156 
cannot fail in time to advance the social and material interests of the. 
Colony. Inthe arrangement of the ornamental grounds Ph wna 
orded valu able assistan се, Ву means of inii 3 
т бөгү кыре through Kew, the grounds brave been established 
within about 12 months with handsome collections of large palms and 
ornamental trees, clumps of bamboos, tree ferns, and various economic 
gardens in the island containing valuable plants from nearly every part 
of the world. The old Botanic Garden of the Colony was at Bath, in 
the eastern part of the island, about 40 miles from Kingston. To this 
garden Dr. Thomas Clarke was appointed superintendent in 1774. It 
contained chiefly tropical ae and here some of the first bread fruit trees 
and the first mango trees w wn in the island. A private garden 
of great interest had already "Bein established near Gordon Town, about 
9 miles from ARS age by Mr. Hinton East. A catalogue of the plants 
was prepared by Dr. Broughton, and published as an appendix to Bryan 
Edwards’ History of the British West Indies, vol. 1, p. 475. At the 
death of the founder this garden was purchased by the Government, 
d Mr. James Wiles, a gardener who had assisted Captain Bligh in 
i th 
as placed in charge of it. In 1782 there were in Mr. East's garden 
the mango, akee, cinnamon, camphor, jack-tree, bichy or cola nut, date 
palm, rose apple, litchi, turmeric, and many eren tropical and sub- 
tropical plants, numbering in all about 600. A third garden had been 
established some time Ъеюге 1793, on the slopes of St. Catherine’s 
Peak, at an elevation of 4,300 ft., by Mr. Matthew Wallen, a friend o 
the great botanist Olavus Swartz. Th for plants of temperate 
i his garden the Blue Mountain districts of Jamaica are 
probably indebted for many Europ plants now found naturalised 
re. e English oak, comm ite elover, sweet violet, 
black- berried elder, buttercups, strawberries, wild pansy, groundsel, 
dandelion, are all no doubt plants that once flourished in Mr. Wallen's 
rd 
It will be notic ed, therefore, n more than 100 years ago Jamaica 
possessed excellent Botanical Gard 
Further, in order to utilise those indie the control of the Government 
* separate committees were appointed for each county to receive and 
* distribute the plants allotted to them ........... by which 
* means the publie has derived all the advantages to be expected from 
* these establishments.” (Journals, House of Assembly, 1791—1807.) 
The present Botanieal Gardens of Jamaica have fully sustained the 
ccr gener of the past. They were reorganised at the instance of 
Sir Anthony Musgrave as a separate department in 1879, and the 
жейбиз Hi was in charge o them until 1886. 
They have now as Director, Mr. William Fawcett, B.Sc., F.L.S., 
assisted by four жүл me “superintendents, A sketch of the various 
establishments is as follo 
1. The Botanic Санни. Nieto: —Elevation, 580 ft. ; mean temp., 
76^ F.; annual rainfall, АШ inches. Extent about 10 acres. Situated in 
the paris of St. Mary's,19 miles from Kingston. The chief features are 
an excellent etum, a к оа of economie, spice an 
a fine collection of orchids, an experimental ground d for new industrial 
plants, and large nurseries containing about 40,000 plants. 
