370 BLUEFIELDS- 



the same extensive groves ; nor of the mangroves 

 and morass-withes that are dependent on the presence 

 of water. But one cannot help noticing the Sea-side 

 Grape (Coccoloba uvifera) with its round, leathery, 

 crimson-veined leaves, and its bunches of red acid 

 berries, that fringes the sea-beach in many places ; 

 not so much in groups or clumps, however, as forming 

 a narrow belt or range of single trees, as close as they 

 can conveniently grow together, along the line of 

 high-water mark. Other species might be enumerated 

 as having the same gregarious character, in the in- 

 terior, as the Jointwood (a species of Piper) that 

 thickly and exclusively covers large tracts on the 

 summits of Bluefields Ridge. I shall however men- 

 tion but one more, the Logwood {HcBinatoxylon Cam- 

 pechianum), originally introduced from the Spanish 

 Main, but which now covers immense districts of the 

 western portion of the island, and is fast extending 

 its dominion on every hand, maintaining a too suc- 

 cessful struggle with the feeble agriculture that cha- 

 racterizes the Antilles. The likeness of this tree to 

 the Hawthorn of Europe is very striking, and has 

 been noticed by many. Either growing singly, or in 

 clumps, the resemblance is so exact that at a very 

 little distance the stranger, if not corrected by his 

 reason, would infallibly mistake it for that familiar 

 tree. For hedges, it is equally adapted, and is much 

 used ; and in this form the similitude to the thorn is 

 still perfect. I have admired scenes, such for exam- 

 ple, as on the estate called Paradise, near Savanna- 

 le-Mar, where, from the absence of characteristic 

 tropical features, from the broad open fields, divided 



