40 BLUEFIELDS. 



dense and tangled mass of second-growth, chiefly 

 logwood, interspersed with calabashes, breadnuts, 

 and cotton trees, and with the usual fruit-trees of a 

 plantation, the avocada-pear, the akee, a recent in- 

 troduction from Africa, oranges and limes, cocoa-nuts, 

 mangoes, guavas, papaws, sops, and custard apples. 

 There is not a day in the year in which fruit from 

 some or other of these may not be plucked. The 

 fences consist of "dry-wall," that is, a Jow wall built 

 up of loose stones without cement ; which, when the 

 stones are skilfully arranged, so as to bind each other, 

 is sufficiently firm and durable. It is easy, however, 

 to guess that such walls afford a prolific harbour for 

 vermin; and, in truth, spiders and scorpions, great 

 biting ants, centipedes, and all the kinds of lizards 

 and snakes, find refuge in their crevices. Over these 

 walls sprawl multitudes of creeping plants, covering 

 their tops and sides with a festooned drapery of ver- 

 dure and blossom ; various kinds of Cereus, Aristo- 

 lochia, AroidecB, and beautiful Co7ivolvuU, Ipomea;, 

 and Echites, are abundant ; while at their bases 

 spring up numberless bushes of Lantana, of several 

 species, (always covered with their bunches of cheer- 

 ful blossom, and clusters of berries), Cleome penta- 

 •phylla, Solanea, and many papilionaceous and other 

 flowering plants, both herbaceous and shrubby; many 

 of the latter overspread with the tangled leafless stems 

 of Dodder {Cuscuta Americana), like a great yellow 

 spider's web thrown over them. A beautiful rivulet 

 runs through the estate in a winding course to the 

 sea. The soil is a friable whitish marl ; the highest 



