
7 
ready for distribution, and the due supervision of the station so as to 
“ keep it in an efficient working condition for supplying the special 
olony. 
“ A smali charge, sufficient to cover the cost, might be made for all 
“ plants raised at the station; while for plants im imported direct from 
“ Jamaica the cost weld necessarily include packing and freight 
“ charges, &e. regular schedule should be supplied to each station 
of the cost of plants which can be supplied from the establishments 
in Jamaica, which will include packing and freight. This schedule 
might be ET published in the Official Gazette for the infor- 
mation of planters. Lists of seeds to be forwarded by post can also 
be similarly supplied and published. 
been suggested by Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, C.M.G., the 
“ Assistant Director * (now Director) of the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
who takes a deep interest in this atte mpt to develop the latent 
resources of the West India Islands, that in addition to distributing 
“ plants there might be organised at the Central Institution a regular 
system of botanical bulletins containing practical hints as to the treat- 
ment of economic fetes and the conditions under which they might 
“ best be utilised as objects of remunerative industr 
“ There is no doubt a great want felt in the West Indies for piraan 
information on the culture of new economic plants ; and to e 
success it will on necessary not only to supply seeds and plants, but 
o the 
“ also carefully compiled and plain practical hints as t 
“ be employed for ‘etidertng them of the greatest va 
“ It will, however, depend entire the seve ear i int ds conce 
“ whether the f botanical stations, with the wide distribution 
“ islands, and from some five years’ correspondence with the leading 
planters in them, I know nothing better calculated to benefit them 
“ under present circumstances, or to prove more likely to be of 
“ permanent benefit to them 
At the instance of Lord Derby, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
it was decided that the whole of the smaller West India Islands not 
rovi bot s be asked to i 
re ided with anical garden 
systematic endeavour to promote and extend the cultivation of economic 
a evelop more fully than heretofore their natural 
resources. In a Despatch, dated 14th Febrnary 1885, the Secretary of 
State addressed the Governors of Barbados, Leeward Islands, Bahamas, 
and British Honduras, as follows :— 
COLONIAL OFFICE to the Governors or BARBADOS, LEEWARD 
ISLANDS, Eee AND British HONDURAS. 
“ Colonial Office, Downing Street, 
CONOR 14th February 1885 
“ I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a copy of a repor t by 
" ME, a the a - — Gardens and Plantations in 
** Jamaica, on the establishment of botanic stations in the lesser 
i Saunas of the West. Ladies, Giles with a copy of a letter from the 
“ Royal Gardens at Kew, conveying the observations of Sir J. Hooker 
“ on the proposals, 
“ I strongly recommend the adoption of the proposed scheme in each 
« of the Presidencies of the Leeward Islands except the Virgin Islands, 
“ which cannot afford n this small expenditure, in each of the 
* Windward Islands, and in the Bahamas and British Honduras, 
