116 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



boiled and fried) and eaten as a vegetable, and resembles a 

 vegetable marrow. Tomatoes, for which there is a great demand 

 in the States, might be grown to any extent, ai-d if shipped 

 during the winter months they would command very remune- 

 rative prices. 



Of ordinary vegetables, such as cabbages, peas, beans, parsnip, 

 carrots, beet, artichoke, and onions ; and of salads, such as lettuce, 

 radish, chillies, eschalots, and endive, every garden around a 

 planter's house might produce supplies, equal to those of any 

 tropical country. I was much struck, during my visit, by the 

 entire absence in the colony of any attempt to keep up a 

 vegetable garden, or indeed to raise many plants of everyday 

 use, even in the neighbourhood of the best houses. With the 

 introduction of new plants, and it is hoped with the more widely- 

 recognised feeling that the land is capable of being rendered 

 amenable to culture and productive at a very small outlay, this 

 neglect will give place to greater activity, and to a desire to 

 make the country, not merely a passing sojourning place, while 

 engaged in amassing wealth, but a home, surrounded by all the 

 appliances and comforts of civilised life. 



