71 



best grown in well drained pots filled with vegetable refuse, dried cow- 

 dung, and broken bricks, and requires plenty of water in the growing 

 season. 



141.-" SISAL HEMP." 



Our plants of Agave rigicla var. Sisalana which were procured 

 from Florida some few years ago, have grown so well, and have shewn 

 themselves so well adapted to the climate, that there can no longer be 

 any doubt of the possibility of cultivating them on a large scale in 

 Trinidad, whenever it may become profitable to do so. 



We have considerable numbers planted in various districts and 

 the first plants will probably flower during the present year, when 

 the colony will be in possession of centres which can be drawn upon 

 to any extent for extended cultivation. 



Sir Ambrose Shea when in the Bahamas ventured the opinion 

 that our climate and soil would be unsuited to the plant, but this 

 has now been most completely disproved, as we have an abundance of 

 plants out of the 10,000 imported which are a real picture of healthy 

 and vigorous growth, and there is reason to believe the fibre they 

 contain is of first class quality. 



.^.^V^ 



142.-BOyGAINVILLEA SPECTABILIS.- Willd. 



This plant is said to be a native of Brazil. A paragraph in the 



Dictionary of Gardening (Nicholson) reads as follows ; — 



" B. Spectabilis (showy) /. bracts of a dull brick red, shaded with scarlet, 

 South America, 1829. It is very diflBcult to obtain bloom on this plant ; and 

 when flowers are produced they are extremely ephemeral. The species is for all 

 practical purposes much inferior to either B. speciosa or B. glabra. Syn. 

 Josej:>ha Augusta.'^ 



Mr. Nicholson is of course speaking in the above quotation from 

 the point of view of a cultivator under glass, and from our own 

 xperience, Ave can confirm his notes to the full. 



Here however in the open air Bo^gainvilha spectabilis has the 

 opportunity to show its true habit and when once the size of the 

 plant is understood the difficulty of getting it to flower under artificial 

 cultivation is easily estimated. Our oldest plant is now some 90 feet 

 high, Avith stem 6 to 8 inches in diameter flowering in large masses on 

 the tops of one of our highest trees, and producing huge festoons of 

 blazing red, which are a distinct feature ot the Garden and much 

 admired by visitors. It continues in flower for some months during 

 the earlier part of the year. 



