a Trip to the West Indies. 19 
number of men with their cutlasses, standing round a large pile 
of cacao pods which had been collected and were being opened, 
in order that the seeds might be removed and taken at once to 
the fermenting house. Other men have bamboo poles. with 
hooks on the end for dislodging the pods from the trees. Under 
the shade of the cacao and larger shade trees it is beautifully 
cool, and work can be carried on without inconvenience all day. 
To prove this, the hands, on leaving off at five o’clock, make for 
the Savannah and go through with their cricket practice. 
It was a beautifully cool and pleasant drive back to the town 
in the evening, the sun setting at 6.30 p.m. The shades of night 
fall quickly there ; at seven it is almost dark, and then one sees 
the fireflies and the nocturnal moths begin their wanderings, 
also the bats. The vampire bat is the one dreaded; this bat will 
bite and then draw the blood of human beings if given an oppor- 
tunity, and stables have to be carefully covered with wire netting 
in order to keep them out. If the owner cannot afford netting, 
a light is kept burning, which also has the desired effect. The 
hotel faces the Savannah. The Savannah is a piece of open 
land consisting of about eighty acres; on it are held the races; 
football matches and golf are also played on it; it is also used 
for cows, it is open public land. Some fine trees are found upon 
it—the cannon-ball tree (Couwroupita guianensis), which stands 
about sixty to eighty feet high; the trunk rising for about fifty - 
feet without a fork, then spreading out into a head not unlike an 
elm. The whole length of the unbranched stem is covered with 
short prickly pendant branchlets, about five feet long; these 
carry the crimson flowers, roughly resembling a single hollyhock, 
which afterwards produce the fruits, which very much resemble 
a cannon-ball, weighing about ten pounds. Hundreds of these 
fruits can be seen hanging on the trunk of a single tree at one 
time. The flowers and fruits appear at the same time. The 
fruit is perfectly round, and is of a light brown colour on the 
Outside ; it is very solid and hard. I know of no use its fruits 
are put to. A specimen tree of the hog-plum grows next to the 
cannon-ball tree (Spondias purpurea); it is about eighty to ninety 
feet high; a jelly is made of the fruit. On the Savannah are 
six fine cabbage-palms (Oreodowxa oleracea) ; these are called the 
“Six Sisters.” Another wonderful tree (and one Mr. Hart, the 
Curator of the Botanic Gardens, is testing, and speaks highly of 
3a shade tree for cacao) is the Saman (Pithecolobium Saman) ; 
it is not a tall grower, but has wonderfully spreading habits. 
Phe height would not be more than thirty feet, but its boughs 
ould, if not interfered with, produce a circle with a diameter 
about eighty to hundred feet. On the north of the Savannah 
the Governor’s house, part of the grounds forming the 
otanical Gardens. Some fine specimens of palms and economic 
