24 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is bordered b}' a fringe of lagoons where mangroves grow, and the 

 roots collect a scum which corrupts in the tropical sun ; and such 

 places are exceedingly unhealthy. On the Pacific Coast it is very 

 unhealthy for white men. !Near Livingston there are limestone 

 mountains, and the surf rolls in in the afternoon ; and though the 

 breezes which cause it are uncomfortable for navigators thej' are 

 good for health. Aguardiente will kill a man quicker there 

 than here. Calcutta is said to be unhealthy, but if men take care 

 of themselves and eat vegetables and fruit the}' can preserve their 

 health. In such hot climates meat can be kept but a very little 

 while, and in Central America when a cow is killed the}' blow a 

 conch shell to inform the dwellers in the vicinity that beef is to be 

 had ; and the meat is cut in long strips and roasted ou skewers. 

 They have baked beans superior to any in Boston ; the beans are 

 black and are seasoned with delicate peppers, called chilis, and 

 tomatoes. In Spanish Honduras there are high valleys with mag- 

 nificent pasture land, where one can live infinitely better than iu 

 New England. 



In answer to an inquiry whether vegetables could be cultivated 

 in Central America, Mr. Brigham said that cabbages grow five feet 

 high and pineapples can be got an}' day. There are no annuals 

 like tuinips, etc. "Where the refuse of pineapples is thrown out it 

 grows and forms an impenetrable thicket. The banana is like the 

 bread-fruit in never forming seeds ; pineapples sometimes form 

 seeds; the banana will not bear fruit in the shade. Small corms 

 of bananas require eighteen months to produce fruit. In the 

 East Indies there are soils where cultivation has been carried on 

 for thousands of years. The speaker had seen on his plantation 

 vegetable mould fourteen feet deep. In Costa Rica there is a 

 deposit of volcanic sand of great fertility. The climate varies be- 

 tween the eastern and the western coast ; when it is wet in one it 

 is dry in the other. 



Jackson Dawson icmarked that cotton is always shrubby in the 

 tropics. Sea island cotton grows from fifteen to twenty feet high 

 in St. Helena. 



Fkuits that Pro»iise Well. 



The discussion of this subject, which was assigned for the pre- 

 ceding Saturday but prevented by the storm, was here taken up. 

 E. W. Wood, Chairman of the Fruit Committee, who had been 



