236 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



A mile from Kingston, at the base of the hills, is 

 Government House, the residence of the lieutenant- 

 governor of St. Vincent. It is in the center of grounds 

 formerly used as a garden of acclimatization for tropi- 

 cal plants and trees not indigenous to the West Indies. 

 The garden was opened in 1763, but given up in 1828, 

 and many of the plants removed to Trinidad. Here 

 are still found the teak, mahogany, almond, screw- 

 pine, Malacca-apple, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, pi- 

 mento and areca palm, a grove of palmistes, bread- 

 fruit, bread-nut and cannon-ball trees. The latter is 

 very interesting, growing to a great height, with large 

 bole and branches, along which grow twigs and shoots 

 so thickly that they resemble a vine entwining them ; 

 on these grow great flowers which look like the 

 sarracenias of northern climes ; stamens and pistils 

 are packed away inside half a dozen protecting petals. 

 The petals are of a delicate rose-color, recurved upon 

 themselves ; when the blossom bursts it looks as rough 

 as the bristling burr of a chestnut. The fruit is as 

 large as a six-pounder cannon-ball ; it is spherical, 

 russet brown in color, and very heavy. They are 

 continually growing and dropping ; and are of no 

 apparent use except to stir idle people into activity, by 

 falling on their heads — people who might otherwise 

 be tempted to recline beneath the tree. 



Mango and cinnamon, introduced into Jamaica by 

 Lord Rodney, were sent here also ; nutmeg from 

 Cayenne, in 1809; clove from Martinique, in 1787, 

 where it was introduced from the East Indies. It was 

 thought that these species would become abundant and 

 profitable, but such seems not to have been the case. 

 The nutmeg has best repaid the efforts made for its 



