42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



musicians and were Protestants, the same as their father, while the 

 daughters and their mother attended the Catholic Church. After 

 spending a delightful evening we walked to the beach, where we found 

 our boat waiting to convey us to our floating home. Every dip of the 

 oar sent up golden showers of phosphorus, and when we arrived on 

 board the whole ocean was sparkling with every movement of the 

 waves ; a phenomenon which is frequently seen in the tropics. The 

 singing which floated over the water from a man-of-war made the 

 scene more enchanting. It seemed as light as day, and I brought a 

 Bible on deck and read a verse without any diflficulty, although the 

 print was fine. There are fine museums here which contain speci- 

 mens of the native birds with their wonderfully brilliant plumage. 

 The public gardens contain every kind of tree which grows in the 

 tropics. I was greatly interested in viewing the wonderful variety. 

 The clove tree, with the ground covered with cloves, which were of 

 a red color before they dried, was a wonder to me. I had never 

 thought before how they grew, and picked one or two bunchesto pre- 

 serve as a curiosity. The tree is quite tall, with dark green leaves. 

 The nutmeg tree is very beautiful. I picked up the nutmegs from 

 the ground, which was covered with them. They are covered with a 

 dark, brown shell, outside of which is the mace. Then comes a cover- 

 ing like our walnuts, which they sometimes preserve. The tea has a 

 small white blossom with yellow centre. The cinnamon tree we 

 robbed of a specimen of the outside bark ; the inner bark is what we 

 use for spice. 



The tamarind tree with its long, brown pods containing the re- 

 freshing acid fruit ; the vanilla vine with its clusters of vanilla pods ; 

 the pepper vine ; the guava fruit ; the pomegranate; shaddock; and 

 countless varieties which we had never seen or heard of, — greeted us 

 on every hand. 



At Point Icaque we took on board our cargo of cocoanuts. The 

 surf is very high here all of the time. We rowed as near the shore 

 as we could and were then carried through the surf by the natives to 

 avoid being wet. 



We can look through the glass and see the mainland of South 

 America, from whence small boats come around us laden with various 

 articles for sale. We bought some parrots and a macaw, which is a 

 large bird of most beautiful plumage. The jigger is very plentiful 

 here and one must be careful about going with bare feet. We were 

 invited to dine with the owner of the cocoanut plantation. Before I 

 left the table I was made very uncomfortable by a peculiar sensation 



