In August, 1903, the Jamacian government, having abandoned Cinchona cultivation, decided to lease the Cinchona property. Through the suggestion of the late Lucien M. Underwood and the writer, and by the prompt action of Director N. L. Britton and Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Cinchona was leased by the New York Botanical Garden. It was maintained by the garden as a laboratory, and as a substation for the propagation of tropical plants. The director of the garden also placed the laboratory and other equipment at the disposal of botanical investigators, of whom more than thirty have worked at Cinchona during the past ten years.
In the last decade, it is true, several other botanical laboratories, all of them primarily for experiment-station work, have been organized in the American tropics. Two of these were maintained by commercial organizations in Mexico. Of the other three, two, at Miami, Florida, and Mayaguez, Porto, Rico, are supported by the United States, and a third, at Paramaribo, is maintained by the government of Dutch Guiana. At none of these has much botanical research thus far been carried on, except the economic agricultural work of the regular staff members.
It is thus evident that the interest of American botanists desiring a tropical laboratory has centered about Cinchona for the past two decades. There is good reason to believe that this interest will continue and increase. When, therefore, it was learned that Cinchona, the only station in the western tropics for the study of pure botany, was not to be again leased by the New York Botanical Garden, the Botanical Society of America, meeting in Cleveland, attempted to secure the continuation of the use of the Cinchona station for American botanists. For this purpose a committee was appointed consisting of D. S. Johnson (chairman), N. L. Britton and D. H. Campbell, and an appropriation was made to pay a year's rental, if this should be necessary, while more permanent arrangements were being perfected. Before the committee had had opportunity to act, it learned of the prospect that the Jamaican government would make the privileges of Cinchona available for American investigators. The publication of this account of Cinchona, and its advantages as a botanical station, may serve to indicate the interest of the committee in its work, and its appreciation of the encouragement given to botanical investigators of our country by the Jamaican government.
Location
The Hill Garden, or "Government Cinchona," as it is commonly called by Jamaican planters, is a reservation of many thousand acres, where the cinchona tree, from which Peruvian bark and quinine are obtained, was introduced 45 years ago. Here, and on the neighboring private plantations, it was grown for profit, until the cheaper labor and transportation in the parts of India and Java devoted to this crop greatly lowered the price of the bark.
