3 



pointed to make arrangements for their reception, the care of them, 

 and their distribution. One of the gardeners, James Wiles, who had 

 circumnavigated the globe with Captain Bligh, was appointed to the 

 <;are of the Liguanea garden, and writing to Sir J. Banks, in 1793, he 

 says : 



All the trees under my charge are thriving with the greatest luxuriance. 

 Some of the breadfruit are upwards of eleven feet high, and my success in 

 cultivating them has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. The cinna- 

 mon tree is become very common, and mangoes are in such plenty as 

 to be planted in the negro grounds. 



In 1782 Dr. Thomas Dancer was elected physician of the Bath of 

 8t. Thomas the Apostle ; in 1788 he was appointed by the legislature 

 superintendent of the Bath garden ; and in 1797 island botanist. The 

 duties of the island botanist were defined as follows ; 



To collect, class, and describe the native plants of the island; to use his 

 endeavours to find out their medicinal virtues ; to discover if they possess 

 any qualities useful to the arts, and annually to furnish the House with a 

 correct list of such plants as are in the botanic gardens, together with such 

 information as he may have acquired relative to their uses and virtues. 



In 1799 Dr. Dancer went to practice in Kingston. He made the 

 medicinal plants of the island a special study, and published in 1801 

 The medical assistant, or Jamaica practice of physic." He died in 

 1811. 



The colony had now to undergo a period of difficulty and distress, as 

 the slave trade was abolished in 1807 without compensation to the 

 planters, and the wars with France and the United States caused great 

 depression. Accordingly in 1810 the Liguanea garden was sold, and 

 that at Bath was never afterwards adequately supported. 



In 1825 Dr. Jas. MacFadyen was appointed island botanist. In 

 1837 appeared the first volume of his Flora of Jamaica ; in 1850 part 

 of the second volume was printed, and this was all that was published. 

 He did not retain his appointment long ; and in 1828 Thomas Higson 

 was appointed island botanist and curator of the botanic garden at 

 Bath. He presented to the garden a collection of living plants col- 

 lected by himself in South America. 



In 1829 the garden at Bath, of one and three-fourths acres, was in- 

 creased by three acres to the west. Higson left Bath in 1832 ; and in 

 1846 Nathaniel Wilson was appointed island botanist with the care of 

 Bath garden. Wilson had been in the gardens at Kew and at Ken- 

 sington for several years, and was a most capable man. He kept up a 

 correspondence with Sir W. J. Hooker, director of Kew gardens, and 

 introduced a very large number of plants from Kew and other parts of 

 the world, trusting to be repaid his expenditure by the liberality of 

 the assembly. B cehmeria nivea mrpoviQdi by him, and he formed 

 a very extensive collection of fibre plants. He also received from 

 Kew in 1846 and 1847 the mangosteen, litchi, durian, and Musa Ca- 

 vendishii. In 1849-1850 he reports the arrival of Poinciana, Spatho- 

 dea, Boiigainvillea spectabilis, Cmalpinia Sappan, Amherstia and As- 

 sam tea. ./-^-^ 



- t==siai ^ ^ / 



