46o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the fig roots, and by putting the pieces together you may perhaps 



read that Hier legt begraven den Wei Edele Gestrenge Heer . 



The despotic owner of all he surveyed land, animals, men, women, 

 and children is now gone, and Nature has spurned his handiwork 

 under her feet. 



Outside the forest region and near the coast is a line of swamps, 

 and on the rich alluvium reclaimed from these the sugar, cotton, 

 and coffee plantations of the present century were established. 

 Several hundred have been abandoned at different times, but these 

 do not become incorporated with the forest. From the swamp 

 they were reclaimed, and to that state they have mostly returned. 



When in cultivation the estate is walled in, as it were, with 

 earthen dams on every side, those at the back and front being- 

 most important. By means of the former the swamp water is kept 

 out and by the latter the sea, while the inclosed area is freed from 

 the heavy rainfall by means of sluices and draining engines. 

 When abandoned these arrangements soon get out of order. The 

 outfalls are choked, the dams are perforated by crabs or broken 

 down by floods, and soon the ground becomes more and more sod- 

 den. The sugar-cane plants which were left in the ground sprout 

 freely, but, as they now have to compete with a rampant host of 

 weeds, they are unable to cover the ground, but grow in isolated 

 patches. This, of course, allows their enemies all the more scope, 

 and the competition soon becomes serious. The delicate Bahama 

 grass {Cynodon dactylon) comes first and overruns the surface, 

 but this has soon to give way to a lot of wiry, prickly shrubs 

 which are fitted to grow almost anywhere. These include black 

 sage {Varronia curassavica), -prick] J solanums, sensitive plants, 

 and wild indigo. As they steal their nourishment from the soil, 

 the canes never become strong enough to smother them, but lan- 

 guish more and more until obliged to succumb. By this time the 

 seeds of a number of straggling bushes and trees have found their 

 opportunity, and the clammy cherry ( Core? m), hog-plum {S2)07i- 

 dias), and wild fig come up here and there, growing very quickly 

 and partly ousting out the smaller plants. Alongside the drain- 

 ing canals thickets of prickly shrubs and scrambling vines soon 

 make their appearance, and, as they grow, obstruct the outflow of 

 water more and more. Then, as the water rises after a day's rain- 

 fall of perhaps seven or eight inches, the front dam is washed 

 away and the sea comes over at the next spring tide, filling the 

 trenches in front with brackish water. The courida {Avicennia) 

 and mangrove {Rhizophora) which guard the shore now advance, 

 and with them an army of beach weeds, including that triply 

 armed invader, the nicker {Giidandina hondueella). Soon crabs- 

 perforate every part of the sea dam, and the whole front becomes 

 a great mangrove swamp. 



