MOUNTAIN GARDENS. 153 



weeds, we shall see exclusively devoted to those useful 

 and closely allied plants, the Arrow-root and Ginger; 

 each consisting of succulent green shoots formed by 

 the sheathing leaves, and the former displaying hand- 

 some heads of scaly flowers. The rootstocks of Ginger 

 remain long in the ground after cultivation has ceased^ 

 and continue to increase and to throw up their verdant 

 shoots. We often used to dig them up in the neglected 

 bush of second growth on Bluefields ridge. 



After a few years, the first energy of the virgin 

 soil being somewhat diminished, the ground is 

 thrown up, and allowed to resume its native wild- 

 ness. Another plot is then selected from the forest, 

 and rented in like manner ; the same process of 

 clearing and cultivation is pursued as before, and 

 after a few years this also is relinquished; no at- 

 tempt being ever made to maintain the fertility of 

 the soil by manure. 



No house is attached to these gardens, their owners 

 dwelling, as already said, around Bluefields ; a slight 

 hut of logs, however, is sometimes erected, " a lodge 

 in a garden of cucumbers," as a shelter to creep into 

 during the brief, but deluging, torrents that descend 

 in the afternoons of the rainy season ; and the floor 

 is strewn with twigs of trees, or " trash" that is, the 

 dried leaves of the Plantain, as a rude couch on 

 which the negro may take his customary siesta. 



The whole, however, would be incomplete, at least 

 in the opinion of those old negroes, few now in 

 number, who are of African birth, without one plant 

 of little beauty, and of no use, except the imaginary 

 one for which it is planted. It is the Horse-eye 



