The stark botanical labels hinted at the labor and eccentric vision that lay behind the garden. Inside the gate and beyond the sentinel of royal palms, few flowers bloomed, for this garden is given less to blossoms than to trees.Įlephant apple from India Christmas palm from the Philippines Ylang ylang from Indonesia two aged tropical dragon's blood trees and a Barringtonia asiatica, believed to be 230 years old. Unfolding lazily from the shade of the garden wall, a straggle of young men with ganja-glazed eyes leaned forward to scrutinize us as we approached. There are two reasons a visitor might come to Bath today: the springs and its botanical garden, which now, beyond its Victorian-looking iron gate, lay snoozing in the sun. A pretty village of sagging, historic houses, it had formerly been a fashionable spa known for its hot springs the 17th-century privateer Henry Morgan is reputed to have enjoyed the genteel practice of taking the waters. Six miles inland I and my guide Andreas Oberli-a Swiss-born botanist and horticulturist who has lived in Jamaica for nearly 30 years-arrived at Bath, seemingly deserted at this late morning hour. While Jamaicans might come to the village of Bath, where I was now headed, this part of the island is little visited by outsiders. There are few beaches on this southeastern side of Jamaica, nothing resembling the white sands and resorts on the opposite shore, around Montego Bay. An hour out of the maelstrom of Kingston's traffic, the first frigate bird appeared, and then, around a bend in the road, the sea.
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