182 



when the material has been collected some days before the closing of 

 the mails for Barbados. 



3. Fresh specimens of diseased plants should in every case be placed 

 in methylated spirit, high wines, or rum, immediately after collection 

 and forwarded in a bottle or corked tube. When leaves, buds or twigs 

 are attacked, the specimens should show as many stages of the disease 

 as possible and in all cases a few healthy specimens should also be 

 sent. If these latter are tied up in an envelope and labelled in pencil 

 they can be sent in the same bottle as the diseased material. When 

 fruits, stems or roots are attacked, diseased pieces showing all stages 

 should be cut out and placed in spirit as before, In this case also a 

 healthy piece, properly indicated, should be sent. 



4. Specimens of bark wood and large fungus fructifications which are 

 dry should be wrapped in soft paper and sent in a ventilated package. 

 When it is considered desirable to send ve^/ large specimens such as 

 portions of branches, stems, roots of trees or whole cacao pods these 

 should be collected as late as possible before the mail steamer leaves, 

 and sent in a well ventilated case. 



5. Full notes should be sent giving details of the time of appear- 

 ance of the disease, the locality, the damage done, the part attacked 

 and also the date when the specimens were collected. 



All specimens and correspondence intended for the Head Office, 

 should be addressed : — 



The Commissioner, 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, 



Barbados. 



NATHANIEL WILSON. 



By F. Wilson. 



Born in Scotland on 18th April, 1809. — Died at his residence, 

 Spring Plain, Clarendon, Jamaica, on 2nd May, 1874. 



Appointed from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, as Island Bo- 

 tanist, Jamaica, about February. 1846. 



Prior to the year 1^41, and to the Rev. Thomas Wharton taking charge 

 of the Botanic Gardens at Bath, there were five or six acres in culti- 

 vation, containing only 174 plants, some of which were indigenous 



The Gardens were then under the control and management of a 

 Board of Directors of the Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle. 



For a number of years the Gardens suffered under great and va- 

 rious disadvantages, many- of the members of the Board of Directors 

 (neither knowing anything nor caring for Botany) not taking any in- 

 terest in the Instituiion. Then again, no funds were provided for 

 paying labourers employed in the Garden. At times hogs would tres- 

 pass and make havoc of the plants and Garden generally; but for the 

 untiring energy and zeal of my father, this Institution would in all 

 probability have come to an end. 



In consequence of the want of space, and the overcrowding of plants 

 at the Botanic Gardens at Bath, several valuable plants died. The 

 Gardens also suffered from the periodic overflowing of the Plantain 

 Garden River (or Sulphur River), notably in 1858, when the greater 

 portion of the Gardens was destroyed in this way. 



