18 



the hill called Long mountain the prevailing feature is the beautiful^ 

 yellow flowered Agave Morrisii. The soil of the plain is very fertile 

 when irrigation can be used, and the gardens in fact form part of the- 

 old Hope sugar estate. 



From being at first a small nursery and an experimental ground for 

 sugar cane, it has now developed into a large garden with six acres of 

 lawns, three and one-half acres of ornamental borders, also ferneries 

 and orchid houses ; collections of roses, crotons and palms ; plantations 

 covering seven and one-half acres of sugar cane, Arabian and Liberian 

 coffee, oranges, ginger, tobacco, ramie, and five or six acres of teak. It 

 is hoped that in time it may be possible to make it a geographical 

 botanic garden with different sections for India, Australia, Chiua, etc. 

 Two and one-half acres are given up to the nurseries which contain- 

 about 70,000 plants, such as cocoa, nutmeg, clove, orange, vanilla, cin- 

 namon, Liberian coffee, rubber plants, etc. It is the distributing cen- 

 tre, and on an average 40,000 plants are sent out all over the island 

 each year. The director has a residence, office, library, and herbarium 

 in the garden. Elevation 700 feet ; annual mean temperature 77 . 4^ 

 F. ; average rainfall 52 . 83 inches. 



HILL GARDENS. 



The following account of the possibilities for usefulness of the Hill 

 garden was written by me eighteen months ago : The ceremony, by 

 His Excellency the Governor, of cutting the first sod of the new driv- 

 ing roads along the southern slopes of the Blue mountain range, in- 

 augurated a new era of prosperity for a wide stretch of country from 

 Newcastle to the Cuna-cuna pass. The only means of communication, 

 until quite lately, in all this region from one district to another and to 

 the sea-coast road, was by bridle paths, a terror to nervous riders 

 and impossible for invalids. The road connecting the plain of Liguanea 

 with Gordon Town is so short that it scarcely counts when there is 

 now a commencement of the construction of roads which are to be 100 

 miles in length. The only cultivation in these mountains on a large 

 scale has been of coffee, and this industry has been seriously hampered- 

 by the expense and difficulty of transport. 



In 1868, Sir John Peter Grant with great foresight made the first 

 attempt at another culture, one which cculd be carried on at higher 

 elevations, namely cinchona. The experiment was a complete success, 

 for the government established the fact that cinchona could be grown 

 in the island, and realized a sum of about £17,000 by the sale of bark. 

 But for the very reason that the whole reagon was without roads, 

 planters hesitated so long about embarking in the new industry, that 

 the ^ golden opportunity was lost, the price of cinchona bark fell, and 

 many persons lost money in the venture, whereas in Ceylon, with good 

 roads and railways, fortunes had beeen made by all the pioneers. 



Here in Jamaica, the loss to private individuals of large sums in 

 cinchona planting, coinciding with the low prices for coffee and general 

 depression in trade, led to the cry some ten years ago that the Hilt 

 garden instituted by Sir J. P. Grant had proved a failure, and should- 



