2 



land, and planted in the rockery, flowered well, anJ some bulbs ol Hyacinth us candicans from the same 

 firm did well, growing 5 feet high. A few Bermuda Lilies received from Mr. James of Bermuda, and 

 planted in the garden, produced very fine flowers and are evi lently very desirable plants for a' Hill 

 Garden. 



New Walks. — At the bottom of the garden th 1 ee new walks nave been made through the forest trees* 

 one a walk of 3 feet in width, one and a half chains in length, dug out to a depth of 9 inches and filled 

 with rough stones, covered with fine gravel ; a turnstile has been placed at the top. A new walk has also 

 been luaJe leading from the bottom of the garden through the forest trees to the lower entrance of the 

 nursery and the Superintendent's house ; this walk is 5 chains long 5 fe^t in width, piled on the lower 

 side, also cross piled at distances of 6 feet to prevent the gravel washing off; this walk is also du<' out 

 to a depth of 9 inches, filled up with coarse stones covered with fine gravel. A new gate has been placed 

 at the lower end of the walk opposite the lower entrance to the nursery. 



A new walk has also been made 5 chains in length 4 feet wide, leadingfrom the top of the last- 

 mentioned walk, up to the House in a northerly direction. The forest trees have been considerably 

 thinned to allow the best of them to develop. Some of the Grevilleas, Pines and Eucalypti are growing 

 fast i,nd promise to make fine specimens. 



All the old walks have been re-gravelled ; the fence around the garden has been repaired and some 

 creepers planted on it, principally Tecoma capensis and Chochos. 



Green/tomes. — No. 1. The Fern House. This has been put into thorough repair. New stages on 

 Juniper cedar supports have been erected, all the uprights supporting the roof, and the parallel and 

 upright bars to the side sashes being new. The inside has been repainted in two coats throughout. 



No. 2. The plant house has been patched up several times but is still in want of thorough 

 repair. 



Nos. 3 and 4. The old plant-raising sheds for cinchona seedlings are being put in repair for the 

 purpose of raising seedlings and also growing more native ferns and orchids. 



Great attention has been paid to the native Hill ferns, several additions to the collections havin^ 

 been made. The whole collection has been repotted by Mr. Cradwick himsolf amd nearly all the 

 species mentioned in my report for 1889, are in a thriving healthy condition. 



Solarium columbianum has grown well and flowered for the first time but has failed as yet to set 

 fruit. This is a disappointment as Mr. R. B. White who sent it to me from the Andes, where he 

 found it at an elevation of 6,000 feet, speaks of the fruit as being good. 



Nursery. — In the nursery the old tracks which did duty for walks have all been dug out to a depth 

 of 9 inches and filled up with rough stones and covered with fine gravel ; the walks have also been 

 piled to prevent the gravel washing off in the heavy rains, the total length of walks which have been 

 re-mbde in the nursery being 17 chains. Two wooden sheds which were formerly used for Cinchona 

 seedlings and were very unsightly, have been removed. 



A large clump of pampas grass which was formerly in the centre of the nursery, has been lifted 

 and re-planted on the east side to form a screen for a piece of ground in which rubbish, leaves, grass, 

 &c, will be stored for manure. 



The whole of the nursery, with the exception of a small piece still in hand, has been trenched 2 

 feet deep and manured, but as the land is miserably poor, it still requires a great deal of manure and 

 good cultivation to render it worth much. 



The peach trees fruited during the year, producing large numbers of fruits, many of which were 

 removed. Only about 3 dozen fruits were allowed to ripen which, however, were small and of very 

 inferior flavour.* 



A small plantation of Tree Tomatoes, Cyphomondra betacea, has been formed, about a square chain 

 in extent in order that an estimate may be formed of their value in foreign markets. Some fruits sent 

 to England, were eaten a month after beiog gathered and were pronounced to be very good and in 

 excellent condition. 



A bed of 250 plants of Hippeastrum Andreanum has been made. This plant was first noticed by 

 me in 1890, flowering here and there in the Hills. I collected all the bulbs I could find, and planted 

 them at Cinchona. Mr. Marescaux tells me that he has occasionally seen it in the Port Royal Moun- 

 tains and there is no doubt that the very dry season caused it to flower abundantly last year. 

 This species was first named and described by Mr. Baker of Kew in 1880, who states that it was dis- 

 covered by M. Andre" in 1876, in the Andes in " the central corddleras of New Grenada, alt. 6,000-8,000 

 feet on the banks of one of the branches of the Rio Cauca." About the time of my finding it here, two 

 papers on Hippeastrum appeared in the Journal of the Horticultural Society of England, but no men- 

 tion was made of this beautiful pink-flowered species. It appears that it is not known in cultivation 

 in England, and I have therefore sent bulbs to the Royal Gardens, Kew, to the Horticultural Society's 

 Gardens, and to Messrs Veitch and Messrs. Carter. 



The propagating ground has been transferred to the piece of land formerly used by the Superin- 

 tendents as a vegetable garden. This piece of land, about 5 square chains in size, has had a new 

 wattled fence erected around it, and 7 beds, each 11 yards long by 2 yards wide, pegged round and filled 

 with good soil in which to place cuttings, seeds, etc. The part of the garden situated around the 

 Superintendent's house, has also been worked over and a series of 17 steps made, leading from the 

 nursery to the main path. The border, leading from the public road to the house, has had a new 

 grass verge planted on the side next the path 18 inches in width, vi50 barrels of soil and 50 barrels of 



* During the last winter months, these trees were trenched all round, leaving a good portion of the roots exposed. 

 This compelled them to rest during the natural season, and this year the p aches have been remarkably good. I have 

 advocated this plan for all the fruit trees of a temperate climate. I have recommended it also to those who wish to 

 bud and graft oranges, though to do so is quite unnecessary when we can get such admirable seedlings. 



