trade winds have filled with dust and deposit and the tropical showers 
water daily, so nature simply hangs them over with a wonderful dress 
of green, pierced in the more tropical parts by hanging, fragile Begon- 
ias of white and pale pink and a bright carmine flower similar to our 
Ixia. These fringed cliffs are one of the glories of the Bath Fountain 
Road, and also on the way to Moore Town; there the Tree Ferns on 
the cliffs divide one's enthusiasm with the wonderful view, in the 
afternoon light, of the Blue Mountains rising from the other side 
of the Rio Grande. 
Of course, the famous Fern GuUey near St. Maria Bay is one of the 
sights of the Island, and is indeed one worth seeing. About four miles 
of narrow winding road at the bottom of a deep ravine with colossal 
fern fronds, four to five feet long, fringing the sides of a deep impene- 
trable jungle. At certain seasons glorious red Lilies also pierce the 
green and add a note of color to the otherwise rather sombre monotony 
of shade. 
The garden of the hotel at Port Antonio holds a great many very 
good specimens of the plants of the Island, though mostly shrubs and 
vines. There the beautiful white Thunburgia vine with its long 
strings of clearest white flowers covers long arbors and there is the 
lovely lavender variety also. The many colored Crotons against the 
dark, squatty Sago Palms are very gay and the Oleanders, both pink 
and white, raise their long waving sprays of blossoms with their 
cool, pale foliage in contrast. 
Not far from here the longest and loveliest Hibiscus hedge is on 
the Mitchell estate and the glorious carmine flowers shake their long 
pistils in the ever-blowing " trade." The other shades of salmon and 
pink seem to fade after the clear glory of this vermiHon variety. So, 
too, do the salmon and solferino shades of the Bougainvillea, also a 
sturdy shrub in Jamaica, in comparison with the "cherry" or rose 
variety. 
Everything will grow everywhere, it would seem, and is a despair 
to us of northern cUmes. Of course, Jamaica's glories are her flowering 
trees, and the Royal Poinciana and Pride of Burmah and hundreds of 
others grow to great size and perfection, and then its Palms! 
The Castleton Gardens show the greatest collection of them, we are 
told, in the world and rank third in importance of the tropical botani- 
cal gardens of the world. 
But words are perfectly inadequate to describe the beauties of this 
loveliest of islands and the only thing for a lover of plants to do is to 
visit this home of flowers for himself and enjoy them. 
lO 
