JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



New Series.] JANUARY, 1898. ^^itT 



THE PUBLIC GARDENS AND PLANTATIONS OF 



JAMAICA. 1 



By William Fawcett. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Jamaica is about ninety miles south of Cuba. Its most western 

 point is nearly directly south of Toronto, as it lies between 78° 20' 50 

 and 76° 11' W. long. It is situated between 18° 32' and 17° 43' N. lat., 

 so that it is only one to two degrees nearer the equator than the City 

 of Mexico (19° 25'), and a little farther from the equator than Belize. 

 It is a very small island, being only 144 miles long and 49 miles wide 

 in its broadest part ; its area amounts only to 4,207 square miles, of 

 which very little is flat, and a great deal is not suitable for cultiva- 

 tion. 



The aboriginal name of Jamaica was Xaymaca, denoting ''aland 

 covered with wood, and watered by shaded rivulets." The character 

 expressed by the name is what one might expect to find in an island 

 with lofty mountains, its shores bathed by the Gulf stream, and lying 

 in the path of the trade winds. The general trend of the mountain 

 ranges being at an angle to the direction of the prevailing winds, there 

 is considerable precipitation nearly all the year round in some parts, 

 while in other districts a small amount of rain falls during a few days 

 only in two months of the year. 



The general features of the landscape and of the flora which clothes 

 it have been developed by the position of the island, and its geological 

 history. The lowest strata containing fossils are the Hippurite lime- 

 stone of the Cretaceous series. Below this there is a series of meta- 

 morphosed shale, sandstone and conglomerate, with dikes of intrusive 

 diorite, syenite and granite. Above the Hippurite limestone are beds 



1 Prepared for the Botanical Society of America, Toronto meeting, 1897, with 

 special reference to the proposal to found a tropical botanical laboratory in. 

 Jamaica. Keprinted from the " Botanical Gazette,' 



286621 



