15 



Kingston Market is well supplied with vegetables of all sorts. The 

 English residents in the Island are thu s benefitted in health and comfort, 

 and the black people are provided with a remunerative industry. 

 Vegetable growing was started at Cinchona under Sir John Peter 

 Grant twenty-five years ago, and the first large supplies of English 

 vegetables were furnished by this garden. Since that time the black 

 people have taken to growing English vegetables and they supply the 

 market themselves. 



8. Other industries started by the Botanical Department are associat- 

 ed with the following plants grown in the Island, viz. : — Liberian 

 Coffee, Nutmegs, Vanilla and fibre-yielding plants. In five years, from 

 1880 to 1884, inclusive, the Department distributed nearly 5,000 

 packets of seeds and more than two million economic plants (Report of 

 the Director, 1885, p. 2). The plants alone taken at the nominal sum 

 of threepence each would reach a total value of £25,000. This would 

 be more than the whole cost of the Department during the same period. 

 Hence, if we regard merely the nursery work done by the Botanic Gar- 

 dens, they have more than paid their way in the plants distributed by 

 them. 



9. New varieties of sugar canes (more than 60 in number) have been 

 introduced and cultivated by the Department. Further, their merits 

 have been carefully and exhaustively examined (Report of Director, 

 1884, pp. 31-34.) These new sorts including the Selangore, Elephant, 

 Lahinia, and others, have been distributed amongst planters and they 

 have been gradually incorporated amongst the older sorts in the Island. 

 The general health and vigour of the Jamaica canes have thus been 

 maintained. At the present time there is less disease amongst these 

 canes than any others in the West Indies. 



10. As a special effort, the Department, during the last 15 years, 

 has started and fostered the Cacao industry in the Island. Nearly 

 half a million plants have been distributed. Lectures and demonstra- 

 tions have been given by the officers and, although only in its infancy, 

 the exports from this industry have now reached a yearly value of 

 about £15,000. 



11. Another signal service associated with the Botanic Gardens is 

 set forth below, — 



The logwood plant was introduced from Honduras to Jamaica by 

 the Botanist Barham in 1715. In the year 1824, it was laid down as 

 one of the objects of the then Botanical Garden, at Jamaica, that it 

 should devote attention " to the investigation of many unknown nai ive 

 " plants of the Island, which, from the properties of those already 

 " known, it is reasonable to infer would prove highly beneficial in aug- 

 " menting internal resources by supplying various articles either for 



" food, for medicine, or for manufacture by means of which 



" great commercial advantages might be obtained, among others, the 

 " various vegetable dyes claim particular attention, as promising a 

 " fruitful field of discovery." As indicating the direct bearing which 

 this one field of enquiry (vegetable dyes among many others) had upon 

 the future of Jamaica, it is interesting to note that while no dye- 

 woods whatever were exported from the island in 1824, a small trade 

 of the value of £1,859 was started in 1833, which since that time has 

 steadily increased, until now it has assumed relatively large dimensions. 



