Cuba 97 



after. He assured me that he would never make that mis- 

 take again. 



The history of the Garden at Soledad in Cuba has been 

 written over and over again. The story of how Mr. Edwin 

 F. Atkins acquired the Soledad Plantation is told in his 

 book Sixty Years in Cuba, incidentally one of the best books 

 on the island that have ever been written; how he consulted 

 Professor Goodale and Professor Oakes Ames, got Mr. 

 Gray to be Superintendent, hybridized sugar canes, and be- 

 gan the gradual accumulation of a collection of tropical 

 plants over forty years ago. 



I first visited Soledad in 1909, and as I was specializing 

 in a study of the fauna of the West Indies and for many 

 years studied the fauna of Cuba intensively, I came more 

 and more to avail myself most gratefully of the Atkinses' 

 hospitality at Soledad Plantation. During the years of the 

 last great war I was in Cuba all the time as a government 

 agent and frequently spent week ends at Soledad. I be- 

 came more and more interested in the possibilities of the 

 place. 



In time Mr. Lowell appointed me Custodian of the Gar- 

 den and I have had to do with planning itr development 

 in a fairly intimate way for some twenty years or more. 

 I have built dams and made ponds and watched their bor- 

 ders change from those of poor old worn-out cane fields 

 to veritable fairylands. From time to time, until he died, 

 I begged more and more land from Mr. Atkins, always 

 with success, and since then from his son-in-law, William 

 H. Claflin. These friends have always given me whole- 

 hearted and enthusiastic appreciation of any plans I had 



