•JA.MA.tUA 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Vol VTTT 



New Series.] NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1901 



Parts 11 & 12 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON ECONOMIC PLANTS 



IN JAMAICA. 



By the Editor and W. Harris, F.L.S. 

 IV. The Mango. 



The Mango is a native of the East Indies, but is naturalised or 

 cultivated in most tropical and sub-tropical countries. It is an ever- 

 green tree attaining a height of 30 to 40 feet, with a spreading, or 

 rounded head of dense foliage which, in a young state, is of various beauti- 

 ful rosy tints, purplish, &c, but finally it assumes a dark green hue, 

 giving the tree a rather sombre aspect. It is a handsome tree, but too 

 sturdy and low to be called stately. In the e*rly morning the air is 

 perfumed with the delicious fragrance of the small flowers which are 

 produced in great profusion in branched panicles. It is now almost 

 impossible to think of Jamaica without its mango trees. They are 

 the principal feature in the landscape almost everywhere from sea- 

 level up to 3,000 or 4,000 feet altitude. 



To those who do not know the history of its comparatively recent 

 introduction, it would appear to form a part, and an important and 

 prominent part of the indigenous flora. Many of the old, scarred 

 monsters, with huge trunks a id limbs, and spreading heads, look as 

 if they have braved the elements for a couple of centuries at le ist, and 

 yet it is not 120 years since the first Mangoes were brought to Jamaica. 



In 1782, Captain Marshall of His Majesty's Ship " Flora," one of 

 Lord Rodney's squadron, captured a French ship bound from Mauri- 

 tius to Haiti, and on board were found many plants an I see ls of 

 economic value, amongst the ra being the Man *o, Cinnamon, and Jack- 

 fruit. The plants Were all numbered, and No. 11. was the Mango 

 which has since become so famous. The ship was sent as a prize to 

 Jamaica, and Captain Marshall, " with Lord Rodney's approbation" 

 deposited the collection of plants and seeds in the garden of Mr. Hin- 

 ton East, afterwards for a time a public Botanic Garden, situated near 

 Gordon Town, in the Parish of St. Andrew. 



In 1794, Dr. Dancer had an advertisement in the Royal Gazette, 

 offering 18 plants of Mango for distribution, 6 for each county. The 

 Mango found a congenial home, and appears to have rapidly increased 

 in numbers and variety of kinds, for we read in Lunan's Hortus Ja- 

 maicensis," published in 1814, just 32 years after the tree was intro- 

 duced, that it had " become one of the commonest fruit trees in Ja- 



