_Climate._--The climate is one of the island's chief attractions. Near the coast it is warm and humid, but that of the uplands is delightfully mild and equable. At Kingston the temperature ranges from 70.7° to 87.8° F., and this is generally the average of all the low-lying coast land. At Cinchona, 4907 ft. above the sea, it varies from 57.5° to 68.5°. The vapours from the rivers and the ocean produce in the upper regions clouds saturated with moisture which induce vegetation belonging to a colder climate. During the rainy seasons there is such an accumulation of these vapours as to cause a general coolness and occasion sudden heavy showers, and sometimes destructive floods. The rainy seasons, in May and October, last for about three weeks, although, as a rule no month is quite without rain. The fall varies greatly; while the annual average for the island is 66.3 in., at Kingston it is 32.6 in., at Cinchona 105.5 in., and at some places in the north-east it exceeds 200 in. The climate of the Santa Cruz Mountains is extremely favourable to sufferers from tubercular and rheumatic diseases. Excepting near morasses and lagoons, the island is very healthy, and yellow fever, once prevalent, now rarely occurs. In the early part of the 19th century, hurricanes often devastated Jamaica, but now, though they pass to the N.E. and S.W. with comparative frequency, they rarely strike the island itself. _Flora._--The flora is remarkable, showing types from North, Central, and South America, with a few European forms, besides the common plants found everywhere in the tropics. Of flowering plants there are 2180 distinct species, and of ferns 450 species, several of both being indigenous. The largeness of these numbers may be to some extent accounted for by differences of altitude, temperature and humidity. There are many beautiful flowers, such as the aloe, the yucca, the datura, the mountain pride and the _Victoria regia_; and the cactus tribe is well represented. The Sensitive Plant grows in pastures, and orchids in the woods. There are forest trees fit for every purpose; including the ballata, rosewood, satinwood, mahogany, lignum vitae, lancewood and ebony. The logwood and fustic are exported for dyeing. There are also the Jamaica cedar, and the silk cotton tree (_Ceiba Bombax_). Pimento (peculiar to Jamaica) is indigenous, and furnishes the allspice. The bamboo, coffee and cocoa are well known. Several species of palm abound,--the macaw, the fan palm, screw palm, and palmetto royal. There are plantations of coconut palm. The other noticeable trees and plants are the mango, the breadfruit tree, the papaw, the lacebark tree, and the guava. The _Palma Christi_, from which castor oil is made, is a very abundant annual. English vegetables grow in the hills, and the plains produce plantains, cocoa, yams, cassava, ochra, beans, pease, ginger and arrowroot. Maize and