to agricultural students, 

 and to planters themselves. 



There are about H acres under sugar cane of 107 varieties, which 

 are being tested by "the agricultural chemist. Seedlings are grown 

 from the seed and are tested as they mature. 



Forastero and Criollo coco are grown, and experiments made as 

 to the value of shade trees, and as to the difference in growth, and 

 yield of crop, when planted close and at wider distances apart. The 

 general opinion at one time was that coco would not grow in dry 

 districts like the plain of Liguanea. but it has now been proved in 

 the gardens that not only will coco grow well here with irrigation,, 

 but that it will yield larger crops than in wet districts. 



Coffee of several kinds may be seen: Arabian or common coffee, 

 Liberian, Abbeokuta, highland coffee of Sierra Leone (stenophylla), 

 Maragogipe, golden drop. etc. Experiments are being made as to 

 influence of shade, coming true to seed. etc. 



Two acres of tobacco are under cultivation, and the leaf is cured 

 in the tobacco house close by. The apprentices are instructed in all 

 the details of cultivation, and the technique of curing the leaf for 

 cigar tobacco. 



A collection of 28 varieties of bananas from various parts of the 

 world, chiefly obtained through the kindness of the director of Kew 

 ( oudens and the commissioner of the imperial department of agricul- 

 ture, has been established. 



Grafted nutmegs are cultivated, together with seedlings, to test 

 early fruiting, of growth, etc. 



Budded citrus plants have been planted out for comparison, of 

 varieties that have proved successful in Florida and California, and 

 also of native seedlini: trees. 



